Riverdale Elementary Hosts Back to School Night

After dealing with staff and salary cuts, Riverdale Elementary School principal Carol Cantu plans to make this year the best year ever at her school, and that's the message she shared with parents Aug. 30 during back-to-school night.

Cantu said she's choosing not to focus on the negative, but to use it as a catalyst to make some changes and improve all aspects of her school – from increasing test scores to increasing parent involvement.

"I was really excited to start this year," she said. "I really want to make this the best year ever. I want to have test scores as high as possible. I want to develop an atmosphere where kids are excited about learning and teachers are excited about teaching."

Cantu said she used some of the school's Title I money to finance positions that had been cut, but while other schools have daunting class sizes the pre-K through sixth-grade teachers still have large classes to accommodate the more than 700 students.

"We have 712 students right now. The top we reached last year was 700 and we hovered around 690 for most of the year," she said. "And we don't usually level off until mid-September. So I could easily expect 20 more students."

But with the increase in students, Cantu said she is seeing an increase in parent interest. Many parents accompanied students to school on the first day requesting to see their child's classroom and meet the teacher.

"The parents seem more enthusiastic this year. And it's a good thing, but we just weren't prepared, logistically, to accommodate all of the parents," she said.

Another change this year is Riverdale's involvement in the Financial Incentive Rewards for Students and Teachers, or FIRST, program. The program is a pay-for-performance incentive program for teachers.

Cantu said the school's involvement in the FIRST program raises the bar for all teachers, whether or not they choose to take part. She attended training that gave her new ideas about instruction.

"I learned what outstanding instruction can be, and I'm going to share that with all of my staff whether they're in the FIRST program or not," she said.

Riverdale's PTO president Tina Davis said she is very excited for the school year to start, and that the parent organization plans to focus on harnessing that parent enthusiasm and making it last throughout the year.

"Our main thing is to work on having more parent involvement. We ant to have family activities, like a movie night, that get people to come out," Davis said. "We also want to work on working with the community and working on the beautification of the outside of the school."

The first PTO meeting will be held Sept. 7 from 5 p.m. to 6 p.m. in the cafeteria. Davis said they've introduced a kid's corner so parents don't have to look for a babysitter and can bring their children to the meeting and volunteers will watch them.