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Pasadena Unified Debuts Ambitious, Optimistic Five-year Master Plan Draft

Plan would cover 7 areas of improvement

Published on Friday, September 9, 2016 | 4:54 am
 

Pasadena Unified School District staff presented a wide-ranging and ambitious draft report of the District’s five-year Master Plan to the Board of Education Thursday evening.

The final version of the plan, the creation of which involved nearly 100 staff and community members, and which former Pasadena School Board President Elizabeth Pomeroy labeled “quite inspiring,” is due to be finally considered for approved by the full board in December.

The meeting’s tone was set early in the evening by Derwin Brown, a senior in the International Baccalaureate program at Blair, who told the board that throughout his advanced academic career, he was the “only person of color” in each of his classes.

“We should address this,” said Superintendent Brian McDonald, adding, “This is Pasadena. we should be trendsetters.”

Meanwhile, Paul Goodwin of Goodwin Simon Strategic Research, which conducted the report’s Parent Survey, told the board, “You’re doing a lot of things right” as he presented the survey as an introduction to the plan.

According to the survey, 88% of parents are satisfied with their current school, and 75% of all parents and 81% of elementary school parents are satisfied with their elementary school choices.

Among elementary school parents, 58% of all parents and 65% of grade 4-5 parents are satisfied with their middle school choices, with 30% dissatisfied, and 55% of all parents and 65% of grade 6-8 parents satisfied with their high school choices,with 26% dissatisfied.

“These are positive ratings for things that mean a lot,” Goodwin added.

But the report also cited troubling information about the district’s performance, reporting that 73 % of parents who removed their children from PUSD schools — 43% percent of whom transferred to other districts — did so out of concern for academic performance. Board Member Scott Phelps said that in many cases, families may be moving out of the district because of the cost of housing in Pasadena.

“I know that when I visit schools, say, in Fontana,” Phelps said, “I often hear, ‘Hi Mr. Phelps,’” alluding to the fact that some former Pasadena Unified families could no longer afford to live in Pasadena and had moved inland.

Most parents surveyed also had had the same desires in terms of changes they would wish to see implemented across to Pasadena Unified School District — citing safety and student behavior, a responsiveness to parents, more college-prep academies, a welcoming environment, and smaller schools.

The 68-page plan itself, delivered by Associate Superintendent of School Services Mercy Santoro and Chief Academic Officer Shawn Bird, positioned the school district within the context of the last ten years and cited various schools as case studies for the proposed plan, and then offered an additional, more detailed “road map” of the district’s next five years.

“This is a living document, and as such, it will change,” said Bird.

The master plan encompasses seven overall areas of recommendations in the district’s environment, academics and facilities.

With regard to “Learning and Culture,” the plan proposes to “ensure that the District will provide caring, engaging and challenging experiences for every student every day in partnership with families and the community,” and “recruit and retain teachers with exceptional qualifications, sustaining them through professional development linked to teacher performance standards, student data, and community needs.

In the area of “Community,” the Plan states that the District will “provide robust support for the development and well-being of all students, at-risk or not,” and “will ensure that all its divisions collaboratively develop, align, coordinate and routinize effect practices to support the contributions of valued contributors.”

“The district will review and revise its communication mechanisms with school sites regarding such fundamental prices and as operations, maintenance and budget,” the plan promises, and “to ensure that no PUSD student lacks to a high-quality school environment, the district will assess and improve its Open-enrollment process.”

Finally, with regard to facilities, the Plan proposes that the “District will upgrade facilities to provide the spaces and technical infrastructures cable of connecting people as learners and leaders.”

Adding specifics to the Plan, the “Road Map” also lays out what the District calls the “Essential Elements” to the success of the plan in the areas of academic vigor, school safety and security, customer responsiveness, as well as equity and access.

To accomplish its goals and to create what it terms “the optimal learning environment for all children,” the Plan calls for additional staffing at each school for principal support, health clerks, and clerical support, as well as more staffing in the areas of certificated staff, such as a library coordinator, more PE, Arts, Science and computer lab teachers, resource teachers, a community assistant, more staffing for class size reduction, more high-tech equipment for classrooms and labs, as well as more recreational facilities such as gyms, fields, and play environments.

Speaking to the new technology efforts, PUSD Chief Technology Officer Tendaji Jamal said that the goal of the school’s new technology would be to create technology that was “like the pencil’ in its ease and simplicity.

The new Master Plan also highlighted the support of ongoing programs in the district, such as Mandarin and Spanish Immersion classes, there STEM and STEAM programs, along with the International Baccalaureate and the College and Career academies

Human Resources Director Kathleen Sanchez also told the board that the District will also increase Beginning Teacher Support and Assessments, and will partner with local universities, and create long-term district staffing models.

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