Morning announcements and other procedures are in Spanish. All children learn to read in their first language, which for most Fratney students means Spanish. Children in grades K-2 spend the mornings reading in their native language, then learn math, science, art, and music in Spanish through the afternoon. Now, parents form a majority on all school-based councils in the district. Tenorio, a former vice president of the Association, says Fratney and the Association pushed the envelope in other ways.
Teachers have a role in hiring.
The school banks time, starting five minutes early each morning and using the accumulated time for a half-day of staff development. We use the contract. We use district guidelines. We take the required assessments seriously. Our scores are generally moving up, even though we don't necessarily believe it's a valuable use of time to prepare kids for all this high-stakes testing.