The Healdsburg Unified School District (HUSD) Board of Trustees has a packed full agenda of items, including the annual reorganization of the trustees and board president and vice president, for its next regular meeting on Wednesday, Dec. 15 at 6 p.m.
The school board will consider approving the high school’s new ethnic studies course for the 2022-23 school year, school administrators at the elementary school and the junior high school will present to the board their plans for student achievement and among other items, the district’s director of students support services will present the social emotional learning (SEL) report card.
On the school business side, the board will consider approving a resolution on the reduction or elimination of certain classified service positions and will consider ratifying the superintendent’s addendum to employment agreement based on an annual evaluation and performance expectations.
The meeting will be held in person at Healdsburg City Hall at 401 Grove Street and via Zoom.
Presentations and board reshuffling
Wednesday’s meeting will kick off with the annual organization of the board of trustees and the board will elect a new board president and a new vice president. The board will also elect a representative and an alternate to the Sonoma County Committee on School District Organization.
Trustee appointments to several different HUSD committees and groups, such as the Healdsburg Education Foundation and the Superintendent Policy Review Committee, will also be made.
The board will also honor outgoing board president Aracely Romo-Flores and will hear a “celebrating our success” presentation on Healdsburg Junior High School student clubs.
Student learning and education items
The school board will consider approving the new ethnic studies course proposal for the high school for the 2022-23 school year.
On Nov. 17, the board first heard the high school’s and district’s proposal for implementing a district-wide ethnic studies program as well as a required one-semester ethnic studies course for all freshman students starting as soon as next year.
Ethnic studies is an interdisciplinary field of study that focuses on theoretical and political questions regarding the social construction of categories of ethnicity, race, gender, sexuality, class and nation.
Ethnic studies pedagogy embraces humanizing all people by honoring the cultural wealth of historically underserved groups by analyzing systems of oppression, and by promoting action in solidarity with others to transform communities and student’s lives.
The agenda item report from the November school board meeting discussed why the district wants to pursue ethnic studies: “In an effort to continue the journey to create a more equitable and socially just school system in Healdsburg we are continuing efforts to include more inclusive curricula and practices in our schools. Historically, K-12 curriculum has remained largely Eurocentric, outdated and disconnected from the growing population of students of color in the United States and the need to create more understanding, awareness and collaborative space in our schools and wider community.”
The School Plan for Student Achievement (SPSA) for the elementary school will also be reviewed in a discussion item only. The SPSA 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.
Some of the elementary school goals in the plan include 20% of English Learner students will be redesignated in grades 3-5 in the 2021-22 school year and students will demonstrate growth on standardized Star reading and math tests during the 2021-22 school year.
To view the full SPSA and its goals, visit the district website and click on “12-15-2021 Board Packet.”
Healdsburg Junior High School administrators will also present their SPSA to the board for review. The junior high’s plan can also be found on the Dec. 15 board packet.
Diane Conger, the district’s director of student support services, will present to the board the SEL report card.
The report card outlines the data and work done in social emotional learning, counseling services and in school climate since the beginning of the school year. It also highlights data from the district’s screening tools such as CoVitality and student youth truth survey that was administered in October.
According to Conger’s agenda item report, “This comprehensive network of supports serves all students regardless of ethnicity or gender, yet is sensitive enough to detect trends when we disaggregate by different student populations. We believe this system better enables us to detect students in need, and thus deploy interventions in a timelier manner.”
The district developed an overall score for each category in the screening tools and youth truth survey. These scores are OK, watch and focus, which denotes that something is an area to focus on, address and provide additional services for. For instance, responsible decision making is one of the categories that received a “focus” score at the high school and junior high, whereas “social awareness” received an OK at both secondary and elementary school.
You can view the full summary of the SEL report card on the board packet.
School business items
The board will consider adopting a resolution regarding the reduction or elimination of certain positions in the classified service for 2021-22. The recommended reduction is due to a lack of work or lack of funds. Employees affected must be provided 60 calendar days’ notice of layoff. No staff are being impacted by this elimination.
The change includes the following per the resolution text, “Healdsburg Unified School District maintains the following position within the classified service: 1. District Driver/Bus Aide whereas, due to lack of work and/or lack of funds, the Board of Trustees of the District hereby finds that it will be necessary to eliminate certain services to the following extent: 1. District Driver/Bus Aide – Reduction of one position from 6 hours to 4.5 hours per day.”
Lastly, the board will consider ratifying Superintendent Chris Vanden Heuvel’s employment agreement.
Based on the original employment agreement for the superintendent, the superintendent’s salary shall be increased by 8.5% equal to the percentage given to all district personnel for the current school year — “provided the annual evaluation conducted under Article 5 demonstrates that the Superintendent’s overall performance has met or exceeded Board expectations.”
According to the agenda item effective July 1, 2021, the new annual base salary for the superintendent will be $232,859 based on the 8.5% increase.
