Clinton City Schools receives State and Federal funds to serve Limited English Proficient students. We currently have approximately 285 ESL students in our district.

WIDA Standards
A school district or charter school must have a minimum of 20 limited English proficient student in order to qualify for state funds. That number is reported to the ESL office at DPI every October by way of an electronic survey.

Title III of No Child Left Behind provides the Language Acquisition Grant for states and their school districts. A district (LEA) or charter school must have approximately 150 LEP students in order to qualify for PRC 104 funds. PRC 111 funds are for those LEAs or charter schools having significant increase in the percentage of immigrant students enrolled as compared to the average of the two preceding fiscal years.

(1) to help ensure that children who are limited English proficient, including immigrant children and youth, attain English proficiency, develop high levels of academic attainment in English, and meet the same challenging State academic content and student academic achievement standards as all children are expected to meet;
(2) to assist all limited English proficient children, including immigrant children and youth, to achieve at high levels in the core academic subjects so that those children can meet the same challenging State academic content and student academic achievement standards as all children are expected to meet.
(3) to develop high-quality language instruction educational programs designed to assist State educational agencies, local educational agencies, and schools in teaching limited English proficient children and serving immigrant children and youth;
(4) to assist State educational agencies and local educational agencies to develop and enhance their capacity to provide high-quality instructional programs designed to prepare limited English proficient children, including immigrant children and youth, to enter all-English instruction settings;
(5) to assist State educational agencies, local educational agencies, and schools to build their capacity to establish, implement, and sustain language instruction educational programs and programs of English language development for limited English proficient children;
(6) to promote parental and community participation in language instruction educational programs for the parents and communities of limited English proficient children;
(7) to streamline language instruction educational programs into a program carried out through formula grants to State educational agencies and local educational agencies to help limited English proficient children, including immigrant children and youth, develop proficiency in English, while meeting challenging State academic content and student academic achievement standards.

Mrs. Kathriene Rivera is the ESL Parent Liaison. She is based at Clinton High School but she serves all ELL students in grades K-12. She may be reached by calling CHS or emailing her at Email Kathriene Rivera.

Sampson Middle School students observed tobacco awareness week. Jovenes en accion (youth in action) club hosted various activities throughout the school day for students and staff. Wednesday was National Kick Butts Day. The students participated through collaboration with El Pueblo (organization in Raleigh) and TRU (Wilmington office) we were able to host the event. On Thursday the students and staff at SMS wore green ribbons in memory family members lost to tobacco addiction. That same day students participated in Ghost Out Day. Students wore black t-shirts with a number on the front. The number represented the number of people that died nationwide last year of tobacco addiction. Students were not allowed to talk (with the exception of their teacher or school administrators), because they were "dead". Most students lasted 3/4 of the day (turned out to be a challenging task for teenagers not to be able to talk!) Friday the students/staff wore black ribbons as a stand against tobacco. The students also had information tables with activities during lunch. The tables were managed by the club members, and their peers had a chance to participate in activities and win prizes.
Background information for this club: Jovenes en accion is a club composed of Latino Sampson Middle and Clinton High school students. The club focuses on various latino issues. The high school students that participate in the club agree to be mentors to our middle school students. This component of the program is very important. It gives the high school student a sense of accountability because they have someone looking up to them, and it gives the middle school student someone to turn to when he/she needs to talk. The advantage of having high school mentors is that when our rising 8th graders move to the high school, they will already know students, which will make the transition easier.

This is the first year that a club as such is in place at SMS/CHS. When the students signed up to be in the club parents were invited to "parent night". Since the club began we have had 3 parent nights. During these parent nights, the students have a chance to show the parents what they have accomplished as a club and we share dinner as a big family. We invited a guest speaker to our last parent night. The topic (voted by the club members) was communication. Kids want the parents to know that they want to have good communication with them.

Aside from our regular club meeting the students are expected to participate in community service. The month of November the students made cards for the veterans in the VA hospital in Fayetteville. They were so excited to get back a letter thanking them for the cards. The month of December the students had a toy drive and donated all the gifts to Sampson County Dept of Aging. The gifts went to their "Grandparents raising grandchildren" program. Once again the students were happy to see that they had received recognition for their service. This spring the kids are hoping to do some "clean up" services around the community.

The students enjoy field trips and activities for all their hard work. We are very proud of what our students have accomplished. We have activities planned to keep these students busy during the summer break as well. We encourage post secondary education, which is why our high school and eighth grade students will have the opportunity to attend a summit at NC State during the summer. The students will also attend camp at Camp Rockfish during the summer.

The club is sponsored by Juntos- which is a program sponsored by NC State University. We collaborate with many organizations to make things happen. One of our biggest partners is Sampson County 4H. This summer we will be teaming with them for some of our activities. Our club meets twice a month. The club sponsors are Mrs. Kathriene Rivera (ESL school liaison) and Mrs. Karen McGee(SMS guidance counselor).

Kathy Rivera
ESL Parent Liaison for Clinton City Schools
910-592-2067 Ext. 6108