On March 19, 1990, a devastating flood struck the city of Elba, destroying seventy-eight percent of the school system. City leaders and citizens made the decision to rebuild the school away from the flood plain. A state bond issue granting the school $12,200,000 and approximately $6,500,000 from federal disaster programs allowed the construction project to begin December 26, 1990 and the new school to open on September 8, 1992.
A General Music program was started at Elba Elementary School in the fall of 1993. This program was for grades K-4 and served as an introduction to music before the students were offered Beginning Band classes in fifth and sixth grades. The general music program was enhanced greatly during the 2000-2001 school year when the Music in Education program was added. This is a computerized keyboard program that allows the music teacher to teach keyboarding to the students and to observe each child's progress and understanding by monitoring them on the computer. All fifth and sixth graders began this keyboard program during 2001-2002.
Since the fall of 1995, Elba Elementary has qualified as a Title I school. This has allowed us to receive federal funds that have been used to buy needed supplies and to pay salaries for the English as a Second Language teacher, aides, and the school nurse.
The Alabama Reading Initiative has been a part of Elba Elementary School since the 1999-2000 school year. This program, funded by the State Department of Education, is a research-based initiative with a goal of 100% literacy for the state of Alabama. The faculty participated in a two-week Summer Academy in June of 1999 that provided intensive training in effective reading instruction. The teachers are seeing positive progress in the students' reading scores and feel that the information learned and being used from this program has produced exciting results.
Each classroom at Elba Elementary School has 3 networked computers that are used extensively in the Accelerated Reader and Accelerated Math programs. Teachers also have access to a computer lab when they need more computers for research projects.
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