El Carmelo Elementary School

3024 Bryant St.

Palo Alto, CA 94306

    El Carmelo School has approximately 400 students in grades Kindergarten through five. In addition to the regular education classes, the school houses both a primary and an intermediate Special Day Class. The school has implemented full time class size reduction in grade one and has been able to implement this program for grade two on a half time basis, with four classes of less than 20 students in the morning when instruction occurs in Reading, Writing and Mathematics. After the lunch period, these four second grade classes are reconvened into three classes for instruction in such areas as Science, Social Studies, Music, Art, and P.E. Classes in grades 3-5 at El Carmelo are not part of the current class size reduction effort. At an average class size of 28.65, the classes at those levels are somewhat above the average for the district.

    As a 'neighborhood' school, El Carmelo provides programs and approaches to meet a wide range of student and parent needs. The school is characterized by having a large cadre of parents who are interested and involved in their children's educational programs. Typical of Palo Alto schools in general, parents have high expectations for quality education for their children and are very supportive of the school's efforts to that end. The student population is comprised of students who represent a rich array of racial and ethnic groups.

    El Carmelo classrooms feature a relaxed, child-centered environment where children are guided, facilitated, and instructed by their teachers in the process of their development as independent learners. Classroom activities cover the gamut of individual work to whole group instruction, with teachers utilizing a wide variety of student groupings for different purposes.

Students' Needs:

       Many students have special needs. El Carmelo has many programs to satisfy these needs. These programs include:

Reading Recovery: One-on-one instruction to identified first graders. Paid partially with State funding through the Miller-Unruh program.

GATE: The district Gifted And Talented Education teacher assists teachers in designing and implementing independent and small group projects.

English Language Development: provides intensive English language instruction to students whose native language is other than English. Students learning English also receive some tutorial support in their native languages.

Classroom Teachers: parents, the principal, the resource teacher, speech and language teacher, and school psychologist work together as a Student Study Team to develop strategies to support children with needs that require special attention.

The Speech-Language and Resource Teachers: work with parents and teacher in developing Individual Education Plans for students who have been assessed and recommended for placement in Special Education Programs.

El Carmelo's Scores on California Standardized Tests

Scores range from 1-99. A score of 99 indicates that the school scored higher than 99 percent of the other public schools in California. All scores are from "McCormack's Guides '99."

School Safety:

    The school rules at El Carmelo are simple and few in number. They are:

"Be safe - don't do anything to hurt yourself or others.

Be considerate - don't do anything here that interferes with your right to learn or others' right to learn.

Be respectful of school property and the property of others."

    These rules form the basis for behavior guidelines that are developed in classrooms and for the playground. Classroom teachers, often with the involvement of students, develop and manage rules specific to their classroom and that will work best for their instructional programs. The playground is supervised by teachers before school and during the recess periods. Noon supervisors monitor the playground during the noon period, and they are augmented by the Peace Patrol, a group of 4th and 5th grade students who are specially trained in processes of conflict resolution. A variety of noon activities are available for students, including Y Sports programs, Noon Art, Aerobics and Dance activities, library and computer activities, and Chess Club.

    An extensive bicycle safety program is part of the school safety program. This program is made possible by the joint efforts of the school, the PTA, and the Palo Alto Fire Department.

    The school's disaster plan identifies routine preparedness activities, and identifies contingencies to be activated in the event of a major emergency. Earthquake and fire drills are a part of El Carmelo's emergency preparedness program. Among the elements defined in the disaster plan are the on-site storage of the emergency supplies and equipment in the emergency storage shed.

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