Logan School District and Cache Valley Schools Meet Challenges Head-On
Whether it’s a growing student population or the mandates of No Child Left Behind‚ the Logan and Cache County school districts are meeting their challenges head-on – and exceeding expectations all across the board.
The area’s booming growth has led to an influx of new students‚ with both districts adding new facilities and expanding existing ones to handle the load.
“The demographics of our district have been changing rapidly over the past 15 years or so‚ and about 30 percent of our population is now represented by an ethnic minority‚” says Stu Howell‚ public relations officer for the Logan City School District. “So we’ve had to develop a lot of plans to handle the population diversity.”
The district has six elementary‚ one middle and two high schools‚ and 5‚800 students. Its newest elementary school opened two years ago‚ and there are no immediate plans for any new facilities. However‚ Howell says that ongoing feasibility studies are planned so that growth can be anticipated and plans changed accordingly.
“We’re working on a physical facility strategic plan‚ which will help us make decisions regarding buildings‚ property acquisition‚ that sort of thing‚” he says.
That plan will join Logan’s technology strategic plan‚ which was laid out to guide K-12 programs for the next five‚ 10‚ 15 and 20 years in terms of purchasing and enhancing the district’s technological setup.
“We have state-of-the-art technology in all of our school labs and rotate it so that there’s no computer more than three years old in any of them‚” Howell says. “I’d say that if we’re not ahead of the game compared to the rest of the state‚ we’re certainly tied for first place. It’s amazing how committed this district has been in terms of equipment and software in classrooms.”
The efforts are getting noticed‚ both in Utah and elsewhere. Mount Logan Middle School was named as an Outstanding School to Watch‚ a national program which recognized only two schools in the state. In addition‚ Adams Elementary has also been honored for its exceptional literacy program‚ Howell says.
The outlook is equally promising in the Cache County School District‚ where 22 schools serve about 13‚500 students. A new elementary school in the Mendon community is set to open in 2008 and‚ like the Logan district‚ planners are already gearing up for the future.
“Our building committee is looking at growth patterns‚ so we can acquire parcels of land in advance of the growth‚” says Blake Pickett‚ curriculum and assessment director for the county district. “The goal is that new schools can come online without a huge crunch anywhere.”
Physical development aside‚ both districts are beating state and federal goals for core curriculum‚ with students scoring in the upper percentiles on mandated tests. Administrators and teachers are constantly working to make sure all students achieve to the best of their ability‚ with the results showing in a number of ways.
“One of our goals four or five years ago was to have all kids in the fourth grade reading at that grade level‚” Pickett says. “That was part of No Child Left Behind‚ and we have about 94 percent passing at that level on the tests. Now we want to do that with our math curriculum. We are looking at ways to increase their comfort with math so that they’ll want to take upper level classes. We want all our students to be qualified to go anywhere in the nation in terms of college‚ to be able to compete in arts and academics or any area they want to compete in.”
