The Spanish
Immersion School is featured this week on WMFD TV’s “Inside Mansfield City
Schools.” Joining Principal Gabe Costa are first-grade teacher Alexandra
Simarro Miguel, fourth-grader Aryah Beuford and seventh-grader Adam Kern. The
show will air on Spectrum cable channel 16 in Mansfield at 8 o’clock tonight, 4
p.m. on Saturday and 3 p.m. on Sunday. By Thursday the program also will be
accessible on WMFD’s web page by going to “video and audio” at the top, then
scrolling down to “Inside Mansfield City Schools.” The show was taped prior to
Tuesday’s High Performing School of Honor announcement. Mansfield
City Schools’ Spanish Immersion School was named a High Performing School of
Honor Tuesday by the Ohio Department of Education.
Spanish
Immersion, located at 240 Euclid Ave., was one of only four schools in the
state to earn the prestigious honor. Criteria included performance on state
tests from 2013 to 2017, Title 1 status and a student body that is 40 percent
or more economically disadvantaged.
“We are very
appreciative of this honor,” Principal Gabe Costa said. “It reflects the
climate and learning environment created by our staff, students and families in
kindergarten through middle school.
“As one of
all the great schools within Mansfield City Schools we also are grateful for
the support of central office administration. We look forward to working even
harder to serve or students and families.”
Coincidentally,
ODE’s announcement of the High Performing School of Honor award came Tuesday as
the Spanish Immersion School was participating in the Student Achievement Fair
during the Ohio School Boards Association’s Capital Conference at the Greater
Columbus Convention Center.
Superintendent
Brian Garverick, who also was at the OSBA conference, added his
congratulations.
“I am very
proud of the Spanish Immersion School for being named an Ohio Department of
Education High Performing School of Honor. Previously, the school was named an
ODE School of Promise and a National Title I Distinguished School,” Garverick
said.
“Principal
Costa, the teachers, support staff, students and parents have worked very hard
for Spanish Immersion’s academic achievements. I congratulate them for this
honor.”
In January
the Spanish Immersion School was one of only two schools in Ohio – and 100
nationally – to receive the 2016 National Title I Distinguished School Award,
which recognized the school’s success in closing the achievement gap among
students in all subgroups that included low-income, racial/ethnic and those
with disabilities.
The Spanish
Immersion School opened in the fall of 2008 with a kindergarten class of 11,
two teachers and Principal Jody Nash. It now has an enrollment of 238 in
kindergarten through eighth grade.
Costa, a
former third-grade teacher there, succeeded the retiring Nash as principal in June
2015.