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Personalized learning initiatives again dominated school board discussions Tuesday night, both by the trustees and community members.
At the full house, nearly five-hour meeting, staff requested direction from the board on the initiatives, with secondary curriculum coordinator Debra Petish presenting the refined version of the 10 ideas.
The initiatives, according to district officials, are intended to increase student, staff and family options; improve student stress; and reduce class size with no increase in general fund expenses. The ideas have evolved since they were first introduced in September, staff said, after months of public dialogue and a community survey released in November.
Though no official action was taken on the proposals, a few of the ideas were tabled for continued development and potential implementation in future years, in light of heavy community opposition.
Petish lauded the learning initiatives for catalyzing important conversations in the district.
“This has really afforded us the opportunity to sit back and say, ‘What do we really want teaching in this district to look like?'” she said. “But more importantly, what do we want the structure of schooling to look like?”
Though community members and teachers have shown up at other board meetings to critique several of the initiatives, on Tuesday the focus seemed to be on the 10th initiative — this “redesign graduation requirements” idea suggested reducing the required graduation units from 240 to 220, integrating the high school health class curriculum into physical education courses and eliminating the world geography requirement.
Petish said that currently, world geography is not part of the state framework for ninth grade, and that in its place, the district could implement a year-long UC-approved course. She added that in terms of health, current health teachers could possibly work in conjunction with PE teachers to teach the health standards.
However, a dozen teachers, parents and students came to the podium to specifically voice opposition to this idea, saying that health and world geography were the classes best-suited to address mental health needs and recent incidents of racism and intolerance within San Ramon Valley schools.
“I think we all find it pretty ironic that you guys that want to lower the required credits by 20, and by doing so you want to take away two classes necessary for learning about empathy for other cultures and mental health,” said Julian Pont, a social studies teacher at Dougherty Valley.
A few parents raised concerns about the integrity of the survey soliciting feedback on the personalized learning initiatives, saying that students and community members were able to take the survey multiple times, skewing results.
There was a particularly strong showing from the Dougherty Valley High community, which experienced a student death last week. Student speakers called for a need to address bullying and the overwhelming stress students face.
“As you are likely aware, our school experienced a tragic loss last week,” said Rahul Reddy, the associated body president of Dougherty Valley who was acting as the student board member at Tuesday’s meeting. “Our student body and leadership class in particular are looking for ways to help heal our community and prevent similar tragedies from taking place in the future…Moving forward we do need to affect change in our district.”
District spokeswoman Elizabeth Graswich confirmed after the meeting that a Dougherty Valley high school student died Dec. 5, and that the next day staff, students and parents were informed of the death.
“Since the student’s passing, we have had counselors and school psychologists available to meet with and support our students and staff,” she said. “Our hearts and thoughts are with the family, friends and community.”
In a discussion following public comments, the board approved moving forward with the majority of the 10 initiatives, though they decided to pause on three of the initiatives that have been especially controversial: No. 5, which would offer up to two years of world language credit to middle school students; No. 6, which would involve the future elimination of a seventh period and identifying a way for high school students to take two electives in a six-period day; and No. 10, the idea seeking to redesign graduation requirements.
No. 6, which was proposed as a way to reduce stress for students overburdened with schoolwork, has garnered some backlash from community members and students who want the opportunity to take additional electives.
“Having that seventh period at some of our schools, and students, is something they feel that they have to do, no matter what, to get ahead,” said trustee Ken Mintz, who had been appointed as the new board president earlier in the meeting. He suggested focusing on ways to reduce the incentive of taking seven classes at one time.
No. 5 drew criticism from foreign language teachers at the last board meeting, who said that the option would cram too much information into a middle school curriculum and force students to choose between taking a language course and participating in other electives like music and drama.
And when addressing idea No. 10 and how it would affect health and world geography, board members thanked the community for their feedback, adding that their concerns were heard, especially in regards to the value of health class. They asked staff for additional clarifications regarding the delivery of this initiative.
