Mt. Vernon Register-News

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September 3, 2010

State cuts reading grant

By RORYE O’CONNOR rorye.oconnor@register-news.com

MT. VERNON — A 15-year grant program at the Primary Center will end in December, taking a position with it.

The final Illinois education budget wiped the Reading Improvement Grant off the map statewide.

District 80 had been receiving about $90,000 for its Reading Improvement Program for at least 15 years, said Superintendent Kevin Settle.

“We’ve used ours to help pay for reading specialists,” Settle said. “You can use it for different things, but that’s what we’ve focused on. For the past four years, we’ve employed a teacher with a master’s degree in reading and several years of experience.”

The teacher, Jody McKelvy, teaches small numbers of students having trouble with reading comprehension at their own pace, Settle said, but without the funding from the grant, the district can’t support her program.

McKelvy has been teaching at Casey Middle School for 16 years, she said.

She will retire in December and her position will not be refilled, Settle said.

“I have mixed feelings,” McKelvy said about retiring. “I’m very excited, because I might have an opportunity to do something different, but I love what I do. It’s going to be an exciting time in my life. I think I’d like to work with children in some way, but I don’t know what that’s going to be. I do have a wonderful job.”

McKelvy right now has 11 sixth graders she calls “reluctant readers.” She focuses on team building at the beginning of the school year to increase confidence and comfort for these students, she said, because their reluctance is rooted in a lack of confidence and not a lack of reading skills.

“It’s one where we have seen students saved in that process that might have fallen through the cracks otherwise,” Settle said.

McKelvy said she has enjoyed teaching sixth graders, because it is a “transition grade” and she loves to see the students learn.

“This helps them transition,” she said. “I see them just blossom at the end of the year. They just need a little boost of self-confidence, and then they’re off.”

Settle said the students who would be served by McKelvy will be helped through the Response to Intervention program after December.

McKelvy is currently the RtI coach for Casey, and said she is confident her reluctant readers will be helped through the program.

Students this year take a math and reading assessment in the first two weeks of school, and their level of proficiency is measured through that exam.

“Those students who need more time are placed in classes following the benchmark,” McKelvy said. “We generate a list of students who will benefit from extra time.

“It’s probably the most exciting initiative in education I’ve seen in my time here. Most students just need extra time.”

She said students who need extra help with reading can get 30 to 60 extra minutes of instruction on top of their regular 75 to 80 minutes a day.

“I think it’s gonna make a big difference, and here I am retiring,” she said. “It’s a big change for the staff, but we have an outstanding staff.”

Settle said it hurts the district to lose a teacher who has been outstanding in her role.

“We’re gonna miss her,” he said. “She’s been an outstanding educator for many years.”

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