The Santa Clara Unified Board of Trustees had a busy week before heading off on break with not one but two board meetings. The Board covered a lot of ground from the LCAP to the superintendent search.
LCAP Update
This school year Santa Clara Unified started their 2024 – 2027 Local Control and Accountability Plan (LCAP). At the Board meeting on Thursday, Feb. 13, Brad Stam, Chief Academic and Innovation Officer, gave the mid-year report for the 2024 – 2025 LCAP, which is required, but the presentation was customized to provide more information that the Board has requested.
The LCAP is how Santa Clara Unified tracks and measures the impact of the programs and services the District is investing in with state funds. The LCAP focuses primarily on unduplicated students which includes emerging bilingual English learners, students from socioeconomically disadvantaged households, foster youth, and homeless youth.
The presentation focused on three LCAP goals: Goal 1 is about academic excellence and equity, Goal 2 is about student wellness, Goal 3 focuses on partnership. A fourth goal regarding New Valley High School is also detailed in the full report.
The presentation and report are very data-heavy, as they include spending, explanations of metrics, data availability, and their desired outcomes. Each goal has many actions that are tracked and in various levels of implementation. For example, one action is to “provide K-12 summer program for students identified as in need of Tier 2 and 3 support”. Using iReady to see if summer school students are improving, they found that overall, 66% of students showed improvement in reading and 63% showed improvement in math. For Hispanic/Latino students, 62% improved in reading and 59% improved in math. The desired outcome is to have 75% of the students improve in both reading and math by the 2026 -2027 school year. They also want 86% of Hispanic/Latino students to improve in reading and 70% to improve in math.
“While this may feel like a lot of data coming to the board, like we’re drowning you in data,” said Stam. “It’s important for the board to remember that this data is also used by the departments that are much more closely responsible for these results to help inform their own actions and help them assess their own impact.”
Stanford Partnership
In 2022, the Board approved a Research Practice Learning Partnership (RPLP) with Stanford University’s Graduate School of Education, Learning Differences Initiative. The partnership has been mutually beneficial as Stanford researchers conduct their work at Agnew Elementary, Huerta Middle and MacDonald High Schools. They focus mostly on inclusivity, ongoing professional learning and inquiry, and research-practice inquiry.
“The goal of this cooperation is to enhance organizational capacity within SCUSD and produce new knowledge and scalable solutions to address the root causes of the most persistent and difficult challenges in providing successful educational environments for all learners,” reads the report. “The goal was to showcase new and best practices for inclusive teaching and learning, use the sites for educator workforce development, educational research, and transformational leadership mentoring.”
The RPLP has implemented programs like the ParaPro Academy or Paraprofessional Academy, which is now in its second year. Teachers and leadership from the partnered schools had nothing but positive things to say about not only the Stanford partnership, but especially the ParaPro Academy.
Other programs they hope to continue are ROAR, aka Rapid Online Assessment for Reading, and Project Echo, which had teachers collaborating with people from the Stanford Behavioral Pediatrics Department.
The RPLP will come back to the Board to request an extension. They hope to continue their work at the current schools and spread their learning to other sites.
Special Meeting
At a special board meeting on Tuesday, Feb. 11, the search for a new superintendent continued. HYA Inc. was hired in January and is already advertising the position and engaging with the community. The Superintendent Search website is already live at https://www.santaclarausd.org/about-us/superintendent/superintendent-search and has the survey where the community can share their thoughts. The survey asks about the characteristics, skills, and experience the next superintendent should have to be successful and meet the needs of the district.
Additionally, HYA Inc. got feedback from the Board on groups and individuals they should connect with. The Board named a few that HYA Inc. may not have considered like the Alviso community, adult education, previous superintendents, and more. The firm is already scheduling interviews and meetings with the community. The Superintendent Search website will have all the engagement opportunities listed. The first meeting with families is on Monday, Feb. 24 at 1840 Benton St., Santa Clara and on Zoom.
According to the website, the Leadership Profile will be presented to the Board at their next meeting on Thursday, March 13. The Board and firm also nailed down dates for the Superintendent interviews.
The website will continue to be updated with more information and also has the application for any superintendent candidates. The application deadline is March 17.
Other Business
The Board passed a resolution “reaffirming support for equal access to education for all children and families regardless of immigration status.”
The Santa Clara Unified Board meets next on Thursday, March 13. Meetings are live-streamed on the District’s YouTube page, and agendas are posted on their website.
