Rep. Susan Davis Meets Skilled Students at La Presa Middle School

This past Tuesday, Congresswoman Susan Davis visited after previously accepting an invitation from the Mt. Helix Council of PTA’s.  Davis was welcomed by two student ambassadors, Principal Mike Allmann, school board member Emma Turner, several PTA representatives, Superintendent Brian Marshall, and Deputy Superintendent David Yoshihara.

Representative Davis toured three classrooms, including Language Arts and the 7th grade AVID (Advancement Via Individual Determination) program.  Students had been asked to come up with several questions to ask the congresswoman. 

Among the more popular was “Why did you decide to run for congress?”  Davis’ answer was that she never planned on it when she was young, but she likes to help people and had unexpected opportunities to do this through local, state, and federal office.  One of the best questions was read by board member Turner, when a student seemed too shy to ask. 

The question was, “How do you handle all the mean things people say about you?”  Representative Davis replied, “It is important to keep perspective and not take things personally.  People that are frustrated, angry, or with something going wrong in their lives will often say mean things just out of that frustration.” 

One of the classes visited was part of a pilot program for increased reading.  Each student is challenged to read at least 100 pages per week and track their scores.  The class had already read over 25,000 pages in just five weeks with one student reading 3,367 pages.  This program is expected to be extended school wide next year.

Principal Allmann also discussed test scores, noting that La Presa Middle underwent a restructuring in 2006 and has since increased their Academic Performance Index (API) by 98 points to reach 736 in 2011.  Their goal is a further increase of at least 25 points this year.  To assist with more core curriculum learning, La Presa Middle has a special schedule with longer class times for core subjects traded off for fewer overall daily classes for students.

Following the classroom visits, Representative Davis met with Superintendent Marshall, Board Member Turner, and PTA officers Lisa Stewart and Jay Steiger, to discuss educational legislative priorities.  The reauthorization of the Elementary and Secondary Education Act (ESEA), which includes the No Child Left Behind (NCLB) legislation is a priority for PTA, school boards, administrators, and teachers alike.  It was suggested to Davis that the current 100% proficiency model which is effectively unattainable and contains excessive penalties, should be replaced with a growth based model.  In this model, districts and schools would still be expected to attain consistent improvement, but under a more realistic and less punitive measure.  Chronic under funding of special education programs was also discussed as was the need for legislators to put aside partisanship when it comes to education and the needs of children.  Davis indicated she would take these concerns back to her committee meetings in Washington D.C..

To conclude the event, the student ambassadors presented Representative Davis with framed La Presa Middle School t-shirt which had been signed by the Associated Student Body (ASB) leadership.