To Ricky Nagle, the elementary school where she teaches is something special.
Mary Covillaud Elementary School in west Marysville gets children who live amid grown-up problems: homelessness, drug addiction and alcoholism, crime, unemployment and poverty.
But you'd never know that some kids in Mrs. Nagle's first-grade classroom had slept in a car the night before, or came to school without proper clothing or shoes.
You might not guess that some came with empty bellies, or had been crack babies, or came from homes where no English is spoken.
You'd never know it because once they arrive at the public school, they are clothed, fed and then taught. Although the youngsters face some of life's biggest challenges, their test scores have improved dramatically, and the school is winning awards and turning lives around.
Staff members and parents have pitched in to create a family-style environment at Covillaud, painting rooms and making drapes for the library, sometimes paying for homey touches out of their own pockets. They started a clothes closet staffed by volunteers, and many teachers and staffers work overtime for free or pay for classroom improvements.
Teachers and administrators know they may be the last safety net these children will have before falling into the traps of drugs, crime or poverty.
"My children are so kind and so smart," said Nagle, glowing as she described her class. "This school is Marysville's best-kept secret."
In her classroom, the boys and girls are just children – with all their innocence, a hunger to learn and a desire to please.
About a decade ago, it was no secret Covillaud and its students were foundering, given the students' socioeconomics that continue today.
On any given day, 25 to 50 Covillaud students are homeless. Almost 80 percent qualify for free or reduced-cost breakfasts and lunches. Of 460 students, 133 speak limited or no English. Many were born addicted to drugs and display attention disorders and behavior problems.
"It's so depressing sometimes," said Principal Doug Escheman. "I have to remind myself that I'm seeing the worst of the worst. We just try to keep them from falling through the cracks."
Some might say the Covillaud staff and volunteers are doing much more than that.
Covillaud's academic performance is among the best in the state for its demographics. Its state Academic Performance Index went from 536 in 1998 to 795 in 2007, earning Covillaud a "Distinguished School" award in 2006 and a federal Title 1 Academic Achievement award for 2007. (API scores range from a low of 200 to a high of 1,000.) Attendance is 98 percent.
In 1998, about the time Escheman became principal, 19 percent of the school's second-graders were placing at or above the 50th percentile for reading. Math wasn't the school's strong suit, either: Only 26 percent ranked at or above the halfway mark.
Today, the tables have turned: 75 percent of Covillaud's students test at proficient or advanced in English skills, and 77 percent of them are at that level in math.
Laura Nicholson checked the school's dismal test scores 10 years ago as her son was about to start kindergarten. She met with Escheman to get papers to transfer to another school, but instead ended up choosing Covillaud.
"I fell in love with the kindergarten facilities, and I was so impressed with Doug," she said.
Today, Nicholson's younger son is a fifth-grader at Covillaud.
"If a teacher says, 'This child can't learn because he has trouble at home, or low skills or language barriers,' he (Escheman) doesn't accept that," said Nicholson, executive director of the Yuba-Sutter Chamber of Commerce.
Escheman knows many of his students live in cars, motels or federally subsidized housing. He has seen first-graders miss school to care for infant siblings while their parents gamble.
He has had to sit youngsters down and tell them it's time to shape their own futures, that it will be up to them to make something of themselves, that adults may not be there for them.
