Vision:
It is the vision of Helm Elementary School to have a continuous, well-articulated program for students from Kindergarten through Eighth Grade. The end result will be an Eighth Grade graduate who is prepared academically and socially to accept the challenges and requirements of higher education. Included in this goal are the Schoolwide objectives of every student achieving month-for-month growth academically as measured by the school's multiple measures, in the areas of Language Arts, Math, Science and Social Studies.
About the School:
Founded in 1888, Helm Elementary School is located about 25 miles southwest of Fresno. The school is in a beautiful agricultural corner of Fresno County which is some of the most productive farmland in the world! The land on which Helm Elementary School is located belongs to Don Gragnani. It has been granted to the school as long as it is being used for a school. Mr. Gragnani recently granted another piece of land to allow the school to add an administrative annex, which is named Don Gragnani Administrative Annex.
Helm Elementary School is one of five schools in Golden Plains Unified School District. The ADA of Helm School is about 80 students this year, which is lower than it has been in recent years. There are five classes at Helm School. All of our teachers are fully credentialled. The dedication of our teachers brings to our school a sense of family that is responsible in large part for the fact that more of our students meet grade level standards than any other school in the district.
Our families of this K - 8 school are hard working, rural people with strong family values and an intense interest in their children. Most work in agriculture related industry. In our community we have a number of agriculture-based industries: Helm Bean and Seed, Helm Fertilizer, Hunt Wesson Processing, Britz Corporate Farms. Our ethnic make-up is 81.5% Hispanic, 17.5% Anglo, and 1% Asian. Sixty percent of our students are Limited English Proficient. Approximately 95% of our students participate in the Federal School Lunch Program.