At the last meeting before their July break, the Windsor Unified School District Board of Trustees is focusing on finishing up the previous year’s business and getting ready for the coming year.
There will be two presentations to kick off the meeting, including one from the Windsor Education Foundation by Diahanna Post and the update on the district’s Visual and Performing Arts Action Plan, from Elizabeth Robertson, VAPA teacher on special assignment. Unsurprisingly, many of their plans for the 2020-21 school year were derailed by COVID, but a new plan is ready for the coming school year.
Math performance at Windsor High School has been an ongoing issue, and incoming principal Brian Williams and Lisa Saxon, director of educational services, will be presenting the challenges with equity and performance and a potential new academic pathway to assist.
According to the agenda, “Senate Bill 359, known as the California Mathematics Placement Act of 2015, required the governing bodies of Local Education Agencies that serve pupils entering grade nine to adopt “a fair, objective, and transparent policy” beginning the 2016-17 school year. Annually, the board and the superintendent or designee shall review student data related to placement and advancement in the mathematics courses offered at district high schools to ensure that students who are qualified to progress in mathematics courses based on their performance on objective academic measures are not held back in a disproportionate manner on the basis of their race, ethnicity, gender, or socioeconomic background. The board and Superintendent shall also consider appropriate recommendations for removing any identified barriers to students’ access to mathematics courses.”
Unfortunately, according to the presentation the numbers show significant disproportionality, including:
- 92% of all WHS students are enrolled in math, including 94% of all juniors.
Seventy-two percent of all seniors, but the high percentage of juniors and seniors enrolled in math does not mean that most students are pursuing Math III, Trig/Pre-Calc, AP Calculus or AP Stats. It reflects the high percentage of students who have to repeat Math I and Math II to meet the graduation requirement. - Forty-eight percent of students attending WHS identify as Hispanic/Latinx, 46% of students attending WHS identify as white and there is disproportionate number of Hispanic/Latinx students enrolled in Math I and a disproportionate number of white students enrolled in Math II and Math III. This is due to the high failure rate in Math I (particularly with Hispanic/Latinx students), which causes students to repeat the course and inflate the enrollment numbers.
- The high failure rate in Math I and Math II impact a student’s ability to access Math III (only 37% of Math III students identify as Hispanic/Latinx, but they represent 48% of the population). The high failure rate by Hispanic/Latinx students in Math I (72%) is disproportionate to their representation in the total population (48%).
The presentation indicates that WHS plans to offer a new academic pathway that includes the addition of Pre-Math I (Math 8) in 9th grade will help students better prepare for Math I in 10th grade; the continuation of Math I support classes will reduce the number of students who are unable to demonstrate competency; the addition of Math II support classes will reduce the number of students who are unable to demonstrate competency; the implementation of Standards Based Grading will help identify levels of competency and mitigate “toxic” grading practices; and the identification of key competency standards between Math 6 and Integrated Math III will help develop Common Formative Assessments and create a Cycle of Continuous improvement.
Housekeeping items include final vote/passage of both the 2021-24 LCAP and Local Performance Indicator Self-Reflection and the 2021-22 budget as well as a resolution to authorize the Sonoma County Office of Education to make transfers between fund balances and expenditures at close of year.
There will also be a vote on a few proposed contracts, including a renewal of the district’s legal contract with Dannis Woliver Kelley. The contract sets prices in a range of $130 to $360 an hour depending on the level of service. Also up for consideration is a contract with StuderEducation which “will provide leadership development, coaching and facilitation services, and aligned tools and resources to facilitate leaders’ planning and execution of strategic actions through a continuous improvement approach to achieve key pillar goals.”
The board will also be approving the job description for a middle school counselor.
Finally, the board will consider approving the Report of Education Protection Account (EPA) funding for 2020-2021. According to the board packet, the EPA was established by voter initiative on November 7, 2012 and provides that EPA funds “generated from increased sales and income taxes will be used to offset the district’s regular state funding from the California Department of Education. The district has sole authority to determine how the EPA funds are spent within its jurisdiction excluding salaries and benefits of administrators or any other administrative costs. The board has determined that EPA funds are to be spent on instructional salaries and benefits. Further, there is a requirement to annually publish an accounting of how much EPA funding was received and how the funds were spent.”
Per the 2020-2021 Fourth Quarter Schedule of Entitlements for Education Protection Account provided by the California Department of Education the funding amounts for Windsor are:
Windsor Unified – $706,412
Cali Calmecac – $225,984
These amounts have been spent solely on salaries and benefits for teachers which complies with the associated requirements.
The June 29 Meeting of the Windsor Unified School District Board of Trustees takes place at 6 p.m. This meeting will be held via Zoom and streamed live to YouTube at:
https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCTC8qiAOAh8Qd77KSW7c8wA
Any public comment should be emailed to at [email protected] by 4 p.m. on Tuesday. If you wish to make your comment in person at the Zoom meeting, please let Jen Cox know by 4 p.m. on Tuesday and she will send you the link.
