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Pleasanton Unified School District’s multi-tiered system of support was a primary focus for the Board of Trustees earlier this month, a meeting that began with rejoicing progress in the pandemic and the return of in-person events.
“We’re pleased to see more and more school events returned to in-person as open house season is now upon us,” PUSD Superintendent David Haglund said at the April 14 regular meeting. “Please continue to follow the health and safety recommendations set by the local and state health departments.”
“There are currently no restrictions surrounding the end-of-the-year celebration,” he said to an applause.
The meeting’s discussions began with the MTSS that aims to strengthen the intervention and support structures, and promises to effectively improve the physical, mental and social wellness of students was unanimously passed by the trustees.
The counseling program will address early literacy, early numeracy, dyslexia, dyscalculia and dysgraphia, according to the organizers. Many trustees voiced support for the program and additional counseling training for teaching staff that could be an asset to students in need.
“We just need to move all of our teaching staff and provide them with the training and the tools so that they can teach the students that they have in front of them,” Trustee Joan Laursen said. “And then we’ll add on intervention support.”
Trustee Kelly Mokashi concurred with Laursen’s point of training teachers and said she advocated for new positions in the field.
“I’m really highlighting the point that I do hope to see some additional positions to support this area of need is so important for our students, and really building the scaffold so that we can help our students,” Mokashi said.
This was followed by a detailed report and discussion on the Elementary Counseling Master Plan, which includes two strategic goals:
Strategic Goal I — Organizational Goal 1: Leverage personalized learning strategies and growth-based assessments to increase achievement and identify opportunity gaps.
Strategic Goal II — Organizational Goal 2: Strengthen intervention and support structures to effectively improve the physical, mental and social wellness of students, families, and staff.
Trustees acknowledged the restorative efforts taken by schools to help students and free them from being caught in a negative cycle. Alternative measures such as reducing and using alternatives to suspensions helps students thrive.
Laursen said that, in addition to raw data, she would like to hear examples of success stories where students have benefitted from the program.
“(Stories) where the restorative practice worked, where the counselor reached out and worked with the family, got the students the help they needed, and here they are well adjusted and doing well in school,” she said. “Having some of those stories would be really helpful for us as a board.”
Another suggestion was a request for pre- and post-pandemic data about the number of students who benefitted from counseling programs.
“I’m thinking is there any way to collect any data since you saw like pre-pandemic versus how many students are seeing now and if there’s any kind of thing just for the future because we want to be able to have evidence to say this is what has worked. This is why we need counselors full-time,” Trustee Mary Jo Carreon said.
Another suggestion came from student representative Anmol Jain, saying that engaging peer counselors could make it easier for students to reach out for help.
“I think that there should also be some sort of a student body, students are so much more easy to connect with than working with an adult,” Jain said. “Adults can be either intimidating or just not understand what a student’s actually going through.”
Carreon concurred on the benefits of youth counseling, saying, “My children, my child (who is) in Walnut Grove benefited from a counseling group significantly, so again, thank you for your work.”
The third item of the night was to take action on designated and integrated English learner professional development and materials, contract with E.L. Achieve, which aims to improve outcomes for the emerging bilingual students through a research based instructional delivery model for designated English language development.
Trustees showed unanimous support and approval for the program and Mokashi stressed the importance of the support for those learning English.
“Talking about how this impacts every single child and especially when they’re learning English as a second language and all the struggles, we have to make sure that we are touching every single child, especially with our demographics changing significantly,” Mokashi said.
A two-year contract with the E.L was approved which will also provide professional, prominent supporting materials for designated and integrated English language development.
The last five items on the agenda were approved in quick succession which included: memorandum of understanding between the California School Employees Association, Chapter No. 155 and Pleasanton Unified School District on adult education reorganization.
Upgrading the fire alarm systems at all schools for student safety and consistency for six PUSD schools, that are divided into two groups termed packages. Package 1 includes Alisal, Mohr and Valley View elementary schools, and Package 2 features Donlon and Walnut Grove elementary schools and Harvest Park Middle School.
Once approved, the project will bring all the school sites up to the current building code standards for fire alarms.
An agreement with Benchmark Inspection for Inspection Services on Package 5 HVAC and Roofing Projects at six sites was also approved. Four of these projects are completed and a fifth is scheduled this summer. The request is asking the remaining work to be given highest priority to be completed.
The board signed off on the Garlex Pizza contract for emergency noncompetitive procurement public health emergency declaration and seeking a responsible vendor to provide pizza delivery services to 15 campuses operating the USDA Child Nutrition Programs in Pleasanton.
Lastly, finding a fruits and vegetables vendor and delivery services to five campuses operating the USDA programs in Pleasanton was approved.
