South Whittier School District held their monthly board meeting on Tuesday, January 15, at the district office. The board and administration recognized students from Monte Vista Elementary, and received presentations about Graves Middle School Academic Achievements, the LCAP, and the California Dashboard.
Monte Vista Student Recognition
Monte Vista principal, Andrea Larios, recognized students for their exceptional efforts. These students met their standards from last year and met their individual AR, or accelerated reading, goal for trimester 1.
Wonderful job students, South Whittier School District is proud of you!
Graves Middle School Academic Achievements
Graves Middle School principal, Dr. Matt Fraijo, presented to the school board GMS’ academic achievements. He touched on their dashboard results and spoke about areas that Graves did well and areas that need to be improved on.
Fraijo then shared about the GMS AVID program. The school received the AVID Teacher Advocacy award last year and in result received a $10,000 grant that has been used towards beautifying the campus to give it a college feel. He also shared about other programs that are available to students including embedded support and study skill classes, a robotics class with concurrent enrollment to ELAC, and accessibility to tutors from Rio Hondo College.
Lastly, Dr. Fraijo ended by sharing about PDAR, or plan, do, analyze, and reflect, and their professional development plan. Their goal is to improve teacher efficiency and instruction.
LCAP Presentation
The Associated Superintendent of Educational Services, Martha Mestanza-Rojas, presented South Whittier’s Local Control and Accountability Plan. She shared about the district’s budget as well as the demographics of students.
Rojas spoke on the state’s education priorities which include conditions of learning, pupil outcomes, and engagement. She then explained the five goals along with the actions and services that are in place to meet those goals.
The first goal is to create a learning environment that allows students to feel safe where they can develop skills that will allow them to be competitive in the global market through implementation of Common Core Standards and technology. The second goal is to provide opportunities and support for all students as they expand their knowledge through a broad course of studies which can prepare them for college and the workforce. Goal three is to provide professional development opportunities to the South Whittier staff to develop professional efficacy to ensure high-quality instruction. The fourth goal is to strengthen communications with parents and the community by providing resources and opportunities for them to actively engage in their student’s education. The last goal is to provide a comprehensive system of support services to facilitate student success, both in their education and personally.
California Dashboard Presentation
Stacy Ayers-Escarcega, the Director of Accountability, Assessment, and Parent Engagement, did a presentation about the results of South Whittier School District’s California Dashboard.
Ayers shared the purpose of the dashboard and the different metrics that are used for accountability. She then shared the results of all areas including chronic absenteeism, suspension indicator, academic indicators, English Language Arts, and math.
The presentation then showed the board the different accountability measures that South Whittier uses. Some measures are implementing PDAR, on-going STAR 360 assessments, the use of data, PBIS implementation, and communication with parents.
The next board meeting will be held Tuesday, February 19, at 6 PM at the district office.