School board to hear update on stadium renovation project

(Originally published in the 3/1/16 edition)

   The Governing Board of the Benicia Unified School District will listen to a status update on Benicia High School’s new stadium at Thursday’s meeting.

   The stadium is one of the largest projects to be financed through Measure S, an initiative approved by Benicia voters in 2014 to provide $49.6 million in bond funding to be spent on facilities at district schools. 

   The renovated athletic facility will still be used primarily for football and soccer as well as track and field, pole vaulting and discus throwing. It will also retain the existing scoreboard, but it will have a new 8-lane all-weather track, upgraded lighting, bleachers that would fit up to 3,300 people and a redesigned entryway. 

   The project is awaiting approval from the Division of State Architecture. If approved, construction will begin when summer break starts in June and is projected to be completed in October. 

   Bond Director Roxanne Egan will give a presentation on where the status of the project lies at this point in time. According to a report by Egan, the district is still looking for contractors.

   “The district’s standard practice when constructing school buildings is to use the traditional low bid process which allows any licensed contractor to bid on the work,” she wrote. “However, there are other legal methods of construction delivery that sometimes are a better fit.”

   Egan cited a “lease leaseback” method, which authorizes a district to lease a school site to a contractor for a nominal amount. After the contractor builds the project, it leases it back to the district for 40 years, at which point ownership returns to the district. This process is done without competitive bidding. 

   “The stadium project involves multiple complex construction challenges which must be completed on a tight schedule,” Egan wrote. “The lease leaseback method will allow the district to select from a list of preferred contractors who have previously performed similar stadium projects for public school districts.” 

   Egan also noted that staff is working with legal counsel to make sure all construction documents meet legal requirements. 

   In other business, the board will consider the criteria for determining the order of seniority for employees who have the same date when they began working in the district. Chief Business Official Tim Rahill will also be reviewing the 2015/16 Second Interim Financial Report.

   The board will meet at 7 p.m., Thursday, in the Benicia Unified School District Board Room at the district building on 350 East K Street. There will be an earlier closed session at 6 p.m.

School board discusses next year's enrollment at Thursday's meeting

(Originally published in the 2/21/16 edition)

   Tim Rahill, the chief business official of Benicia Unified School District, delivered a report on enrollment projections for the 2016-2017 school year at a shortened school board meeting Thursday.

   Rahill noted that kindergarten and transitional kindergarten enrollment numbers are slated to be about the same as the previous year. Meanwhile, the district’s four elementary schools are projected to have slightly fewer students.

   “What you can see in the handout is that when we roll the grade levels into next year, we might be experiencing a decline in enrollment at the elementary schools by about 56 students,” Rahill said. “That’s basically due to the fact of a fifth grade exiting out to the middle school, and a smaller TK (and) K coming in.”

   Additionally, Rahill said that Benicia Middle School is likely to see a decrease in enrollment by 56 students, but this is par for the course. 

   “Historically, what happens at the middle school level is that we get students that enroll primarily from other private schools that come into the public school system,” he said. “We experience that, and it’s pretty flat. We’ve experienced that for the last seven years, so we’re not really anticipating a decline in enrollment at the middle school.”

   At the high school level, Rahill said the district is expecting a slight increase in students at both Benicia High School and Liberty High School by 33. 

   Rahill said the district is primarily focused on the elementary school enrollments.

   “Know that the office managers and the principals are working hard to do community outreach to get folks to enroll as soon as possible,” he said. “If that decline in enrollment sticks, we’ll be talking to the principals about potential adjusting to the staffing that we provide for less students.”

   In terms of staffing projections, Deputy Superintendent Michael Gardner pointed out that the district has experienced double the amount of retirements at the elementary schools as well as several resignations. 

   “We don’t anticipate any kinds of notices for any layoffs this year,” Gardener said. “We will be able to cover them with attrition.” 

   President Gary Wing asked what the dates were for students being accepted into transitional kindergarten and if students with slightly later birthdays would qualify. The dates are from Sept. 2 to Dec. 2, and Assistant Superintendent Marie Morgan said the district does not open transitional kindergarten up to all students.

   “There are a couple of exceptions, depending upon educational circumstances in terms of assessments or special circumstances for students,” she said. 

