[Congressional Record (Bound Edition), Volume 147 (2001), Part 8]
[Extensions of Remarks]
[Pages 10491-10492]
[From the U.S. Government Publishing Office, www.gpo.gov]



          TO HONOR ELVIRA ELEMENTARY SCHOOL IN TUCSON, ARIZONA

                                 ______
                                 

                             HON. ED PASTOR

                               of arizona

                    in the house of representatives

                         Tuesday, June 12, 2001

  Mr. PASTOR. Mr. Speaker, I rise before you today to pay tribute to an 
elementary school in my district that has an outstanding record of 
commitment to its children and the community. The accomplishments of 
this school recently received national recognition from the Department 
of Education, which named it a Blue Ribbon School. I'd like my 
colleagues to take a moment and join me in paying tribute to Elvira 
Elementary School in Tucson, Arizona.
  Elvira Elementary School is a kindergarten through fifth-grade school 
in the Sunnyside Unified School District in the southwest portion of 
Tucson, Arizona. It is a school that has welcomed many challenges and 
been described as the ``best of the best in public education,'' by one 
of our local newspapers in Tucson. In

[[Page 10492]]

addition, it is one of only three elementary schools statewide to be 
awarded the coveted ``A+'' ranking by the Arizona Educational 
Foundation's Model Schools Program in 1999. Selection for this honor 
was based on Elvira's exemplary student focus and support, active 
teaching and learning environments, powerful community and parent 
partnerships and strong educational leadership.
  Let me tell you a little about the student body at Elvira. Currently, 
88.6 percent of the school's 690 children participate in the federal 
freereduced breakfastlunch program, which qualifies Elvira as a Title I 
school. Almost 48 percent of the students are Limited English 
Proficient, 10.4 percent receive Special Education services and the 
student mobility rate is nearing 30 percent.
  But as I said, Elvira welcomes challenges. The culture of Elvira 
values all stakeholders and has high expectations for each of its 
members. A strong sense of devotion is exhibited by staff, parents and 
community members who join together to advocate for children.
  While most of the families in Elvira are in a lower socio-economic 
strata, and while the school community has dealt with numerous adverse 
circumstances and incidents in the past several years, Elvira's 
resiliency holds, and the community has reacted with caring and 
commitment to children and their promise for the future. Elvira 
continually seeks avenues for close analysis of programming in order to 
improve and expand upon learning environments which nurture the 
development of the full potential of each child. High expectations for 
student behavior and learning have been manifested in mandatory daily 
homework, advocacy of parents for school uniforms, and family support 
enabling Elvira to became a pioneer school for the well-known violence 
prevention program known as PeaceBuilders.
  The examples of commitment and dedication at Elvira Elementary School 
are numerous. That is why I am so proud of this school and its 
principal, my friend Mary Jane Santos. Thanks to her commitment and the 
dedication and work of parents, community and staff, Elvira Elementary 
School is continually elevating student achievement and moving toward 
its vision of creating learning environments that empower all students 
to reach their full potential. For these reasons, I respectfully ask my 
colleagues to join me in paying tribute to Elvira Elementary School.

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