Gifted Funding for All

Battle Rock Charter School

Cortez, CO

Requested Amount: $2,500

Donation Amount: $250

This funding would provide funding to register 3 Destination Imagination Teams and also purchase gifted assessment kits to identify a more diverse population of gifted students.

After participating in Destination Imagination for the first time last year, we had a significant increase in interested students this year. Currently, our allotted budget for gifted education will not cover the cost to register 2 teams, and we are having to turn away half of the interested children. In addition, as part of the San Juan Boces, we share gifted resources with the surrounding schools including Pagosa Springs, Durango, Silverton, Bayfield, Ignacio, Mancos, Dolores and Lewis. The Gifted Coordinator has a limited number of assessment kits for gifted identification, that are shared among the various school districts and limiting the opportunity to utilize the kits. Receiving this funding would not only allow us to register 3 teams, but also purchase reusable assessment kits that we can use to identify gifted students who might not otherwise be identified.

Cortez has a poverty rate of 15.8% and about 50% of our students qualify for free or reduced lunch. Our demographics are slightly more diverse than our town with a percentage of Native American students at 14% as compared to 8.1%. The percentage of Black or African American students is 7% at our school as compared to 1.1% in town.
14% of our students are Hispanic as compared to 21.3%. 62% of our student population is white as compared to 68% and 1 percent of our student population considers themselves as two or more races as compared to 5.5% in Cortez.