We have had another tremendous year at the Riverside County Office of Education. We exist to provide critical services to Riverside County’s 23 school districts, processing millions of dollars in payroll and purchasing transactions, helping to train thousands of teachers, and providing special programs for students who need them.

Our goal is to provide the best education possible for the 364,000 students and their families in our county. We have 60,000 students in our own RCOE programs, including Head Start and child care for thousands of preschool children.

You will read about many of our programs in this 2004 Report to the Community.

Five years ago we developed our Riverside County Achievement Teams (RCAT) to help school districts boost student achievement and meet the goals set by the state’s rigorous accountability programs.

"What we need to do is bottle what is happening here (at RCOE)."

-Judge Eric Andell, Deputy Under Secretary for the Office of Safe and Drug-Free Schools, visiting RCOE on June 3, 2003.

This past year our RCAT program was recognized with a Golden Bell Award from the California School Boards Association. The program highlighted is one we share with the Val Verde Unified School District, a collaboration that made the award even more special to us.

Our county test scores have improved each year for the last five years, rising 16 percent in reading and language over the last two years and 16 percent in one year in math. We pledged with district superintendents to help raise test scores, and that is happening.

Test scores were a hot topic at our first Education Summit held in the past year. The summit brought together 250 county and state leaders to tackle pressing issues and work together on a plan to meet each and every challenge.

We know that students cannot learn if they do not feel safe. Our Safe Schools Summit held in October brought together more than 170 school and law enforcement officials to map out plans that will make schools safer.

As a result of the Safe Schools Summit, we have formed Crisis Response Teams that are receiving special training to help our local districts keep students safe in crises and make sure that their psychological needs are met after the crisis has passed.

Our Reading Runs in Riverside and Indio continue to draw hundreds of children who receive free books for their pledge to read 20 minutes a day.

Dr. David Long accepts the Spirit of the Entrepreneur Award.

Finally, I was deeply honored this past year to receive the Spirit of the Entrepreneur Award, bestowed by the county’s business community on individuals who create, promote, or bring together entities to advance a product or service.

Our service, of course, is improving education. The award was special because it focused on RCAT, now serving 65,000 students, and it was based on collaboration between RCOE and local districts. I accepted the award on behalf of the many fine RCOE employees who make this program work and the outstanding school districts that have joined us in helping students succeed.

Please enjoy the 2004 Report to the Community and visit the Web site at www.rcoe.k12.ca.us for more information about what we do at RCOE.

Dr. David Long
Riverside County
Superintendent of Schools