Reno, NV (March 22, 2011) - The Washoe County School District's efforts to keep students in school are receiving national recognition through a prestigious program that honors the best practices of school boards and districts for their innovative solutions to the challenges facing education today. WCSD has been named an honorable mention recipient in the American School Board Journal's (ASBJ) 17th annual Magna Awards program. WCSD is being honored in the over 20,000 enrollment category for its Door to Door for Student Achievement program. In 2009, the Board of Trustees created the initiative to improve the District's dropout rate. Teams of school district and community leaders, including board members, visit the homes of students who are not enrolled in school or who have chronic attendance issues and discuss how to get them back in school. In one year, the program helped the District improve its graduation rate by seven percentage points with gains in every student subgroup.
The Magna Awards recognize districts across the country for outstanding programs that advance student learning and encourage community involvement in schools.
WCSD Board President Barbara McLaury said she and her colleagues on the Board are extremely proud that the District is receiving this honor. "In the WCSD, we are dedicated to preparing our children for their futures. A key part of that is getting every student to graduation and this program is an important component to that plan. We are pleased to see the efforts of the WCSD recognized across the country."
During the 2010 Door to Door campaign, the District increased its re-enrollment percentage from the inaugural year of the initiative in 2009. The teams contacted 222 students on Saturday, Sept. 18, 2010, which resulted in 26.1 percent of them returning to school. During the initiative in September 2009, WCSD visited 402 students, which resulted in 16.4 percent of them re-enrolling.
Trustee Estela Gutierrez, who was the board president in 2010, said, "I can't tell you how excited we are to receive this award. What I love about this program is that it has a real impact on our children. They realize that the community is here to support them and that is enough to get many of them back in the classroom and back on track toward graduation."
The Magna Awards are supported by Sodexo School Services. Each of the grand prize-winning school districts will receive $4,000 in scholarship money during a special presentation at the NSBA Annual Conference, which will be held April 8-11 in San Francisco.
This year's three grand prize, 15 first place and 15 honorable mention winners were selected from three enrollment categories: under 5,000 students, 5,000 to 20,000 students and over 20,000 students. This year's grand prize winners were the Moreland School District in San Jose, Calif., the Joplin (Mo.) Schools, and Pasco County (Fla.) Schools.
"Since 1995 through the Magna Awards, we've featured many excellent examples of school district leadership and this year is no exception," said Anne L. Bryant, ASBJ's publisher and executive director of the National School Boards Association. "The winning entries are full of practical advice on how districts solved pressing problems."
"Sodexo understands the vital role student well-being plays in fostering classroom achievement and we are proud to create learning-friendly environments that allow our partner districts to focus on doing what they do best - educating our children," said Steve Dunmore, president of Sodexo Education-Schools. "The Magna Awards recognize school boards and communities that share our commitment to student well-being and achievement and we are proud to support the program again this year."
ASBJ initiated the Magna Awards in 1995 to recognize school boards for taking bold and innovative steps to improve their educational programs. An independent panel of school board members, administrators and other educators selected the winners from more than 350 submissions. This year's nominations came from 40 states.
The 2011 winners are highlighted in a special supplement to the April issue of ASBJ and will be formally recognized on Saturday, April 9 at the Best Practices for School Leaders Luncheon, which is part of NSBA's 71st Annual Conference.
In addition to the ASBJ supplement, the District's winning entry will be posted on the Magna Awards website and added to the program's searchable best practices database. Both can be found at www.asbj.com/magna.
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About Washoe County School District: The Washoe County School District includes the Reno/Sparks metropolitan area, Incline Village, Gerlach, Empire and Wadsworth, Nevada. The District provides each of its 63,000 students with a superior education in a safe and challenging environment and is committed to graduate every child career and college ready. For more information visit: www.washoecountyschools.org. Follow us on Twitter at WCSDTweet.
American School Board Journal
American School Board Journal (www.asbj.com), published monthly by the National School Boards Association, serves almost 40,000 school board members and top-level administrators from districts across the nation. The K-12 magazine, published continuously since 1891, has won 17 national honors for education reporting and design since 2006.
Sodexo in North America
Sodexo, Inc. (www.sodexoUSA.com), leading Quality of Daily Life Solutions company in the U.S., Canada, and Mexico, delivers On Site Service Solutions in Corporate, Education, Health Care, Government, and Remote Site segments, as well as Motivation Solutions such as Esteem Pass. Sodexo, Inc., headquartered in Gaithersburg, Md., funds all administrative costs for the Sodexo Foundation (www.SodexoFoundation.org), an independent charitable organization that, since its founding in 1999, has made more than $15 million in grants to fight hunger in America. Visit the corporate blog at www.sodexoUSA.com/blog.
As research indicates, diet and nutrition as well as classroom and school conditions have an impact on student performance. Sodexo is committed to student well-being and has initiated a variety of programs around nutrition, achievement, environment, community and activities. Sodexo creates learning-friendly environments through its student nutrition and facilities management programs at 480 school districts across the country and the company serves more than 2.8 million healthy and delicious school meals each day. Sodexo has been a proud sponsor of the Magna Awards since 1995.
