An elementary school in the Sunnyside Unified School District is transforming into a technology academy this summer, and is accepting students who live outside the district for enrollment.
The Governing Board selected Los Amigos Elementary to become Los Amigos Technology Academy over Santa Clara and Summit View elementary schools at its regular board meeting May 24.
The technology academy, along with recent approvals by the board for a magnet school for gifted students based at Liberty Elementary School, and additional classes at Gallego Basic Elementary School, also a magnet school, is expected to increase enrollment in the district.
Sunnyside district administrators began working two years ago to keep achieving students from leaving the district by beefing up curriculum and technology programs to increase opportunities for students to excel and go on to college.
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Neighborhood families will have first choice in enrolling their children at Los Amigos and in the magnet schools, and then out-of-district families will be considered. The district will bus children as far as 10 miles outside the district boundaries to the magnet schools and Los Amigos Technology Academy for free, officials said.
Los Amigos was selected for the technology academy on criteria including faculty and staff support for the academy; parental involvement at the school; and innovative use of technology in the classroom by teachers and students.
"We quickly adapt to change at Los Amigos," said Veronica Ortega who presented Los Amigos' bid for the academy. "Teachers collaborate and support technology and 21st-century skills in the classroom, and our staff seeks and creates what it needs to meet lesson plans."
Since last year, the district has invested roughly $100,000 at Los Amigos for laptops, three-dimensional and whiteboard interactive projectors, and document cameras, which are described as modern-day overhead projectors, said Javier Baca, the district's executive director of Information Technologies.
This summer, under a $200,000 preliminary budget for Los Amigos, the district will purchase an additional 250 laptops for third to fifth grades; 120 tablets, which are similar to an Apple iPad for kindergarten to second grades; and Apple equipment that will be used by teachers to create short videos and story books, Baca said. Teachers also will receive headset microphones and speakers for the classroom.
This summer the district will invest $1.4 million, mostly in federal funding, for wireless and network upgrades at all 22 schools, and Los Amigos will be first in line, said Baca. The upgrades will be done by NVision Networking Inc., a Tucson-based information technology systems firm.
Los Amigos will serve as a prototype for other elementary schools in the district.
Contact reporter Carmen Duarte at 573-4104 or cduarte@azstarnet.com