“Health, I didn’t see it as eliminating a class, but pushing it into a different venue,” said board member Mark Jewett. “And where I am very concerned is, I need to understand the logistics of that…How are we going to teach health? How are we going to get health teachers one, two days a week? How are we going to put 60 kids in facilities?”
The personalized learning chapter of the meeting concluded around 10:45 p.m., with Superintendent Rick Schmitt thanking board members for their feedback, saying staff had clear direction on the first nine initiatives, and that they would revisit the No. 10 initiative with additional clarifications at the Jan. 9 school board meeting.
In other business
* During the board’s annual re-organization, Mintz was appointed as the new board president, Rachel Hurd as vice president and Denise Jennison as the board’s clerk.
* Kirby Hoy, executive director of educational services, and district spokeswoman Elizabeth Graswich reported on two new projects in the district’s latest efforts on cultural responsiveness and reducing hate speech, bullying and other divisive behaviors within schools and in the larger community.
Graswich presented the initial concept for a “Humans of the San Ramon Valley” social media project, based on the popular “Humans of New York.” The project, she said, would highlight the diverse stories and experiences of the community, and had found a willing partner in Leadership SRV.
Kirby presented the Community Sign Project, which would involve district high school students designing a sign symbolizing an inclusive San Ramon Valley. The ultimate vision, he said, was that the sign would not just be displayed at schools but also in local businesses and public spaces.
* The board approved the 2017-18 first interim financial report, presented by chief business officer Greg Medici. The report is a biannual district requirement in order to show that SRVUSD will be able to meet its financial obligations for the current and two subsequent years.
Projected year total revenues for 2017-18 come out to about $336.6 million, and expenditures to $346.52 million, according to Medici.
The total, restricted balance projected to be left in the general fund for 2017-18 is $3.8 million.
* During a closed session before the general meeting, President Mintz reported that the board upheld staff recommendation regarding one case of existing litigation and three potential litigation cases. Also in closed session, the board appointed Linda Rowley-Thom as director of special education.
* Due to the late hour, a presentation on district facilities was postponed until the Jan. 9 meeting, as was a customary review of board policy and regulations regarding district credit cards.
I hope they soon take up looking at a return to the old calendar ~ I can’t believe how stressed out my high school kids are with finals (in addition to remaining college applications) and it is ruining our Christmas time ~ no chance for any family time and by the time they get out late next week we only have 2 days to cram in all our Christmas prep and activities ~ really, ending the semester before Christmas has stolen all the joy and fun of this time of year ~ just prohibit assignments over winter break and have finals end of January please! This is too stressful and ruins what should be the happiest time of the year
I completely agree with you, Kids first! The old schedule was better for so many reasons – so, so saddened by the loss of family time before Christmas and stress that getting ready for finals so soon after Thanksgiving causes!! Not to mention the shortened number of weeks our family is off at the same time during the summer, having a student in the quarter system at college…bring back the old schedule!
This was a frustrating journey these past four months. The most frustrating thing for me was the lack of transparency and honest dialogue. We were told about the basic shortcomings of the budget and future projections, but little in the way of details was shared with us. Calling this a “Personalize Learning” initiative was a slap in the face…as it felt like a political marketing agency was behind the scenes crafting the messaging and positioning of the conversations. As was expressed above, the survey was anything but transparent in the way it described our options…as only those who attended the meetings had any sense for what was really at risk. I’m glad to hear that some of the more impactful initiatives have been pulled off the table…but we’ll be left with a plan that will still cause stress and angst for some/many. The BOD and Superintendent brought it on themselves, in terms of community frustration. All we asked for was open and transparent communications and much of what we got was carefully crafted messaging that was intended to slow down & derail the momentum of angst in the community. I am proud of the parents, kids and teachers who took the time to participate and speak up. This is our community and if we actively participate in the process, we’ll be better off in the end.
