Kids Can Soar at Heritage
Posted on: Friday, 16 May 2008, 03:00 CDT
By Canan Tasci
FONTANA - Heritage Intermediate School is in the perfect location.
The elementary schools are farther south and the high school is north - positioning Heritage right in the middle.
"I see the geographical location of Heritage Intermediate School as unique because we are known as the 'Home of the Hawks,'" said Principal Laura Rowland. "Hawks are beautiful and powerful birds who spread their wings to fly and glide through the sky. This is exactly what we encourage all of our students to do - to soar above the rest."
She said when Heritage hawks leave their nest at the school, they spread their wings as they fly north to Etiwanda High School.
Aside from having the perfect location, Heritage is also a 2007 California Distinguished School.
"This was the first time that we applied and the first time we received this honorable recognition," Rowland said. "I can say that Heritage has come a long way in the six years that it has been serving the community. I personally think that the one element that makes HIS 'distinguished' from other schools is the staff."
Rowland said the staff puts kids first, providing them with structure, guidance and hours of support.
"The Heritage staff knows how to relate to the students - they have a passion to work with adolescents and see them soar," Rowland said.
Another area in which Rowland has seen growth is the level of parental involvement.
"So often parents feel that once their child enters middle school that their involvement in the school is not as important as it once was during the elementary school years," she said. "It is quite the contrary - the middle school years are when parents need to be the most involved."
This year, the school started the Advancement Via Individual Determination program.
The mission of AVID is to ensure that all students, especially middle-performing students, will succeed in the most rigorous curriculum, enter the mainstream activities of the school, increase their enrollment in four-year colleges, and become educated, responsible participants and leaders in a democratic society.
Additionally, Heritage is offering an intensive literacy intervention program called Language, which is a program for students who are reading two or more levels below their grade level.
"I am amazed to walk through these classrooms and see the progress that the students have made this year," Rowland said. "The most exciting aspect of all is to hear the confidence in each of their voices as they read aloud in front of their peers, and to think that these programs were not even part of our Distinguished School application!
"This just goes to show that there is no stopping the staff at Heritage and the distances that they want to fly."
canan.tasci@inlandnewspapers.com
(909) 987-6397, Ext. 425
(c) 2008 Inland Valley Daily Bulletin. Provided by ProQuest Information and Learning. All rights Reserved.
Source: Inland Valley Daily Bulletin
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