The City of Irvine is once again supporting the health and guidance needs of IUSD students

In May, the City of Irvine generated headlines when it offered to kick in more than $875,000 through a challenge grant to help ease the impacts of larger class sizes in IUSD – the latter coming as fallout from the state budget crisis. But that’s certainly not the only way the City is supporting our schools. In fact, our municipal partner provides more than $4.5 million a year to pay for things like school resource officers, crossing guards, special events and the D.A.R.E. program. And, for the fifth consecutive year, the City of Irvine will support the health and guidance needs of IUSD students through the Educational Partnership Fund, allocating more than $440,000 to fund a number of successful district initiatives in 2010-11.

A portion of that money was secured by the nonprofit Irvine Public Schools Foundation to help pay for school nurses and health clerks. The balance will be used by the district to fund strategies designed to reinforce positive school behavior at the middle and high school levels, as well as targeted intervention services for students in kindergarten through the sixth grade. Here’s a breakdown:

• School Nurses (Funded through IPSF)  $83,430 
• Health Clerks (Funded through IPSF)  $63,322
• High School Project Success  $76,367
• Middle School Project Success  $73,895
• Elementary Counseling Assistants for Grades K-3  $67,122
• Elementary Counseling Assistants for Grades K-3  $76,826

Superintendent Gwen Gross says the Educational Partnership Fund "represents an incredibly generous and valuable contribution, particularly as we work our way through the state’s budget crisis.” Added Dr. Gross, “This is a powerful testament to the remarkable collaboration between our district, the City of Irvine and the Irvine Public Schools Foundation, which has made an ongoing commitment to help fund nurses, health clerks and health curriculum.”