LASD Board Highlights

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Students, teachers and Principal Greg Land from Santa Rita Elementary School gave an inspiring presentation last night that highlighted one of the school's strengths: its international community.

One fifth grade student, Dieuwert described his experience starting at Santa Rita as a 3rd grader who didn't speak English. By working with his buddy, Toby and the Santa Rita teaching team, Dieuwert built a strong foundation in English and confidently shared his story with the Board of Trustees. As Principal Land explained, by working together, these students collaborated to build each other's English skills to excel in all subjects in school.

The Santa Rita teaching team provided an illuminating demonstration for the Board to show what it's like to be an English Language Learner and some of the techniques teachers use to keep them from getting lost. Board members followed a lesson, placing a plate on their heads and drawing their faces, with instructions only in Mandarin and Hindi! "I watched your hands a lot to understand the directions," said Trustee Jessica Speiser.

Two other students shared their experiences as Language Ambassadors: bilingual students who serve as interpreters for students learning to speak English.The school has dozens of student Language Ambassadors, all fourth- through sixth-graders, who cover a total of 20 languages. One of the students said, "we get to meet new students, welcome them to our school and learn more about their culture and language by being ambassadors."

This program allows students who excel to challenge themselves as leaders, serve as teachers and to be liaisons to their peers. Collaboration, citizenship and character are key skills the Language Ambassadors hone through this experience, while providing invaluable English lessons to their peers that help them succeed.

"This was a very inspiring presentation, thank you for all you do for our students," said Trustee Vaishali Sirkay.

Joan Chaplick, consultant from MIG, delivered a report to the Board of Trustees regarding the data collected during the Community Engagement Process. The full report and appendices are available on our website.

Following the report, Superintendent Jeffrey Baier presented the Board with a draft plan to analyze the community-proposed options through the lens of the LASD Board's Guiding Principles for the Community Engagement Process.

After discussion, the Board then decided to begin its analysis with the top 11 options that received support of 30% or more of all attendees, plus any additional options which were in the top 5 in support from one of the three largest respondent groups: LASD parents, BCS parents, and community members without k-8 children. This resulted in a total of thirteen options that staff will begin to analyze in more detail and bring back to the board.

We invite and encourage our community to join the Board of Trustees as it reviews the results of the analysis in a discussion on February 10 at 7pm. To view the two presentations, please review items I.2. and I.3 on our agenda online.

Last night the Board of Trustees heard a presentation from Sandra McGonagle, Assistant Superintendent of Curriculum & Instruction and Keith Rocha, Egan Junior High School Principal, regarding the twelve years of research Los Altos School District has conducted regarding a potential transition to a 6-8th grade middle school configuration.

"The most important aspect as we consider this potential shift is what is best for our students, their education and their future success. We are recommending to you tonight that a 6-8th grade middle school model will provide the best educational program and opportunities for all of our 6th grade students," Mrs. McGonagle explained.

Mrs. McGonagle reviewed the prior years of research conducted by committees of parents and educators. Committee research included middle school tours in other school districts, a thorough review of the most current educational research, program needs for our 6th grade students, and an in-depth study to determine a 6th grade school day schedule.

The committees in 2008, 2011 and 2016 all recommended that LASD move to a 6-8th grade middle school model. Mr. Rocha described a two-year plan to implement the middle school configuration, should the Board decide to move ahead with implementation.

In large part, the district has not moved forward with this transition due to facilities constraints. Now that the Board is embarking on an analysis for a long term facilities plan to house BCS and provide facilities stability for all LASD schools, a formal decision about whether and when the transition should be made is expected to be made in parallel with those issues.

To view the full presentation please view the supporting documents for item I.4. on the LASD agenda online.

The Santa Clara County Office of Education recently notified the Los Altos School District that Bullis Charter School agreed to amended its MOU with the county and remove the exclusionary Los Altos Hills Bullis Purissima attendance area geographic lottery preference. While the Board agreed this change was essential, it has ongoing concerns about the demographic imbalances between LASD and BCS. To read the updated MOU, please review item I.7. on the agenda online. For the full story regarding the LASD Board's concerns related to the demographic imbalances between LASD and BCS, click here.

Please join us for the next regularly scheduled meeting of the Los Altos School District Board of Trustees at 7:00pm in the Board Room located at 201 Covington Road.

Website: www.lasdschools.org
Location: 201 Covington Road
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/LASDK8/