Focus on TUSD - May 2007

EEF Provides Exams and Eyewear for 60 Lawrence Students
At Lawrence Intermediate School, students are seeing eye-to-eye with their teachers and each other.

That's because the Educational Enrichment Foundation stepped forward to pay for eye exams and glasses for 60 students in the third, fourth and fifth grades, whose families were financially unable to provide corrective eyewear for them. The foundation provides resources to expand and enrich student learning in Tucson Unified School District. In past years, only three or four students at Lawrence, 4850 W. Jeffrey Road, received the glasses, Principal Ana Gallegos said.

She credited Health Assistant Summer Harms with jumpstarting the eyeglass project and keeping it on track. Harms downplayed her role, saying that she only made a few phone calls, but the principal said Harms went the extra mile, making sure the parental permission forms were returned in order for the children to participate and coordinating transportation and lunches.

Harms asked the attendance liaison, Sandy Garcia, to visit the homes of students to collect permission slips that had not been returned. Garcia ended up retrieving at least half of the slips from the homes.

Harms is happy that students are able to see more clearly because of their new eyewear. She treasures a letter she received from second-grader Francisco Buznames that says, "Dear Lawrence nurse, Thank you for getting me an appointment for me at lenscraft and know whenever I put on my eyes I can see very very clearly! So thank you very much and I are goeing to take care of it am not goeing to break or lose my glasses."

"When I read that, it moved me to tears," Harms said. "I had to go into the bathroom so no one would see me crying."

The federal Title I program provided transportation to Lenscrafters at the Park Place Mall for the students. Liz Rabago, the project service advisor, who works at several schools, supervised the students at the appointments.

Third-grader Michelle Mendoza has noticed a big improvement in her vision since she started wearing her silver-edged rectangle frames. "I can see better now," she said. "Like at night, the little light on the TV isn't blurry anymore."

She told her mother the glasses cost $89.95 and that they were free. "My mom said that was a lot money and she was happy I had glasses," Mendoza reported.

Her classmate, Dana Perez, who wears oval, maroon-edged frames that match her standardized shirt, said, "It's cool to have free glasses. I can see the blackboard better now."

-- By Sharon Dunham
Communications & Media Relations

TUSD - Proud Supporter of Small Classes

All photos in the May issue by Jes Ruvalcaba of Communications & Media Relations.

The deadline to submit material for the June Focus is Friday, June 8. The Focus will be published Monday, June 18. Email submissions to Chyrl Hill Lander or Sharon Dunham in the Communications & Media Relations Department or use the Focus Online Submission Form.