   Transitional kindergarten is an optional program for students who have their fifth birthday between September and December and can be taken in place of regular kindergarten. Trustee Stacy Holguin asked how much longer the district would be offering transitional kindergarten. Rahill responded by saying the state provides funding for transitional kindergarten, and BUSD would continue to offer it to families who choose to take part.

   “At this point in time, they’re not required to enroll, but if they want to we will provide TK,” he said.

   In other business, the board approved the first reading of several board policies, including the development of protocols to ensure that students are placed into an appropriate math class and not one they have already taken and a new law that prohibits districts from discriminating against a person requesting accommodations for disability or religious beliefs. 

   The board convened early to attend Benicia High’s open house night. The board will be holding a special board meeting study session at 6 p.m., Thursday, Feb. 25. The next regular board meeting will be Thursday, March 3 at its regular start time of 7 p.m. in the Benicia Unified School District Board Room at the district building on 350 East K Street.

   

WASC updates on school board agenda tonight

(Originally published in the 2/4/16 edition)

   The Governing Board of the Benicia Unified School District will hear reports from Liberty and Benicia High School regarding Western Association of Schools and Colleges visits at tonight’s meeting.

   WASC is an academic organization responsible for the accreditation of K-12 schools and public and private universities. If a school is accredited, it meets the standards of academic excellence and validates the school’s integrity.

   “Accreditation is integral to a school’s perpetual cycle of assessment, planning, implementation, monitoring and reassessment based upon student achievement,” WASC’s website states. “It fosters excellence in elementary, secondary, adult and postsecondary education by encouraging school improvement through a process of continuing evaluation and to recognize, by accreditation, schools that meet an acceptable level of quality in accordance with established criteria.”

   Assistant Superintendent Marie Morgan will be leading the discussion on the progress of both schools’ reports. Liberty completed its accreditation earlier in the year, and Benicia High is currently in the middle of its cycle. 

   JoAnn Severson, the principal of Liberty High, will be sharing the final written report including the recommendations the school received by WASC representatives. Liberty staff were pleased to learn the school will be accredited through 2019, and it met the one to one computing standard with three new Chromebook carts for students. Staff was also commended for providing a “positive, caring, peaceful family atmosphere” and a “true alternative educational setting,” according to a Power Point presentation put together by Severson. The principal will also be spotlighting a grant the school received from Solano County Association of Realtors which will be used to create a vocal group made up of 18 to 20 female Liberty students. 

   Additionally, there will be a Power Point on Benicia High’s mid-cycle visit report. The report will include new community profile information and demographic data as well as implications of that data, address significant changes and developments, describe ongoing school improvement and progress on critical areas for follow-up and go over how the current action plan has evolved from the previous action plan as well as what work still needs to be done. 

   Benicia High will be hosting a WASC accreditation team on Monday, March 7 and Tuesday, March 8 as a follow-up to the school’s 2013 visit from WASC. The WASC committee will be co-coordinated by social science teachers Stacy Starkweather and Sadie O’Neill, who have administered staff focus groups in being able to disaggregate data and collect evidence to support site goals and action items. 

   In other business, Bond Oversight Committee Chair Ellen Blaufarb will present the annual 2014-2015 report from the Bond Oversight Committee, and Deputy Superintendent Dr. Michael Gardner will be highlighting teachers of the year and classified personnel of the year from across the district.

   The board will meet at 7 p.m. tonight in the Benicia Unified School District Board Room at the district building on 350 East K Street. There will be an earlier closed session at 5:30 p.m.

   

Benicia Unified School District to consider computer science program at Thursday's board meeting

(Originally published in the 1/19/16 edition)

   The Governing Board of the Benicia Unified School District will consider the approval of a computer science education program agreement at Thursday’s meeting.

   Code.org, a Seattle-based nonprofit organization that encourages computer science education for K-12 students, has entered an agreement with several school districts nationwide to support expanding access to computer science programs to students. Under the agreement, Benicia Unified would have access to Code.org’s curriculum and updates as well as professional development and program support.

   The program would offer a variety of courses for K-12 students. Elementary school students would learn computer science fundamentals, middle schoolers would be able to take computer science in algebra and computer science in science, and high schoolers would be offered introductory computer science and computer science principles. 

