Summary: 8/26/21 SB Meeting
At last night's School Board Meeting we heard the following:
Superintendent Announcements: Dr. Duran states that (i) registration day was a success (getting 100 new students registered); (ii) APS will focus on accelerated learning, which he describes as focusing on delivering grade level material and then filling in gaps in knowledge from prior years; (iii) APS is using a tiered system of social emotional learning, with more individualized counseling at higher tiers; (iv) APS is following a layered approach to safety (including masks, vaccination of teachers, distancing, COVID testing, schoolwide notifications of positive cases); (v) every school will provide outdoor lunch. The Board and APS are encouraging families to sign up for free COVID testing.
Monitoring Item 1: Community Engagement. APS says that it will continue to offer events virtually (including town halls, back-to-school nights) both to address COVID and because it increases participation. APS is also adopting an community engagement model that tiers the level of engagement along five levels (e.g., informing, consulting, involving, collaborating, and empowering).
Monitoring Item 2: Monitoring Progress on Board priorities. The Board provided its priorities for 2021-22. They are (i) ensuring student well-being and academic progress; (ii) Advancing the 2018-24 Strategic Plan goals with focus on innovation and equity; (iii) Recruiting, hiring and investing in high-quality and diverse workforce; and (iv) improving operational efficiency. The update on Academic Progress (below) is an example of monitoring regarding one of those priorities.
Strategic Planning Projects: This year’s priorities on Strategic Plan goals include: (i) School Board Policy revisions, including revisions regarding collective bargaining and strategic plans; (ii) updating the relationship with SROs; (iii) fall boundary adjustments (affecting certain elementary, middle and High schools); (iv) the CIP (including the Career Center and moving the Arlington Community High School); and (v) FY 2023 budget. The Board believes that knowing these planning projects and the Board priorities gives the community additional opportunity and roadmap for engaging the Board.
Academic Update: Ms. Loft raced through the slides on the newly released SOL and PALS scores, and barely discussed the dramatic declines in SOL performance (discussed above). She claims that APS is doing a lot to address these issues, including providing additional professional development to teachers, using Lexia to supplement reading, creating a Math 6 strategies course, using math screeners in grades 2-8, and providing summer curriculum work. Readers of this update will appreciate that none of these items (except the Math 6 course) provides any new in-person instruction for students, and that the summer program was delivered to only half its intended audience due to the failure to plan for getting teachers. Dr. Kanninen noted that she has concerns about the Math 6 Strategies course (the only new instruction being offered by APS) because it may distract students from taking other electives, and APS does not want to see that.