We are focusing on advancing the high IQ kids at the expense of the greater good. We are moving away from practical knowledge like how do I open a checking account, what does an interest on a credit card mean to me, what is a credit score or how do I get a loan and what it means if I do not pay it…. to offering high math classes etc. Not every kid is going to be a computer programmer or a scientist.
It is important all our kids understand world geography, especially here where our neighbors are from anywhere around the world and we the United States continue to influence the entire world.
Health classes with an emphasis on mental health, stress management, healthy diet, how drugs effect your brain etc. are usefull for every single student and should take priority over AP classes and silly electives who effect only a select group od students. We have two Community Colleges near by for the students who seek to advance in a specific subject have an opportunity to take those classes.
With the increasing crisis of teen mental health this should be a priority for the board.
Afterall isn’t the school board there to protect our kids?
I’m been increasingly disappointed by the proposals that have been rolled out over the past months. While I understand there’s an underlying budget issue most of the ideas presented by the district so far seem like they will ultimately roll back the caliber of the educational experience available to our students while not providing the type of savings necessary.
We’ll continue to attend meetings voice or opinions and concerns but I’m sure we’re not the only family considering making changes, be it a move or private school, should some of these ideas be implemented.
The school year calendar was changed to put finals before Xmas eliminating them after Christmas. One of the reasons was to eliminate stress for the students and perhaps the parents.
Points:
1. The finals were never immediately right after Christmas vacation. They were at least one if not two weeks after.
2. Eliminate stress in our students? We should be teaching them how to deal with stress with regard to education. The ones going on to college will find that college is usually more stressful. Stress is part of life. Ask any single parent.
3. How the new calendar has created more stress as described by the comments above was easily predicted.
I’m currently a 4th year industrial engineer at cal poly san luis obispo. I was born and raised in Danville. I attended San Ramon Valley Highschool (I had an awesome experience there) and graduated in 2014. My parents recently mentioned this discussion to me, and I have some personal notes. Though I am personally an engineer, most of my friends from highschool are not. We recently had a conversation, while we were on thanksgiving break, that was (and is) very relevant to the issue of the kinds of skills we should be learning in highschool to minimize stress in our lives.
What started off as a joke about how unprepared we are for adult life, quickly became a discussion between all of us. We all graduated high school in 2014, and most of us are getting ready to join the workforce and truly “grow up”. What we all realized was the incredibly large gap between the skills we were taught in highschool, and the skills that are relevant to every day life in the vastly complex world we live in today. Hardly any of us understand how paying taxes works, what credit really means, how to properly manage our time, how to find jobs, basic civic duties (we effectively learn almost no civics besides gov courses that only outline political structures in america, but dont actually teach us about how government policies and laws impact our daily lives, which to us is VERY relevant), meal planning (and household tasks in general), how savings impact our lives in the long term and how to effectively budget.
I heard that someone is considering making world geography an elective. Are you kidding me?? Thats one of the few classes that was actually practical for understanding the world and how we fit into it.
It’s embarassing to admit that even as a 4th year engineer some of these concepts are still hard for me to fully understand, and I end up having to go to my parents to learn about these things. Fortunately I have great parents…..Not every kid does, and are the expected to just “figure out” how to be a functional adult. We laughed about how irrelevant so many of our courses were to real life. I’m among the few of my friends that has ever used precalculus (and calc) on a regular basis, the amount of time we spent on the particularities of grammar, and I as much as I hate to admit it [because I personally loved (and still do) these subjects] physics, chemistry, and biology are essentially useless to most of my friends.
*NOTE we havent been taught these skills in college either. As the Cal Poly motto goes, any of these skills we’ve acquired have been on a “learn by doing” basis
So to conclude, many of the subjects that I personally value were (and are) essentially useless to my friends, and almost all of us (myself included) still lack full understanding of what our responsibilities are as an american citizen.