   To participate in the program, the district would have to submit an application form, which can be found at code.org/educate/districts. The application would evaluate the district for participation eligibility and serve as a needs assessment. 

   The program would also determine which teachers are eligible to participate. The agreement notes that code.org has the right to deny teachers from participation. For example, if a teacher who has never taught science and will not be teaching science courses in the coming year, his or her application will not be accepted. A teacher’s hourly stipend rate for participating is $24.37. However, educators will only receive stipends for the hours they participate in professional development. The hours of professional development for eligible teachers are three phases for 55 hours for computer science in algebra and science, including 35 hours in person and 20 online. For introductory computer science and computer science principles teachers, the total number of hours is 94 for four phases, including 72 in person and 22 online.

   For more information, visit code.org/educate/professional-development. 

   In other items, Chief Business Official Tim Rahill will deliver a report on the Measure S bond’s status as well as an update, and Assistant Superintendent Marie Morgan will give an update on the Local Control Accountability Plan, which was approved by the Solano County Office of Education in June.

   The board will meet at 7 p.m. Thursday, Jan. 21 in the Benicia Unified School District Board Room at the district building on 350 East K Street. There will be an earlier closed session at 6 p.m.

School board hears discussion on mental health

(originally published in the 12/13/15 edition)

   The Governing Board of the Benicia Unified School District heard a discussion on the need for more counseling and mental health support in the district at a busy Thursday night meeting.

   Carolyn Patton, the district’s special services director, led the discussion through a Power Point presentation. She cited one of Superintendent Charles Young’s goals for the district, which was “to promote safe and welcoming schools, and building empathetic, responsive, student-centered networks of support.” She then mentioned two practices that would allow schools to reach this goal: Positive Behavioral Interventions and Supports- which looks at data to see if students understand what school behavior is like- and the American School Counselor Association’s national model. 

   The data for the first practice is determined by the California Healthy Kids Survey, which has already been completed by students and is currently underway for staff and parents. 

   The American School Counselor Association’s national model looks at what direct services counselors provide to students. According to Patton, one-third of their time should be spent on core instruction, another third should be spent on helping students plan their schedules and the last third should be spent on responsive services like resolving conflicts between students and teachers. Patton will delve into this data at a later date.

   Patton also brought up the student-counselor gap at Benicia High School. The California Department of Education recommends a student-counselor ratio of 361-to-1, while ASCA recommends a ratio of 250-to-1. Benicia High has a ratio of 550-to-1, which is well above the recommended ratios. Currently, the school has three counselors plus a career counselor and administrative assistant to serve the needs of around 1,700 students.

   “We would need more counselors at the high school to beat that ratio,” Patton said.

   On a more positive note, Patton noted that Mental Health Coordinator Jessica Garcia has been able to implement a number of services, including weekly meeting with Benicia High and Benicia Middle School’s counselors and psychologists, a mentoring program at Benicia Middle, a Stress Less Week to take place before Benicia High’s finals week and a suicide prevention handbook as well as suicide awareness training. 

   Patton says the district wants to implement the Sources of Strength suicide prevention program to train staff involved with the Safe School Ambassadors program. it also is looking to enact a social emotional learning curriculum that deals with how to handle stress and depression.

   “We do not teach this on a regular basis,” Patton said. “We introduce it a little bit in the middle school, and we hit suicide prevention and some emotional development in ninth-grade health, but it’s not taught systematically. We’ve heard from parents, students and staff that we need to be more diligent about that.” 

   Additionally, a “Stress Less Holidays for Families” event will be held 7 p.m., Tuesday, Dec. 15 at Benicia Middle School. Mental wellness experts and psychologists will be on hand to talk about the causes of stress and provide tips on how to overcome it.

   Patton called upon the community to continue to provide feedback.

   “I want to thank the board for holding us accountable on helping us to get a suicide prevention policy,” she said. “I want to ask you to continue to hold us accountable and look at that second goal and help us to work towards that.” 

   Trustee Andre Stewart highlighted the need for specificity in the plan.

   “I would ask that we do consider putting target dates into when we’re going to archive these goals,” he said. 

