 | | Featured Article | | SMCOE Forms Gender Diversity Task Force to provide support to school staffs. |
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Big Lift Launches Inspiring Summers Program and Adds New Grantee Sites
Thanks to The Big Lift, a joint $30 million social venture led by the County of San Mateo, the San Mateo County Office of Education (SMCOE) and the Silicon Valley Community Foundation, more than 800 low-income children in San Mateo County are benefiting from an inspiring five-week summer program this year.
The Big Lift Inspiring Summers (BLIS) program launched in June 2016 is geared toward students who wouldn't ordinarily have the advantage of an enriching summer and includes a free full-day summer learning program with a literacy focus and fun enrichment component. Students are also offered breakfast, lunch and snacks. In its first year, the program is offered to entering kindergarten and first-graders, and the plan is to expand over the next two years to also include entering second and third-graders.
The Big Lift's  overarching goal is to assure that students can read by third grade through combining high-quality and connected learning experiences from preschool to third grade, with a focus on providing high-quality preschool, reducing chronic absence and summer learning loss, and engaging families and the broader community to support learning in school and at home.
"The idea behind the summer learning program is to maintain continuity from preschool through elementary school and to prevent what's known as 'the summer slide' or summer learning loss," says Diana Harlick, Coordinator, Early Learning Quality Improvement Initiatives at SMCOE.
The program is a combined effort of BELL, the San Mateo County Library and the Bay Area Discovery Museum. BELL, a national evidence-based summer learning program, provides the morning portion of the day focusing on literacy instruction with fun, developmentally appropriate activities. The San Mateo County Library in partnership with the Bay Area Discovery Museum provides afternoon enrichment activities, including STEM focused projects, field trips and yoga.
The program is offered at six school sites this summer: El Granada Elementary in the Cabrillo Unified School District; Thomas Edison Elementary and John F. Kennedy Elementary in the Jefferson Elementary District; Pescadero Elementary in the La Honda-Pescadero Unified District; and Martin Elementary and Spruce Elementary in the South San Francisco Unified District.
The Big Lift will host an informative celebration of the BLIS program on July 11, 2016 from 8:30 a.m. to 10:00 a.m. at Thomas Edison Elementary School in Daly City. Attendees will enjoy an informal breakfast with BLIS kids and their families, a quick overview of the program, and some drop-in classroom visits.
Grantees Added to Big Lift
In 2015, The Big Lift launched with four communities, impacting 900 kids, and adding or enhancing quality preschool programs. Three more communities have recently been added and will begin services in Fall 2016.
The three new communities include multiple partner agencies working with school districts. Ravenswood School District is partnering with One East Palo Alto and the City of Menlo Park; Redwood City School District's co-lead partner is Redwood City 2020; and San Bruno Park School District's partner is to be determined. Additionally, the Institute for Human and Social Development is a preschool partner in both Ravenswood and Redwood City.
A total of 1,028 preschool spaces are being funded in the three new communities, with 16 of these being brand new spaces, and 1,012 existing spaces whose quality is being enhanced. As Big Lift preschool children transition to elementary school, they will become eligible for continued Big Lift supports such as the BLIS program.
Each community has a local collaborative that engages the community. "The most exciting work is happening through the community collaborative," says Jean-Marie Houston, Director, Early Learning Support Services at SMCOE. "It's the collective impact part of The Big Lift and it's very dynamic and rewarding work."
"We would like to add even more new preschool spaces but finding or adding facilities is an enormous barrier," adds Houston.
Major funding for The Big Lift is provided by the Social Innovation Fund and the County of San Mateo.
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Gender Diversity Task Force Provides Support for School Districts
On May 25, 2016, Superintendent Anne Campbell brought together a small group of staff from the San Mateo County Office of Education (SMCOE), school district staff and community partners to form a task force to address how to support the needs of LGBTQ students in San Mateo County schools. Little did she know at that moment how timely such an initiative would be. Less than a month later, 49 members of the Orlando LGBTQ community were targeted and killed at a gay night club in Orlando, Fla., in the deadliest mass shooting in the United States and the nation's worst terror attack since 9/11.
