The 411

It's a bit of an irony to pay for coupons, but well worth with it with the ever-popular Entertainment coupon books now available for purchase for $25 each from several organizations at Carson High School.

But if you want your fee to go to a band student, then purchase the coupon guide from one. Students need the money this year for the Festival of Bands competition in Eugene, Ore., on Oct. 22, the band's biggest expenditure for the year.

"The students who are selling the books are generally the ones who really need their accounts up to go to the trip," said Marina Crounk, president of the band boosters for Carson High's Blue Thunder Marching Band. "This is probably one of our primary fund-raisers."

If students at the school sell more than 1,000 copies of the Entertainment guide, each will receive 50 percent of their sales, which will go directly into their own accounts.

"For $25, there's a lot of coupons for different things," Crounk said. "There's four coupons for Safeway for $5 off, Blockbuster has a couple of things in there and there's several coupons for local restaurants. If you use the book just once or twice at a nice restaurant, it pays for the cost easily."

If you don't know anyone selling a book, call Crounk at 721-2653. She can also purchase books for anywhere in the nation. So if you're looking for a gift, get one for the area - be it Sacramento, San Francisco, Los Angeles, even Alaska.

On Thursday night, band booster's sponsored a fund-raiser at the Carson City Applebee's. With the band flier, 10 percent of the total bill, minus alcohol costs, went to the Blue Thunder Band. More than $200 was raised and the group is planning on holding a similar event at Applebee's again, possibly in December. Crounk is looking for other suggestions for fund-raisers, particularly since the band uniforms are some 10 years old. Anyone with fund-raiser suggestions can e-mail her at mvcrounk@yahoo.com.

"We'll take any help that we can get for these kids," she said. "We'd really like to get new uniforms for the kids. Part of the problem is that we live in a bowl and a lot of the same businesses are hit over and over again for donations. We'd like some other ideas."

I'm sorry ...

... to the staff at Dayton Intermediate School who have worked hard over the past year to make adequate yearly progress where it was needed - congratulations, great job, you did it.

But you wouldn't know that from the recent story I wrote. Your principal Neal Freitas called and said several of you were confused by what I wrote last Friday - which was simply wrong.

I said Dayton Intermediate failed to make adequate yearly progress in three areas.

The truth is the complete opposite - your school did make adequate yearly progress in all 37 areas.

In fact, you worked so hard to improve from the 2003-04 school year, when you were in need of improvement, that the numbers of Hispanic students proving proficient on the eighth-grade math criterion reference test increased by 350 percent over the past year.

That was the sole area of 37 in the 2003-04 year that kept you then from making adequate yearly progress. While you're still on the watch list because it takes two years of adequate yearly progress before you're removed, I'm sure you will keep up the great work.

n Contact reporter Maggie O'Neill at moneill@nevadaappeal.com or 881-1219.