Continental back on list of Arizona’s top schools

CONTINENTAL—You wouldn’t expect a small school district situated largely in a retirement community and serving free lunch to about a third of its students to be among the state’s best of the best, but that’s exactly the realm Continental School reached recently.

After several years of steady improvements, the district, which has just one K-8 school, received the coveted Excelling label under the state Department of Education’s AZ Learns Achievement Profile program.

This is something of a vindication for the district, which was labeled an underperforming district in 2002. The governing board appealed, only to find out that no appeals process existed. There is one now, said longtime board member Bonnie Klahr, and Continental was integral in getting it established.

But the school bounced back, and from 2004 to 2006 received the second-best, Highly Performing label. This year, they are excelling—and then some.

According to ADE numbers, Continental’s median scores are far outpacing both Pima County and state averages across the board.

Take fourth grade reading as an example: The median score for Pima County is 46.6; for the whole state it’s 46.9. Continental’s median score is 54.

Superintendent Gaye Leo credits the school’s teachers for the achievement.

“If you go back to what research shows, the single biggest factor in any achievement picture is quality teachers who work with kids,” said Leo, who is in her second year as superintendent. “Our objective every year is to have all our children make one year’s worth of growth in one year’s time, so our teachers have been able to focus on the individual child.”

Keeping class sizes down is another key factor in the school’s success. There is rarely a class with more than 20 students, while state averages hover are around 28 to 30 kids per class, Leo said.

State schools chief Tom Horne will visit Continental sometime in January in honor of its excelling status.

The district has been growing in recent years, and expects more to come. The student body increased by about 10 percent last year to 462. It takes a lot of extra legislative money to keep all those students busy after school and to offer them programs beyond the curriculum like clubs, sports, art, and music. For that money, Arizona’s schools increasingly rely on the popular school tax credit.

Every year, there’s a rush of such donations toward the end of the year, and school district’s often go so far as to stay open late to make it easier on donors.

Leo said anyone who wishes to get the dollar-for-dollar tax credit, up to $500 for individuals and $1000 for couples filing together, can do so by bringing a check by the district’s business office, open 7:30 a.m. to 4 p.m. weekdays, on White hHouse Canyon Road. Donors can even specify which programs their money will benefit.

Tim Hull is a freelance writer.

Details

Area schools are reminding taxpayers to consider making contributions before the end of 2007:

Tax credits available when contributing to public and private schools:

Public schools

Up to $200 for a single taxpayer or head of household.

Up to $400 for married taxpayers filing jointly.

Private schools

Up to $500 for a single taxpayer or head of household.

Up to $1,000 for married taxpayers filing jointly.