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LM Month 2019
Enrollment: 775 FY18: $345,057 FY20: $216,249
Type: preK–8
FY19: $239,427
How EBF has made a difference
A boost in state funding allowed East Alton SD #13 to
hire additional staff, update its curriculum, add reading
and intervention programs and offer more extra-curricular
activities for students.
Eleven new full-time employees have been hired, including
two school psychologists, two special education teachers,
four instructional assistants, a kindergarten teacher, a fourth
grade teacher and a speech pathologist.
Adding psychologists provides another level of social-
emotional support for students. The additional special
education teachers will keep classrooms sizes down, and the
instructional assistants will help special education teachers
in the classroom with students who are navigating cognitive
challenges.
“We are offering more of a life skills-based program and
can now offer more individualized instruction because our
class sizes are much smaller and our teacher-student ratio is
lower,” Superintendent Emily Warnecke said.
Meanwhile, the additional kindergarten teacher will keep
classroom sizes below 20 instead of at 24 students. Fourth
grade classroom sizes are also much more manageable at
20 students rather than 26 students.
All of the new hires were based on what the research in the
EBF says has the largest impact on student learning.
“In our first year, we put all of our money into people because
we understood that is really what our students need,”
Warnecke said. “In the second year, we added curriculum
and made program additions.”
Enrollment: 1,413 FY18: $563,357 FY20: $420,589
Type: preK–12
FY19: $417,460
How EBF has made a difference
Additional state funding has allowed Flora CUSD #35 to
provide more support for students at the elementary, junior
high and high school levels.
The district hired two elementary teachers in order to keep
classroom sizes at or below 20 students. The numbers could
have jumped to 25 or 26 students without the ability to hire
more teachers.
The junior high has been an even bigger focus. Flora CUSD
#35 hired a full-time guidance counselor, a special education
teacher, an English teacher and a math instructional aide.
“The junior high was definitely an area where our scores
needed to improve, so we have added a variety of things
that have had a significant impact on students,” said
Superintendent Joel Hackney.
The district needed more help with the implementation of
MTSS (Multi-Tier System of Support) at the high school so it
hired a part-time staff member to assist teachers. MTSS is a
framework that many schools use to provide targeted support
to struggling students.
In addition to personnel, the district used EBF to update
textbooks and instructional materials in order to adopt new
reading programs at the elementary and junior high levels.
Lastly, the additional state funding freed up other resources
to help with the implementation of a 1:1 technology initiative.
“EBF has had a significant impact,” Hackney said. “Like every
district, we did as much as we could with limited resources
East Alton SD #13
Flora CUSD #35
continued...
In addition, the increase in state funding allowed the district
to purchase new, research proven reading and math
curriculums for the early grades.
“It’s a game changer for us,” Curry said. “We want to give
our kids the best chance to be grade-level readers by the
third grade.”
Continued Support of EBF Would…
Additional state funding would allow Abingdon-Avon CUSD
#276 to purchase new curriculum for grades 6-8 that is
aligned with the curriculum recently purchased for the
early grades.
The district would also like to hire a second dean of
students to assist principals with day-to-day operations, as
well as another STEM teacher to bolster the program and
expand it to more students.
The curriculum enhancements were in the areas of writing
and social-emotional learning. Reading and intervention
programs were also added. Lastly, the increase in state
funding allowed the district to add an art club and drama club
as well as a middle school baseball team.
Continued Support of EBF Would…
Additional state funding would allow East Alton SD #13
to continue to provide more social-emotional support for
students and better professional development for teachers.
The district also plans to add more personnel. The needs
the district has identified are four reading and math
interventionists and three instructional coaches.
Long term, once the district moves closer to its adequacy
target, the board will look at lowering property taxes to ease
the burden on taxpayers.