Indian River receives top national honor - Indian River School District in Selbyville, Del

School Administrator, March, 2003

The national winner of the first Civic Star Award is the Indian River School District in Selbyville, Del. The district won the top honor in the awards program for a project that provides early childhood education to economically deprived three- and four-year-olds. The awards program recognizes school-community projects that enrich the education process.

"Project V.I.L.L.A.G.E. is a model of civic spirit, commitment, ingenuity and success," said Arnold F Fege, a member of the awards program selection committee. "Because of an educator's dream, a belief that all children can learn, a school district's willingness to take a risk on behalf of its neediest children, the availability of state and federal dollars and a local community's support and generous contributions, economically disadvantaged children can enter kindergarten ready to learn."

Indian River's Project V.I.L.L.A.G.E. (Verbally Intensive Literacy and Language Activities for Growth in Education) was begun in 1997 as the brainchild of Susan Bunting, the district's director of instruction. Bunting had long dreamed of providing a preschool education to children whose parents could not afford early education experiences. The goal was to prepare disadvantaged four-year-olds to enter kindergarten as ready to learn as children of the same age in families with greater financial resources.

Bunting received the backing of the Indian River Board of Education and secured an Early Childhood Assistance grant from the state of Delaware to support salaries, provide transportation, supply meals and secure dental and medical screening and treatment for participants in the program.

In the fall of 1998, the program expanded with the help of federal Title I funds to address the needs of qualifying three-year-olds. The district's Board of Education was so impressed with the academic progress of children in the program that it sponsored a third classroom in the fall of 1999, a fourth in the fall of 2000 and a fifth in the fall of 2002.

For more than half of the 179 children participating in the 2002-2003 school year, English is their second language. A prime target of the program has become the growing number of Hispanic children in the district, who become acclimated to English and the school routine through the program's language-rich activities aimed at preparing them for kindergarten.

Language arts and math readiness objectives are designed under the guidance of the district's curriculum specialists to help ensure mastery of kindergarten prerequisites.

District data show that graduates of the program display language and math skills that translate into success in kindergarten and first grade. Moreover, participants progress more quickly after entering school than their English-speaking counterparts.

The school district's director of instruction supervises the program's fully certified staff. Parental involvement is also paramount, ranging from participation on Project V.I.L.L.A.G.E.'s policy council to attendance at conferences assessing the children's educational progress.

The policy council also includes community and school representatives, including a member of the district's Board of Education. Organizations including the local chapter of the Veterans of Foreign Wars and the Selbyville Community Club support the program by purchasing supplemental materials for it.

Mountaire Farms of Delmarva, a local company has donated more than $25,000 to subsidize the project's child-care program, which serves the entire community, and to sponsor a teacher at one of the program's sites.

The company employs about half of the parents of children participating in the program.

TO LEARN MORE CONTACT:

Lois M. Hobbs, Superintendent

Indian River School District

RD 2, Box 156, 31 Hoosier St. Selbyville, DE 19975

Phone: 302-436-1000

E-mail: Ihobbs@irsd.k12.de.us

Web: www.k12.de.us/indianriver