rachelh@myweeklysentinel.com
CANTON — Canton Elementary held their Title I Family Night at the school on Tuesday, March 15.
According to the PA Department of Education, Title I programs are designed to help children meet the state content and performance standards in reading, language arts, and mathematics. In buildings with 40% or more poverty, LEAs may use the funds to upgrade the entire curriculum of the school and are Schoolwide Programs. The program provides about $7 billion to school systems across the country for students at risk of failure and living at or near poverty. The program was enacted in 1965 under the Elementary and Secondary Education Act and was rewritten in 1994 to improve fundamental goals of helping these students.
Canton Area School District receives about ($$$$) for the program and uses some of the money for informational purposes, like a Family Night.
The purpose of Canton Area Elementary’s Title I Family Night is to bring awareness to the Title I program in the district and show parents how the funds the district receives are utilized in the school.
Parents were handed a copy of the Parent Engagement Policy for the 2021-2022 school year upon entrance to the event.
After a brief informational session and discussion of the night’s events, parents and students watched a program from Richard Benninghoff, a magician from State College, who performed three times for the school earlier that day.
The evening’s events concluded with ice cream and door prizes in the cafeteria after another informational session.
The Title 1 program currently has 102 Canton Elementary students, ranging from grades kindergarten to sixth.
The district employees three teachers, Spencer, Dewey and Delozier, as well as two paraprofessionals to help with the program.
“The program is what we call ‘whole school,’” said Dewey. “That means, our entire school participates in it. Some schools only have designated teachers or grades.”
In Canton, the half hour allotted time for the Title 1 program is called WIN, or What Individuals Need. It does not interrupt their schedules with their teachers and classes.
“The program is student-based and very flexible,” said Delozier. “And we rotate a 1-2 rotation, so a child will have math one day for a half hour, and reading the next. It’s also important to our faculty to keep student groups small.”
For more information on the district’s Title I program, go to www.canton.k12.pa.us.