Included at that first meeting were Associate Superintendent Nancy Magee; Safe and Supportive Schools Director Jeneé Littrell; Safe Routes to Schools Coordinator Theresa Vallez-Kelly; Anthony Ross, Director of Outlet, a program of Adolescent Counseling Services; Justin Watkins, Community Health Planner for San Mateo County, and school wellness coordinators from several school districts. The discussion centered on the needs of LGBTQ students, who may experience bullying, depression, suicidal tendencies, poor academic outcomes, and feeling disconnected from school. Schools are not always adequately equipped with the skills and resources needed to support LGBTQ students and so have asked for additional resources and training. Because some students are identifying as LGBTQ in middle and elementary school, school staff want to be sure they know how to support younger LGBTQ students and their families. The task force decided to focus on the goal of making all schools safe and welcoming for all students, but especially LGBTQ youth. To meet this goal they will assist school districts in complying with applicable federal and state laws and California Education Code, having supportive school policies in place, and meeting all legal requirements. They plan to provide trainings for school staff and parents, help implement relevant curriculum, and reach out to other agencies and school districts who are further advanced in this work to get ideas and learn best practices. Lack of data was voiced as another concern. Suggestions on ways to collect data on LGBTQ students and their needs included the creation of a student survey or incorporation of a module in the California Healthy Kids Survey as well as convening student focus groups. The group met again on June 16, 2016 at SMCOE, this time bringing in additional participants from around the county. More than 30 school personnel and community partners attended this meeting facilitated by Marco Chávez and Rona Jawetz of SMCOE. The group discussed their hopes for the outcomes of the task force--no more suicidal ideation for LGBTQ students, a more positive learning environment for all students and no more Orlandos. Additionally they expressed concerns that there would not be enough time or resources to adequately address the issue. The task force worked on short-, mid- and long-term goals for the work going forward. "We had thoughtful conversations about the importance of the work and the scope of the need, and we all agreed that SMCOE should continue to provide leadership in this area going forward," notes Jeneé Littrell, Director, Safe and Supportive Schools at SMCOE.
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CA Labor Management Initiative
Fosters Communication
Better communication between labor and management at the San Mateo County Office of Education (SMCOE) has been the focus of a multi-year initiative that began last fall. Representatives from labor unions and management have attended regional symposiums sponsored by the California Labor Management Initiative (CA LMI), held monthly meetings and participated on projects together, all with the goal of communicating more openly and more frequently, and addressing issues before they become larger problems.
These efforts began thanks to the California Labor Management Initiative (CA LMI), a
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| | SMCOE staff volunteered at the Palos Verdes School spring fair, as part of the California Labor Management Initiative bringing management and labor together collaboratively. |
partnership between the California Department of Education (CDE) and the Association of California School Administrators (ACSA), California County Superintendents Educational Services Agency (CCSESA), California Federation of Teachers (CFT), California School Boards Association (CSBA), California School Employees Association (CSEA), and the California Teachers Association (CTA), coordinated by the Californians Dedicated to Education Foundation (CDEF). The goals of this statewide initiative are to: build the collective knowledge base for supporting local labor-management collaborations in California; build capacity and resources at the state, regional, and local levels to support local labor-management collaborations; facilitate learning and sharing of promising labor-management practices among local labor-management teams; and improve a wide range of educational outcomes. In May a team from SMCOE including Superintendent Anne Campbell; Franklin Felizardo, Administrator, Personnel Commission Services; Associate Superintendents Sue Wieser and Nancy Magee; Roger Wroblewski, SMCEA; and Robert Fuertes, CSEA; attended a regional convening in Milpitas. There they participated in communication skill-building exercises, a coaching session on how to communicate changes within your organization, and benefited from conversations with peers from other neighboring counties and school districts. "It was very exciting and invigorating to hear ideas on what we can do to prepare for change. We need to be thoughtful in communication and in our delivery." notes Felizardo. "We were given tools--what phrases to use to change the tenor of heated conversations and help ease tensions. It was also great to communicate with fellow SMCOE colleagues outside of our normal business setting. We had real conversations and we all laughed. It has given us a different relational piece and adds to our effectiveness." "For teachers, we often focus on our students and don't think about what goes on in the central office," says Dan Deasy, SMCEA Past President. "Coming together enhances communication and anytime we have better communication our students benefit." To continue the work begun at the regional symposiums, labor and management teams at SMCOE now meet monthly and focus on specific issues. Teams have also worked together on projects such as the spring fair at Palos Verdes School, a SMCOE Special Day Class site, and Read Across America. "We really can't make broader changes in education unless we work together and our unions are an important part. When we communicate frequently outside of negotiations and work together on projects, it allows us to act collaboratively. In the end it's really about our kids and improving outcomes, and building that capacity to do the work on both the management and labor sides," adds Wieser.
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SMCOE Engages Stakeholders in LCAP
As in school districts throughout San Mateo County, staff at the San Mateo County Office of Education (SMCOE) has been hard at work refining the annual Local Control Accountability Plan (LCAP).