Please push for teaching us practical skills. Talking about when to have break to reduce stress is great, but nothing is more stressful than graduating high school and realizing you are almost entirely unprepared when it comes to navigating the adult world.
Thank you for reading.
– Vitek Harvey
Vitek,
I applaud you, and you are in my eyes spot on. We forget that school is suppose to get our children ready for adult life. Our children leave school and enter the world with our having skills to navigate in the real world.
I hope you don’t mind but I shared your comment with other parents in our district.
I realize the primary article/discussion thread is intended to drive feedback about the concept/evolution/development of personalized learning. However it’s disturbing to see the common themes about (lack of) life skill preparedness (bank account, writing checks, the concept of credit, etc.) in these comments.
Living in this very affluent bubble, is our commitment to accountable parenting numbed or lulled away – I don’t know – because even that can be bought? Or we have lost sight of the irreplaceable value of parenting because instead the important goal of the day is getting our kid to the five extracurriculars after school?
I seriously cannot imagine not (regularly) having these financial (and other real life skills) discussions with my child. While some sort of supportive learning in school is a nice-to-have, I’m crystal-clear that delivering life-skill preparedness is my job as a parent. We both work full-time, like many parents – and we don’t claim to be doing it right all the time – but we will never be mistaken about whose job it is to raise our child.
We need to ask ourselves – if instead of a discussion about personalized learning, what we might hear from the school district on the topic of parent engagement.
12/19/2017
Dear San Ramon Valley Unified Staff and Parents/Guardians,
For the past several months, the District has been exploring 10 ideas centered on providing flexibility and options for middle and high school students and families, increasing overall student wellness, and ultimately improving working conditions for staff by lowering class sizes at our middle and high schools. These ideas have evolved and been refined to reflect the input and feedback we received from students, parents, staff and Board Members through multiple meetings, communications, and through the over 6,100 responses to the recent Personalized Learning survey from students, staff and parents.
At the December 12 Board Meeting, staff provided an update on the ideas, and the Board of Education provided direction to staff on the following:
The District will maintain the 7th period option for grades 9 – 12 and use the 2018-2019 school year to examine the implementation of the other ideas and their impact on class sizes.
No changes will be made to the middle school world language program for 2018-2019. The District will engage world language teachers in further conversation on this idea over the coming school year.
The Board also provided direction for staff to move forward with implementing the following ideas for the 2018-2019 school year:
Allow middle and high schools to choose, on a site-by-site basis, whether or not they want to implement flexible start and end times. Site administrators have already been surveying their communities and will be communicating directly with their communities in the coming months about the decision-making process.
Maintain the School Loop daily emails. However, beginning next school year, parents will have to opt-in to choose to receive these daily emails. The current default is that parents have to opt-out. Parents will maintain full access to School Loop via the Internet and the School Loop app.
Give middle school students the option of taking 6 or 7 classes. No student would have to reduce the number of classes from 7 unless they choose to do so.
Provide flexible PE credits for Independent Study Physical Education, Marching Band PE and Athletic PE.
Provide credit towards graduation for completion of accredited online courses, off-campus courses and summer courses. These credits will be included on official SRVUSD transcripts.
Offer free SRVUSD high school summer school courses for advancement and remediation for credit.
Expand the Heritage School Program to include credit towards graduation for languages that are not currently taught at SRVUSD schools.
Provide credit towards graduation for internships on official SRVUSD transcripts.
Based on the Board’s direction, SRVUSD staff will continue to refine the ideas regarding graduation requirements and bring a recommendation back to the Board at a later date.
We would like to thank all students, parents and staff for your participation in these discussions and for your thoughtful feedback. A snapshot of the survey results and the full survey results are posted on the Personalized Learning webpage. As we finalize these ideas, we will be sharing more information with our staff and parent community.
Sincerely,
Elizabeth Graswich
Director of Communications & Community Relations