There will be no action items on the agenda at the Oct. 6 meeting of the Windsor Unified School District Board of Trustees, but it will be filled with important reports on the status of various programs within the district, and updates on how distance learning is going.
There will be an update from Lisa Saxon, director of educational services on distance learning, that includes information on student attendance/engagement/participation for the attendance window of Sept. 14 to Oct. 2and results from fifth to 12th grade student survey regarding distance learning and the student experience.
The board receives an annual update regarding special education services provided by the district, and Special Education Director Kathryn Hill will provide an update of programs and services currently being provided.
There will also be a report on the district’s Accelerated Summer Language Academy. During the summer of 2020 WUSD again implemented its Accelerated English teaching program. This specialized program serves a specific group of district English learners, namely students going into first through eighth grades who had been identified as English Learners based on recent results from the English Language Proficiency Assessments for California (ELPAC).
The emphasis was of this program was to teach English grammar skills to this student group using a set of language-accelerating English teaching methods. In addition to this program, teachers from Cali Calmécac Language Academy (CCLA) also taught Spanish Language Arts to CCLA Kindergarten through third grade students.
Another summer program offered allowed credit deficient students in grades 10-12 to utilize Odyssey, an online program to complete course work.
Finally, the board will discuss considering continuation of distance learning. The board previously gave direction to provide distance learning based on a number of factors related to COVID-19 until Sept. 25, at which time things would be re-evaluated.
Sonoma County is currently in the “purple” tier, and thus COVID-19 is considered to be widespread in the county. An update of information and developing considerations will be presented to the board for consideration on next steps with regard to distance learning.
On Sept. 25, Superintendent Jeremy Decker released a letter indicating the district would continue distance learning through at least Oct. 23 and that “it is highly unlikely that our students will be returning for in-person instruction prior to winter break.”
The full agenda can be found at https://go.boarddocs.com/ca/windsorusd/Board.nsf/Public
Open session will start at 6 p.m. Due to technical difficulties this meeting will be streamed live to YouTube at https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCTC8qiAOAh8Qd77KSW7c8wA and not to Facebook.
Any public comment should be sent to Jenny Cox at [email protected] by 4 p.m. on Tuesday.
