Agua Caliente Elementary School

This project is intended to help remedy the need for additional educational materials for students in Special Education (SPED) at Agua Caliente Elementary School. This project seeks to reduce these challenges/barriers by acquiring color printers that can help Agua Caliente Elementary SPED teachers and staff create materials that are specific to each student's needs and perfectly aligned with their educational goals. SPED students have extensive challenges when it comes to their educational growth and personal development. One of these challenges is the short attention span due to many factors, including, but not limited to, frequent distractions, learning disabilities, visual impairment, etc. However, many of these challenges and/or barriers can be greatly reduced if students are presented with proper educational materials that are perfectly tailored to their specific individual needs. Most SPED students are visual learners and require the use of colorful materials that are engaging, attractive, meaningful, and aligned with their educational goals. Additionally, most students require extra motivation when working on their goals. An effective technique teachers use is to entice students throughout the school year with small rewards or prizes for advancing on, or better yet, accomplishing their goals, reaching educational milestones, or studying for test-taking.

Contact: Enrique Lopez IEP Support Specialist- Bilingual

Email: Elopez1@psusd.us

Phone: 760-416-8235 Ext. 1451

Our goal is to obtain speech therapy materials for Agua Caliente Elementary School. Our Special Education program currently faces limitations in providing effective speech therapy due to outdated and insufficient materials. This grant request aims to secure funding for the acquisition of a diverse range of modern, evidence-based speech therapy resources and the establishment of a motivational prize system. By investing in these essential tools and incentives, we will directly address the communication challenges faced by our students, increase their engagement in therapy, and foster significant improvements in their articulation, language development, and overall communication competence. This project will positively impact their academic performance, social-emotional well-being, and future independence.

We have been working with Dr. Hollie to become more culturally and linguistically responsive (CLR) as we teach. We are working on understanding the cultural differences and our biases and how to best deal with them. We are planning and studying to change so we validate and affirm as we build and bridge between societal norms and cultural norms. There are 8 books that will be given to each teacher. We will be collaboratively creating lessons for these books that can be used during English Language Arts, Social Studies. Social Emotional Learning, and English Language Development. We have been given instructions and templates on how to create lessons that are culturally and linguistically responsive for our students. The staff is involved in ongoing training and are preparing for implementation this upcoming school year. It is wonderful to have culturally and linguistically responsive texts to aid us in the positive approach to teaching and providing support for all cultures.

Contact: Lorraina Robison
Phone: 760-416-8235

Our grant will provide a baseball/kickball backstop and soccer goals for our field. Currently the field is just a lot of grass and this grant will provide the opportunity for the students to play organized sports. This is a wonderful way to provide healthy competition with cooperation and appreciation of physical fitness and social/emotional growth.

Agua Caliente Elementary School, located in the heart of Cathedral City, has a student population of approximately 570 students. Of those students, about 70% are English learners and 95% are considered socioeconomically disadvantaged. The teachers, staff and families of Agua Caliente Elementary make up a truly special, tight-knit community, and all have the students’ best interests in mind. In keeping with this philosophy, as of the 2018-2019 school year, all students will now be receiving music instruction.

With the help of the Anderson Children’s Foundation Grant, all Agua Caliente students will now have the opportunity to perform music not only through singing, but by playing various instruments as well. Students from grades three through five will now be able to play the recorders and all students will be able to play the ukulele and learn African drumming by playing the newly purchased bongos and tubanos. Students will also be able to play in large instrumental ensembles, combining the instruments mentioned above with various auxiliary percussion instruments along with glockenspiels and metallophones.

Through individual student counseling, group counseling for students, and parent informational workshops in cyber safety, this program aims to combat the growing issue of cyberbullying. Bullying is a tremendous threat to the health and safety of our students. This occurs not only in real life, but is rampant online. Cell phones, blogging, email, sexting, social networking, gaming, identity theft, chat rooms, and webcams are among the list of ever increasing ways students are exposed to harmful information. Many young students and parents today lack the knowledge and personal experiences in order to identify the clues signifying danger. Because this threat to our students is serious and constant, a need for a counselor is imperative.