A few of our 2024-2025 School Programs:
2025-2026 Impact
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Students Empowered
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Different Programs
Highlights of Programs:
- Turkey Drive: Provided 256 families with turkeys/ warm turkey meals for Thanksgiving.
- Hope for the Holidays: Provided 3,427 students with a holiday gift before winter break. Reaching all seven of our elementary and middle partner schools, servicing students in low income communities.
- Pantry of Love: Provided 5,333 food items for families in need across 7 partner schools, with each school receiving roughly 750 food items, in response to the cut of SNAP Benefits and rising grocery costs
- Smiles for Miles: 107 students received $150 back to school wishlist for school necessities.
- Therapy Program: covered the cost of 191 hours of one on one therapy sessions with a licensed therapist for JCCS students with highest need
- Staff Appreciation Lunches: 72 lunches, providing staff with 5,265 meals
- Student of the Month 414 student winners
- Staff of the Month 5 staff winners
- Saturday School Classes: 35 Classes, 724 Students in Attendance
- Wellness Program: 77 hours of therapy dogs, 76 hours of service dogs, serving students experiencing grief, students in need of emotional regulation, and special education students
- Wishlist: $55,200 provided to schools for their wishlist budget
- Smiles for Miles: $16,650 spent on back to school supplies for 107 high need students/families
- Field Trips: 7 field trips, supported 550+ students to go on field trips
- After School Programs: 20 after school enrichment classes, with 326 students attended
- CPR Certification Classes: 186 students, staff and community members were certified in CPR
- Staff Appreciation Events: 33 total events, 816 staff in attendance to our wellness events
- Fun Fridays: 61 Fun Friday Events - 35,165 snacks provided throughout all Fun Fridays
Our schools are consistently showing progress, the strongest themes are:
- Reduced suspensions and behavior issues
- Improved attendance and lower chronic absenteeism
- Strong academic growth in Math, ELA, English Learner Progress, and Science
- Greater staff stability and retention
- Multi-year improvements that continue to build over time
Taken together, the data indicates that partner schools are becoming more engaged, more stable, and more academically successful over the course of their partnership with the Positive Movement Foundation.
1. Suspension Rates Are Consistently Declining
- Central: 0.7% → 0.4%
- Chollas Mead: 0.2% → 0%
- Knox: 5.6% → 0.6% since partnership began
- Bell: 8.4% → 6.4% over four years
- Lemon Grove: 3.1% decrease since 2023
- Sherman: Maintained an exceptionally low 0.2%
Schools are experiencing fewer suspensions and improved student behavior overall, suggesting stronger school climate, student engagement, and intervention support.
2. Chronic Absenteeism Is Improving at Every School
Every school reported reductions in chronic absenteeism.
- Central: 43.8% → 24.8% (19-point reduction, nearly cut in half)
- Sherman: 30.4% → 19.8% (10.5-point reduction)
- Lemon Grove: 11.8% decrease since 2022
- Bell: 8.4% improvement this year
- Chollas Mead: 7.4% reduction since partnership began
- Knox: 6% reduction
- Willow: 0.9% reduction
Student attendance is steadily improving across nearly all partner schools, with some schools seeing dramatic reductions in chronic absenteeism.
3. Academic Growth Is Occurring Across Multiple Subjects
A majority of students at every school improved academically from the previous year.
Math Growth
- Chollas Mead: 78%
- Sherman: 75.6%
- Central: 71.8%
- Knox: 65.6%
- Willow: 59.4%
- Lemon Grove: 59.3%
- Bell: 56.3%
English Learner Progress
- Central: 74.2%
- Knox: 72.1%
- Sherman: 68.8%
- Chollas Mead: 66.7%
- Bell: 62.3%
- Lemon Grove: 62.3%
Additional Academic Gains
- Knox ELA scores increased approximately 9 points annually.
- Bell ELA scores have increased 18.4 points toward standard.
- Lemon Grove ELA has increased 7 points since 2023.
- Chollas Mead and Bell reported Science gains.
- Knox Science increased 3%.
Academic growth is widespread, with most schools reporting that 60–78% of students improved from the prior year.
4. School Climate and Student Behavior Are Improving
Beyond suspension data, several schools reported stronger behavioral outcomes.
- Sherman saw an 8% reduction in behavior incident severity.
- Sherman also saw an 8% reduction in student support requests.
- Chollas Mead achieved a 0% suspension rate.
- Knox reached its lowest suspension rate in partnership history.
Schools are experiencing safer, more positive learning environments with fewer behavioral concerns requiring intervention.
5. Teacher Retention and Staffing Stability Are Strengthening
While complete historical data is still needed from some schools, the available information is encouraging.
- Knox had 0 new teachers this year and is only losing one teacher next year.
- Bell retained the majority of classroom teachers, stabilized Special Education staffing, and filled vacancies.
- Several schools reported improved staffing stability.
Partner schools appear to be maintaining stronger staffing continuity, which is often associated with improved school culture and student outcomes.