The SMCOE LCAP must meet the eight state priorities just like local school districts, but the County Office LCAPs must also address two additional goals: coordinating services for youth in the foster system and youth who have been expelled. Another unique aspect of SMCOE's LCAP is that the court and community schools program primarily serves high-needs students--foster youth, incarcerated youth, students on probation, and students who have been expelled. Although l  ast year's plan featured six broad and far-reaching goals, the 2016-17 LCAP team, which included administrators from Student Services, Instructional Services, and Business Services, narrowed the focus down to three goals. Goal one prioritizes high-quality teaching and learning that leads students to earn a high school diploma and helps them transition successfully to college and career. Goal two ensures that all students and families are meaningfully engaged in the educational process. The stated actions provide students with supports and trauma-informed care, and parents with increased opportunities for school involvement. Goal three is for SMCOE to coordinate services for students who are expelled or qualify as foster youth to ensure their outcomes mirror those of the general student population. The Student Services team intentionally worked to align numerous other plans with the LCAP, including the WASC accreditation and Single Plan for Student Achievement (SPSA). An important part of the LCAP process is stakeholder engagement. At numerous meetings throughout the year a variety of staff members, students and community representatives provided input. Stakeholders included court and community school staff, the Court and Community Schools Advisory Committee, the SMCOE data and Business Services teams, English language learner (ELL) services; judges, probation, juvenile justice system, parents, and students. Associate Superintendent Nancy Magee and her team made a concerted effort to include the student voice. Focus groups were held at Hillcrest, Camp Glenwood, Camp Kemp, Gateway and Canyon Oaks, and students were also present at some community meetings. Parents were also engaged through facilitated conversations at family nights. "We had amazing feedback from students," says Magee. "They told us they really appreciate the social and emotional support in our program but they asked us to push them in a more rigorous way academically." One of the challenges for SMCOE in crafting the LCAP is that students coming into court and community schools don't stay for a defined length of time. Some stay for a month or two where others might be in the program for a year. And the aim is always to get these students back to their home districts, so desired outcomes must be framed with these conditions in mind. "It's been a very intense and involved process. You really have to think through what you are doing and why in crafting this plan," notes Deputy Superintendent Denise Porterfield.
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SMCOE Maps Out Plan for Future
OF Environmental Education
After an inspiring day of brainstorming and employing the design thinking process in February at the San Mateo County Office of Education (SMCOE), a team of educators at SMCOE is beginning to map out the future of environmental education.
Led by Maureen Carroll of Lime Design, SMCOE has been involved in design thinking training for the past year. The design thinking process, initiated through the d.school Institute of Design at Stanford, engages creativity and imagination to design solutions for real-world problems.
Employing this process, teachers, students, principals, superintendents, school board members, scientists and environmentalists from around the county met in February and produced more than 20 prototypes of what a countywide environmental education
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| | | Participants at the SMCOE Environmental Design Challenge created prototypes of what an environmental education initiative might look like. | |
initiative might look like. Using pipe cleaners, paper clips, construction paper and found objects to illustrate design solutions for teaching environmental education, the goal was to think about how SMCOE can enhance and support environmental education beyond the successful residential Outdoor Education program that the County Office operates, to connect environmental education with key principles of sustainability, technology, innovative energy and imagination in Silicon Valley.
The SMCOE design team (including Gary Waddell, Rebecca Vyduna, Bruce Duncan, Dhanya Unni, Doron Markus, Faith Marte Kroeger, Zachary Jones, and Mark Nolan) took these prototypes, as well as research on best practices in environmental education across the U.S., and began to distill the themes that emerged including: creating innovative and engaging programs for students, involving community partners, leveraging technology in powerful ways, making the education hands-on and fun for kids, focusing on equity, and removing barriers for teachers, among others.
The work at SMCOE is occurring at the same time the California Department of Education issued its Blueprint for Environmental Literacy and local educators have been considering the unique geography and reality of environmental issues and sustainability in San Mateo County. "It's really quite exciting to begin to map out this work for the future," notes Deputy Superintendent Dr. Gary Waddell. "We have a strong tradition with our residential Outdoor Education program at Jones Gulch and we want to build on that cornerstone while taking a broader view of environmental education and sustainability for the future of our county."
As the design process continues to unfold, the design team will begin to prototype curriculum, materials, initiatives and experiences (both virtual and in-person) for students and test these in schools in the county in the coming year. Stay tuned!
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SMCOE News & Views Takes
A Summer Break
We're off to the beach. Look for us in your inbox at the end of August. Happy summer everyone!
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Check Us Out on Facebook
The San Mateo County Office of Education (SMCOE) now has a page on Facebook. We'll be providing frequent upd ates on SMCOE events and education news of interest, adding groups of interest, and linking to other education organizations. Check us out and "like" us today on Facebook!
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About the San Mateo County Office of Education
The San Mateo County Office of Education provides a variety of instructional, business and consulting services to the County's 23 public school districts, charter schools, the Community College District and County Office of Education staff.
Believe in Tomorrow: Think Green Today
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