Warner Unified Moves Forward

Submitted by Warner Unified School District

Thursday, November 11, Senator Barbara Boxer’s office awarded Warner Schools the “Conserva-tion Champions Award” for significant contributions to protecting California’s Environment. In conjunction with this award, the District superintendent, Dr. Richard Swanson proudly announced yesterday that Warner High Schools’ Agricultural Program was just recently voted best two Person Agricultural Department in Southern California, beating out over a hundred other such programs.

Kathleen Colton, the author of the Northwest Regional Lab’s report “School Size, School Climate and Student Performance” states “Research has repeatedly found small schools superior to larger one on most measures and equal to them on the rest.” Small schools are particularly good at engaging their students in meaningful activities. Warner Unified is just such a school. Warner Unified has just reviewed individual student progression the California Standards Tests (CST) in preparation for its student recognition ceremony in December. The District is pleased to announce that 27 percent of its elementary students and 25 percent of its high school students improved their standards scores one or more positions between 2003’s test and 2004’s eg.

ºWe’re expecting the percent improvements to be even better for the 2005 CST. Warner Unified may have two thirds of their students from low-income households, but these students aren’t stagnating. They’re moving forward.

Warner Elementary has 124 students and Warner Jr./Sr./ High has 165 students. Every student gets individual attention. The student ratios meet the 20 to one requirements for the elementary school kindergarten through third grade. At the High School, many of the classes have anywhere from 8 to 1 to 15 to 1 student to teacher ratios. Some of the more advanced classes are almost tutorials with only two or three students. Warner Unified is a diverse district, 25% Indian, 25% Hispanic and 50% White, whose students all get along well. It’s diversity is one of its strong points. Warner High School has been rated as in the top 10% of schools in its class. Its comparable school’s rating is 10 out of 10. The average Academic Performance Index for similar High Schools is 570 while Warner High has scored 644, substantially higher. All but one of the teachers in the district is fully credentialed. Warner has also met all of its Federal Adequate Yearly Progress Goals.

Warner’s staff and community are proud of the school’s accomplishments and are striving daily to make the District one of the best small districts in the State.