WALLENPAUPACK AREA SCHOOL DISTRICT — Supplemental monies received from the federal government help fund remedial instruction for underperforming students in their early years of education at Wallenpaupack.

Lisa Ussia, English Language Arts (ELA)  supervisor with the Wallenpaupack Area School District, gave a presentation to the board of education on April 14, explaining the program and the results of a recent regular audit.

The funding under discussion comes from Title I of the Elementary and Secondary Education Act. Title I provides supplemental assistance for low-income families, according to information from the National Center for Education Statistics.

Schools can either designate a district-wide Title I program, or use that money to target specific grade levels, school buildings or subjects for remedial assistance, said Ussia. Wallenpaupack does the latter, targeting grades K-4 in ELA/reading and grades 1-4 in math.

Title I funds positions at South Elementary, North Primary and North Intermediate schools. It funds seven full-time reading specialists—two at South Elementary, three at North Primary and two at North Intermediate—and one full-time math tutor at North Primary. It also funds four “split-funded” math tutors, two each at South Elementary and North Intermediate; these teachers work part time as remedial tutors, with those hours of work funded by Title I, and spend the rest of their time on other duties funded as normal through the school district.

Wallenpaupack has a system for identifying which of its students need the most help, and funnels those students into remedial lessons with Title I tutors, said Ussia. The school continues to monitor those students after that point to ensure they’re making progress.

Ussia said that Wallenpaupack’s Title I program has stakeholder meetings coming up, with meetings at the North Primary and North Intermediate schools on Thursday, May 15 and at South Elementary School on Tuesday, May 20.

The program has higher parent participation—both through stakeholder meetings and through take-home surveys—as a major goal, said Ussia.

“We are continually trying to modify our surveys so that we get more information from parents and have their input on how to serve them and their students,” she said.

The program recently went through a regular federal audit, which resulted in only minor tweaks needed to the way it carried out the program, according to Ussia.