A team from every pre-k through 8th grade school site  gathered to attend a Positive Behavioral Interventions and Supports (PBIS) training and facilitated work session on January 30th.  The training, led by School Psychologists Catherine Bartz and Hannah Acevedo, opened with an engaging 9-minute video of students, teachers, and staff in our schools talking about how positive behavioral supports are working to improve student engagement and reduce the need for disciplinary actions.

The aim of PBIS is to provide positive, predictable, and supportive school-wide social and academic environments for all students.

Teams were presented with a method for examining their practices in order to identify ways to better engage all student groups. Through examination of school-specific behavioral data and self-assessment, school teams developed an action plan to better meet the needs of student groups who are over-represented in discipline data.  Read the full story on our blog and learn more about these efforts in our schools.

The School Board has renewed its search for our next Superintendent. A Request for Proposals was sent to executive search firms in December, and after the review and interview of several applicants, the School Board chose to retain the services of a highly experienced firm, Ray & Associates Inc. to lead the search for Berkeley's next Superintendent.

 

At a Special Board Meeting held on Wednesday, February 6th, the Board met with the executive search team from Ray & Associates to determine the timeline for the search process. Since much work was done to develop a Leadership Profile with substantial community input during the prior search, the Board agreed to issue a survey and host a series of community meetings and forums to provide ample time for additional input into the search process for the best candidates for Berkeley's next Superintendent.  Community participation is requested to help develop the criteria and questions for the critical screening and interviewing stages of the process.

 

Several date-specific components of the process have been set including:

• Official posting of the Superintendent position on Friday, February 8.
• Board review of a draft survey at the Board Meeting on Wednesday, February 13; 
• Release of an online and paper copy of the survey Friday, February 15, closing on March 3; 
• Community forums to gather input scheduled for Feb. 28, and March 1 & 2;
• Screening and preliminary review of candidates based upon the results of community input in the first two weeks of March;  
• Interviews of semi-finalists during the week of March 25.  

Given the competitive nature of national school executive searches, the Board is committed to following this timeline to ensure the best pool of highly qualified candidates. The School Board intends to lead a transparent process with widely distributed updates and the above-mentioned opportunities for additional community input. Regular updates will run in each edition of this biweekly email newsletter and will be posted to the Superintendent Search 2013 webpage. Communications will be available in English and Spanish.  

10th Graders Take High School Exit Exam  
Ask any Berkeley High 10th grader about the CAHSEE and they will tell you that they just spent two mornings this week taking the California High School Exit Exam for the first time. Initiated by a bill that passed in Sacramento back in 1999, the primary purpose of the CAHSEE exam is to show that students are performing at grade level on content standards. (Standards describe what student should know and be able to do at each grade level.)

The Smarter Balanced Assessments Consortium is working to align state standardized assessment tools with the Common Core State Standards for the 2014-15 school year. It is not yet known what longer term impact this movement will have on the continued use of the CAHSEE.

Find out What Middle School Students and Their Parents Need To Know about the CAHSEE.

Next Superintendent's Budget Advisory Committee (SBAC) Meets March 19th  

The SBAC decided to postpone the previously scheduled meeting of the group from February 12 to March 19.

The BUSD Budget Development Calendar for 2013-14 outlines the process that will lead to the passage of our next year's district budget in June, 2013.

Superintendent's Budget Advisory Committee Meetings 5:30 pm at 1720 Oregon St.:
Tuesday, March 19th at 5:30
The SBAC meetings are open to the public, with dedicated time for public comment.

New Series of Cooking and Nutrition Classes for Parents Coming Up  
The next 5-week session of the nutrition and cooking series open to BUSD parents and guardians at Network eligible schools starts Tuesday, Feb. 19th. You can participate in hands-on nutrition activities and prepare nutritious recipes. A Kids Nutrition Club is available for kids ages 3 and up during the parent series.

Series Dates: Tues, 2/19/13 - 3/19/13,
Time: 5:30-7:30pm
Location: Willard Middle School, 2425 Stuart St. @ Telegraph Ave.

For more information or to register for a series, email familynutrition@berkeley.net or call 510-644-7722.