For the first time in over a year, the Healdsburg Unified School District School Board of Trustees will convene in-person at Healdsburg City Hall for a regular school board meeting on Wednesday, Aug. 18, at 6 p.m.
The meeting will be open to the public, masks will be required, but the district will also stream the meeting live on their Facebook page.
The school board will be considering amendments to the district’s COVID-19 protection plan and they’ll also receive presentations on the district’s drought management and on the revised 2021 Local Control Accountability Plan (LCAP).
Reports and celebrating success presentations
Wednesday’s meeting will kick off with a “Celebrating our success” report on the return to school. The first day of school for the Healdsburg Unified School District (HUSD) is Aug. 18 and kids will be returning to campus full time for the first time in 16 months.
The report will likely include photos and a briefing on how the first day went for Healdsburg schools.
COVID protection plan amendments
HUSD Superintendent Chris Vanden Heuvel and Director of Student Support Services Diane Conger, will present amendments to the COVID protection plan for the board’s consideration.
In March, 2021, the school board unanimously approved the HUSD COVID-19 Safety Plan. The proposed amendments to the plan reflect the California Department of Public Health’s updates on Aug. 2 to the COVID-19 health guidelines.
Per the new state guidelines, weekly COVID PCR testing will be required for all unvaccinated staff and instead of conducting in-person health screenings on school sites, employees and families will be required to screen at home.
While the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) guidance on K-12 social distancing states that in-person instruction can occur safely without minimum physical distancing, the district will encourage staff and students to physically distance where possible and practical, especially when unmasked and outdoors.
The other major amendment is in regard to quarantine guidelines. A mask-on-mask COVID occurrence would qualify an individual for a modified quarantine instead of a full seven to 10-day quarantine and if a student or staff member is experiencing symptoms and are waiting for test results, the student or staff will have to quarantine, but the class will remain open.
A fully vaccinated student or staff member who comes into close contact with a confirmed COVID positive case will not have to quarantine, but testing is recommended three to five days after last exposure.
To view the full COVID safety plan and its amendments, visit the school district website and click on the board packet for Aug. 18.
Drought management
Superintendent Vanden Heuvel will provide an update on drought management and conservation.
On June 7, the city of Healdsburg enacted Stage 3 of its emergency water conservation mandate, stipulating a mandatory 40% decrease in citywide water usage.
On June 9, the school board adopted a resolution declaring an emergency, allowing the superintendent and the director of business services to secure irrigation equipment necessary to respond to the drought.
Vanden Heuvel will update the school board on the steps and equipment the district has received to respond to the drought.
LCAP
Erin Fender, the district’s director of curriculum and instruction, will present to the board a few changes to the 2021 LCAP.
The LCAP is a three-year strategic plan for how a district can improve and increase student achievement and district specific goals for students. The LCAP is required by the state and must be updated annually.
The LCAP also informs the district’s Local Control Funding Formula (LCFF). Under the LCFF, school districts receive a uniform base grant for every student, adjusted by grade level.
School districts receive additional supplemental grants for students with greater challenges, defined as low-income students, English learners and foster youth. Districts receive additional concentration grant funding when the numbers of these students enrolled in a district make up more than 55% of a district’s total enrollment.
On June 23, 2021, the HUSD school board approved the LCFF Budget Overview for Parents, the Annual Update (including the 2019-2020 LCAP Annual Update and the 2020-2021 Learning Continuity Plan Annual Update) and the HUSD LCAP for 2021-24.
The documents were then sent to the Sonoma County Office of Education (SCOE) for review and approval.
Following the SCOE review, SCOE staff suggested a few revisions to some of the sections of the documents.
“The modifications to the LCAP suggested by SCOE are so minor that they do not require the HUSD School Board to reapprove the documents but in order to keep both the public and the Board up-to-date the modified documents are included in this board packet,” the agenda item report states.
Some of the revisions include:
● In the 2020-21 Annual Update for the LCP, on p.55, p.56, & p. 58 more robust explanations for the discrepancies in Budgeted Funds v. Actual Expenditures for items with substantive expenditure differences are now included.
● In the 2020-21 Annual Update for the LCP, on p.62, information on how learning loss is assessed for pupils with unique needs is addressed more fully.
How to view the agenda and the meeting
The meeting will be held in-person at Healdsburg City Hall at 401 Grove Street. Masks will be required. The meeting will also be streamed on the district’s Facebook page.
To view the meeting agenda and agenda packet, click here.
