|
Getting your Trinity Audio player ready...
|
The San Ramon Valley school board passed a series of resolutions assigning various months throughout the year with specific celebratory or awareness designations Tuesday night.
Rolling out every resolution at the beginning of the school year — instead of waiting for each awareness month — is a new policy designed to help teachers and administrators plan for the coming year, district officials said. The school board will still host a presentation at the start of each awareness week or month to feature the specific work being done to honor the upcoming recognition.
As September is Attendance Awareness Month, newly appointed director of student services Ken Nelson gave a presentation at the board meeting in Danville on Tuesday about the state and importance of attendance in the district. San Ramon Valley’s average attendance last year was “incredibly high” at 97.1%, compared to the 94.9% statewide average, he said.
However, Nelson said, there is always room for improvement, and attendance is critical for students’ learning and educational experience — as well as to increasing state funding to the district. Which is why the district chose to designate September as Attendance Awareness Month.
“We hereby commit to focusing on reducing chronic absenteeism to give all children an equitable opportunity to learn, grow and thrive academically, emotionally and socially,” reads the attendance-specific resolution.
Nelson cited multiple strategies for maintaining a strong attendance record, including promoting a culture of positive attendance, using data to identify patterns and barriers to attendance and referenced a pilot program at Windemere Ranch Middle School this year, which offers flexible starting and ending times for students.
Other designations are as follows:
* Hispanic Heritage Month (Sept. 15 – Oct. 15)
* Attendance Awareness Month (September)
* Dyslexia Awareness Month (October)
* National Bullying Prevention Month (October)
* School Administrator Week (Oct. 8-14)
* Digital Citizenship Week (Oct. 15-21)
* Native American Heritage Month (November)
* African American History Month (February)
* National School Counseling Week (Feb. 5-9)
* Words Matter Week (Feb. 5-9)
* Women’s History Month (March)
* Arts Education Month (March)
* Prescription Drug Abuse Awareness Month (March)
* Autism Awareness Month (April)
* Day of Silence (April 27)
* Asian Pacific Heritage Month (May)
* Day of the Teacher (May 9)
* Classified Employee Week (May 20-26)
In other business
* The board meeting saw a large turnout from parents and runners from the Monte Vista High School cross country team, who came out en masse and dressed in Mustangs’ red to voice their frustration at a lack of a head coach and lack of appropriate staffing for the team.
“Cross-country attracts high-caliber kids,” parent Doug Bame said. “And I think it would be a crime if we’re not able to continue to fill this pipeline with the right number of kids. If there aren’t enough coaches, there can’t be 135 kids running around. And certainly, as we sit here today, having three coaches for 135 kids is completely inadequate, if nothing other than from a safety point of view.”
* The board announced that Shea Hunter would be taking the post of special education program supervisor, and that Sharon Baltazar had been appointed as an assistant principal at Windemere Ranch.
* The school board approved the implementation of a new high school course — English 12 with an emphasis on social justice — at Dougherty Valley and Monte Vista high schools.
Board member Denise Jennison pulled the item out from the list on the consent agenda.
“I just thought it was important to pull from consent to draw attention to what’s being done….I think social justice is particularly relevant, especially in this district, right now, given the challenges we faced last year,” she said.
Board member Greg Marvel, though, cautioned about making the course too “one-sided,” though he agreed that the class provided a forum for important topics of discussion.
“I received a number of calls last year from parents who received reports back from their students taking these classes, that it was a very one-sided presentation about the various social issues that we’re facing…I also want to make sure that it is very clearly emphasized to these teachers that they have to do it in a very impartial, structured way, that doesn’t take one side or the other,” Marvel said.
Africa American Month,Hispanic Month,Native American Month,Asian Pacific Month.
Where is European American Month?
Sounds like Greg Marvel is taking the “many sides, MANY SIDES” line from Trump… *sigh*
I’m wondering if the “many parents” he heard from spoke to the teacher directly about their concerns or just went above the teacher’s head and straight to the school board with their second-hand information.
Paul, there is no European History Month because every day is European History day. Anyone who growing up in the US gets plenty of European and American history throughout their education. If you look at the scheduled events, the school is raising awareness of traditionally oppressed groups, such as women, disabled, people of color, etc. No need to go on the attack. Educate yourself about people that you may have deemed insignificant or discriminated against times in your life.