The Healdsburg Unified School District (HUSD) Board of Trustees will receive a COVID-19 update and will review the high school and Marce Becerra Academy school plans for student achievement at their next school board meeting on Wednesday, Jan. 19.
Due to the omicron COVID-19 surge, the meeting will be held virtually via Zoom. The meeting will start at 6 p.m. following closed session.
Celebrating school success
Wednesday’s meeting will kick off with a “celebrating our success” presentation regarding the Healdsburg Junior High School lesson study project. Healdsburg Junior High administration will present this item.
COVID report
Amid the COVID surge of the highly transmissible omicron variant, HUSD Superintendent Chris Vanden Heuvel and HUSD Director of Student Support Services Diane Conger will provide a COVID update to the board of trustees.
According to HUSD’s COVID data dashboard, as of Jan. 14, there are a total of 102 school-based cases. Of these, 11 cases were reported at Healdsburg Elementary School; 24 were reported at Healdsburg Elementary Fitch Mountain campus; 13 were reported at Healdsburg Junior High School; and 54 were reported at Healdsburg High School.
“HUSD is continually following the most current health and safety guidance from the State and County to assure our students stay in school and maximize their instructional time to help with learning loss brought on by the COVID pandemic over the past few years,” according to the HUSD school board agenda packet.
School plans for student achievement
Healdsburg High School Principal Amy Jones-Kerr will present to the board the Healdsburg High School School Plan for Student Achievement (SPSA), which consolidates school level planning efforts into one comprehensive plan for programs funded through the consolidated application.
The SPSA must be reviewed, discussed and approved by stakeholder groups, and then reviewed and approved by the school board of trustees.
Elements of the SPSA include standards, assessment and accountability; staffing and professional development; teaching and learning; opportunity and equal education access; and parental engagement. The plan is then built around established goals that relate to those elements.
A high school may use the Western Association of Schools and Colleges (WASC) Plan as the school’s overall plan.
Given that Healdsburg High School is currently undergoing the process to update its WASC Plan, the WASC Plan will serve as the school’s primary school plan document for the 2021-22 school year. According to the agenda item packet, the plan moving forward is to update the WASC Plan annually to meet both the WASC and SPSA requirements.
The goals in the plan include:
– “Ensure that all students progress in their ability to communicate, collaborate and think critically while removing the traditional predictors of success.”
– “Learning and instruction are active, student-centered, based in inquiry and connected to the world outside of school.”
– “All students and families are well supported, their voice is valued, our learning environments foster equity, empathy and engagement through listening, trust and respect.”
Kerr will also present the SPSA for Marce Becerra Academy.
– Goal 1 of the SPSA is: Increase the academy graduation rate by 90%.
– Goal 2 is: Increase individual student engagement by monitoring attendance and the Youth Truth survey data.
– Goal 3 is: Increase student preparedness for college and career by transforming the curricular program into a Big Picture learning model school.
Other school items – High school graduation requirements
The school board will consider approving revisions to the school board policy and high school graduation requirements.
The revisions are to accommodate two new state laws, AB 1024 and AB 1350, to clarify requirements for math, and to revise the current one-semester freshman seminar course to the new course — titled Freshman Compass — and to implement the required one semester of ethnic studies.
AB 1024 requires districts to exempt a student from district graduation requirements if the student was in their third or fourth year of high school during the 2020-21 school year and is not on track to graduate in four years, and to provide a student who was enrolled in their third or fourth year of high school during the 2020-21 school year and is not on track to graduate in the 2020-21 or 2021-22 school years the opportunity to complete the statewide coursework required for graduation.
AB 1350 “authorizes districts to award a retroactive diploma to students who were in good standing and on track to graduate at the end of the 2019-20 school year but were unable to complete the statewide graduation requirements due to COVID-19,” according to the agenda packet.
To see all of the details regarding the board policy and graduation requirements change, or to view the full agenda packet, visit https://healdsburgusd-ca.schoolloop.com/pf4/cms2/view_page?d=x&group_id=1531973298128&vdid=i232e2va7xxwqh and click on “1-19-2022 board packet.”
