To.Acton-Agua Dulce Board of Education Superintendent Stan Halprin
From: Martin Young, Principal
Date: July 13, 2006
Ladies and Gentlemen:
Due to time constraints, the many complex issues and the numerous changes that must be made here at Vasquez High School. I am assuming the following policies will be approved by way of site-based management decisions. Vasquez High School is still undergoing many changes due to a number of limits and constraints, but the policies we are developing have been carefully thought out and discussed, and for the most part the board is well aware of them. They also reflect recommendations of the visiting WASC committee. If there are any questions I will be more than happy and anxious to meet and discuss items with the board or with the members individually.
Briefly and informally, here is what we are doing:
1. Add to our required courses. Starting with the class of 2009, this coming year's sophomores, all students will be required to take 3 years of math, including algebra and geometry, and a semester of geography. The semester of geography was put in this year. The increased math requirements should help raise our test scores, and will require no additional math sections. We are looking at raising the number of required credits to 240.
2. We are continuing our partnership with The College of the Canyons. This coming year COC classes offered include U.S. History, two semesters; civics; economics; chemistry; biology; Spanish and conversational Spanish; American sign language; psychology; music appreciation; math for elementary teachers. All courses are transferable to colleges and universities. Well over 100 students took courses this year. Our salutatorian earned 30 semester college credits while our valedictorian earned 40. These and other students have become so confident and successful they are taking classes evenings, weekends, breaks and summers. We will require our students take at least 4 classes of VHS class but encourage them to I t' e e challenging college courses. A great savings for parents and the district. A great savings for parents and the district.
3. We are always looking to be able to offer other elective classes. This year we started Ed Options, which is a credit recovery program, designed for students to retake a class they failed on-line, using our computer lab. A teacher is there to monitor, help and supervise tests. This past semester, 36 students were enrolled in a on-line class, with about 25 completing it. Those not completing the class and other students needing to make up a class are enrolled during summer school. We intend to put this program into the Success Academy in the fall. In the meantime we continue to add to our career pathways, get students into ROP classes and look towards our community for opportunities for our students to earn elective credits. This is especially important since we have one less teacher this coming year.
4. Poor attendance at VHS costs us several hundreds of thousands of dollars each year. This coming year we are going back to citing students for truancy, which can be expensive for parents; we will require class participation for grades, which means students absent for any reason may see grades lowered; consequences for unexcused absences or Saturday school will increase, and the homeroom/support period will be moved to the second period, so that students will need to be here.
5. In order to do a better job with our at-risk students, we will apply to the DOE to have SA become a continuation school. We must look for ways to improve our alternative education program, serve those students better and deliver a real curriculum. Having a less than halftime counselor is problematic, but we attempt more child-study sessions.
6. Next year we will have six department chairs: English, social studies, math, science, special education and electives. Stipend negotiations with the bargaining unit needs to take place soon. These six chairs will form, along with administration, the leadership team at Vasquez as we plan for the formal W ASe accreditation visit in two years. As per WASe recommendations, the team will review the Action Plan and develop a school-wide process for making changes. We are already creating a staff development plan that will address the critical goals of Vasquez High School.
7. We are looking to add more clubs and activities at VHS, along with stipends for the advisors. Our goals is to get as many students involved in clubs or groups as possible. Participation and belonging are very important for students.
8. Quality teachers are the backbone of our school. At this time we continue to look for and interview the best candidates we can find. Salaries and conditions hinder us in our search.
9. Discipline, while improving, still needs to be addressed. We continue to fine-tune our policies with a goal of making VHS a safe and secure school.
10. We are forming a grant writing team at Vasquez, and, coupled with the grant writer the district is bringing on board, to finds additional funds for our programs. Our very active PTSO is considering a number of fund-raising proposals involving after school programs, summer school/camps, bingo, weekend flea markets and other projects.
11. We must do a better job of public relations, especially in getting information to our local papers. Our new journalism class, which publishes a school paper, needs to be more involved. An important objective is to involve the community is establishing a common vision.
12. Recruiting of our own High Desert students is important. Things are moving in the right direction here .. S8.-far. about 82% of the 8th graders-at HD have enrolled in Vasquez, compared with 63% last year. As our program improves, so will the percent of eligible high school students enrolling in VHS. Included in this goal are plans to make the transition from junior to senior high much easier and more comfortable.
13. Changes have been made in monitoring and the
accountability of funds raised by ASB, activities and sports teams, as well as
parent groups. We will continue to follow the new established procedures.
14. Recognition of student achievement will continue with the Night of Stars, Senior Awards, the honor rolls and the Wall of Fame. We have renewed interest in the National Honor Society and the California Scholarship Federation. Publicizing our students' achievements in the media is a priority. The PTSO funds many of these awards.
15. Parent contacts and other communications are vital to the partnership between home and school. Besides monitoring required communications, we have a monthly newsletter/paper going home, and we now have the Honeywell system of automated phone calls, operational. Computer access by parents of the Aries system is in the near future.
16. Another way to improve our test scores is to require summer reading assignments for all students, and projects for students in AP and honor classes in other subjects. We are also going to require real reading and writing across the curriculum.
17. This year were received over 100 computers
from the College of the Canyons. Another goal is to add to the quantity
and quality of our computers here at Vasquez, as well as other technology.
18. This year, for the first time in a while, we held an articulation
meeting with the staff of High Desert. We will continue these meetings, making
them meaningful, as per recommendation of WASC.
19. We are upping the ante on homework. We will insist meaningful homework be assigned, collected, graded, returned and discussed. There will be consequences for failure to turn in homework and other assignments.
20. We will insist teachers teach standards and to the standards. Accountability will be the key word here. Lesson plans and course outlines/syllabi will be monitored.