dozen Latino businesses donate prizes to North School

November 8, 2006
To motivate students to have perfect attendance, a dozen local Latino businesses gave prizes to the bilingual third-grade class that had the least amount of absent students in October at North Elementary School in Waukegan on Friday.

"There's a direct correlation between attendance and achievement," said Waukegan Public Schools Superintendent Donaldo Batiste.

School districts also lose potential funding from the state every time a student is absent.


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North School met annual yearly progress on state tests last year under the No Child Left Behind federal mandate. If the school meets annual yearly progress during the 2006-2007 school year, it will be removed from the academic watch list.
"If we don't have the children in the school everyday, we can't teach them," said Angel Figueroa, principal at North School. "To bring up student achievement we work hard to have a positive learning environment."

The five students in Alicia Stevenson's bilingual third grade class with perfect attendance so far this year that were recognized on Friday include: Daniela Espinoza, Maria Galvan, Oscar Garcia, Miguel Lara and Oscar Guillen. The class had a 95 percent attendance rate.

"The party was to motivate them to keep on going to school," said Caroline Lopez, account executive for La Luz who organized the attendance contest. "It's important to be in class every day."

The dozen Hispanic businesses that donated pizza, cake, prizes and gift certificates to the class include: La Luz Bakery, Dee Garcia, Dr. Milagros Galvez, Calmec Global Law Group, Liberty Tax, The Hispanic Chamber of Commerce, Pro-Data Payroll, Jack's Pizza, Direct Factory Furniture, La Que Buena 105.1, Dulcerí*a Jazmin, Cacktus Furniture and La Luz bilingual newspaper.


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