   Stewart also asked if there was a number as to how many students were helped by counselors. Patton said the tracking form indicated how many cases were closed and which students and how many students were referred on to other services. 

   Additionally, Stewart also underlined the importance of the high school bringing in more counselors.

   “I hope that we really are more aggressive in 2016 in hiring more counselors,” he said.

   A public comment was given by Barbara Gervase, the mother of Kyle Hyland, a Benicia High student who died by suicide last year. Gervase thanked Patton for presenting her plans but agreed with Stewart that specific dates were needed.

   “We all hope for the best, but we really need a thorough, laid-out plan so we can reach those targets and make sure that the board knows what needs to be funded,” she said. 

   After her son’s death, Gervase set up the Kyle Hyland Foundation with the goal of raising awareness of suicide rates among teens. The foundation has been working to establish a teen center in Benicia with activities geared toward teenagers and counselors and mentors to provide support. Patton announced at the meeting that a space has been found for the center. According to the foundation’s Facebook page, the center will be operating within the Gateway Church, located at 1315 Military West, just down the street from Benicia High. An open house is planned for January.

   In other business, the board re-elected Gary Wing as president and elected Diane Ferrucci to fill late Trustee Rosie Switzer’s role as clerk. The board also observed a moment of silence for Switzer after short speeches by each trustee, and it determined that an appointment would be made by Jan. 28 to fill the vacancy on the board. 

  

School board to determine vacancy process at Thursday's meeting

(Originally published in the 12/9/15 edition)

   The school board will determine which process will be used to fill the vacancy left by late Trustee Rosie Switzer at Thursday’s meeting.

   Switzer, who passed away Nov. 29, had been serving the Benicia Unified School District’s Governing Board for 10 years. Per Education Code 5090-5095, the board has a variety of options to fill her seat by Jan. 29, 60 days after the vacancy. The board will discuss all possibilities.

   The first option is for the board to make a provisional appointment. A person would be chosen to fill a one-year term until the next school board election on Nov. 8. The winner of the November election would hold office until Dec. 7 2018, which would have been the last day of Switzer’s term.

   The second option is for the board to order a special election prior to the Nov. 8 general election. The elections could fall on either April 12 or June 7. For a special election to be held on June 7, the board would have to order the election by January 28. Once again, the winner would serve the remainder of Switzer’s term. However, the board would have to function with four members until the special election, and the cost would be more than $264,000.

   Finally, the board can decide not to make an appointment or call for an election. Under this scenario, if the board fails to perform either of the options by Jan. 29, County Superintendent Jay Speck would call an election to fill the position and place it on the ballot for the general election in November. The winner would fill the rest of Switzer’s term, and the board would operate with four members until the general election.

   In other business, the board will consider and approve California Basic Education Skills Test waivers for 30-day substitute teachers and Special Services Director Carolyn Patton will lead a discussion on counseling and mental health support. 

   The board will meet at 7:15 p.m. Thursday, Dec. 10 in the Benicia Unified School District Board Room at the district building on 350 East K Street. There will be an earlier closed session at 5 p.m. and a board workshop at 5:15 p.m.

BUSD Board Member Rosie Switzer dies

(Originally published in the 12/1/15 edition)

   Rosie Switzer, a longtime Benicia educator and school board member, died Sunday afternoon. 

   Dubbed “a tireless champion for students” by Superintendent Charles Young in a statement, Switzer had been serving the Benicia Unified School District for 46 years. In 1969, she and her husband Alan moved to Benicia where they both had long careers as teachers. Alan taught math, physics and computer science at Benicia High School until his retirement in 2004, and Rosie became an elementary school teacher. She taught at Mills Elementary from 1969 to 1977, Robert Semple Elementary from 1978 to 1987 and Joe Henderson Elementary from 1987 until her retirement from teaching in 2004.

   Switzer remained involved with the district when she was elected to the school board in 2005. She was re-elected in 2009 and 2014, serving as president for much of her time on the board. 

   "When I started as the new superintendent, I met with the board members. Rosie said she wanted to be on the school board to give back to the district that had given her so much in her career," Young said.

   "Rosie really touched a lot of people's lives in positive ways," Young told The Herald. "It's endearing to see the work she did."

   The board will observe a moment of silence for Switzer at the Dec. 10 board meeting.