At the two-day conference in Los Angeles, participants attended workshops on effective governance in difficult times, the benefits of supporting board member mental health, budgeting for equity, crisis communications and community engagement. Attendees were also treated to three keynote sessions, including one devoted to hazard preparedness, which I had the pleasure of moderating. I was joined on the panel by Mark Ghilarducci, director of California’s Office of Emergency Services and previously a cabinet member and secretary of the California Emergency Management Agency. Mark serves as Gov. Gavin Newsom’s homeland security advisor and oversees statewide public safety, emergency management, emergency communications counter-terrorism efforts and the state’s threat assessment system.

Addressing disruptive behavior at board meetings and beyond

chool and county board members have experienced a sudden surge in interest in their meetings during the pandemic. Issues that have brought parents, students, hellraisers and members of the general public to the board room, many Zooming in from around the state and the nation, resulted in board presidents having to brush up on their parliamentary skills and everyone taking just a little more personal time to prepare.

The pressure on governing boards and school staff to create a safe learning environment during constant uncertainty and ever-changing guidance was enormous. Most members stood up and met the challenge head-on, no matter if the changes they just made at the previous meeting had to be changed yet again, sometimes amidst a storm of unyielding protest. The fallout from this constant rate of change has affected everyone involved in the delivery of public education. It will take years for some students to recover academically and for children and young adults to recover emotionally and mentally. And for some adults who were involved with creating a safe and productive TK-12 learning environment, like the students they serve, their wounds may never heal.

Zoo Crew: Engineers Gone Wild! — the district’s Golden Bell Award-winning program — makes engineering career technical education more attractive to low-income, female and other student groups that are often reluctant to participate in high-level science, technology, engineering and math coursework.

Martha Schirn, the El Monte Union HSD grant writer responsible for securing the program’s funding, said it was specifically designed to draw in STEM-averse students.

Predicting the future of school communications

ith the chaotic events of the past two years, it might seem impossible to try to predict what might happen in schools the next two years. However, that’s just what districts across the country are trying to do.

There were three key takeaways in the 1,316 responses that can provide insight into trends that are likely to affect most districts in the near future.

he Mariposa County Unified School District, a small, single-district county located in the foothills adjacent to Yosemite National Park, recently received a Notable Achievement Award presented by the U.S. Department of Energy and Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory.

With the onset of the pandemic, it became clear to district administration that the need to ensure all facilities delivered the best air quality available for students and staff was imperative. Proper ventilation and air filtration were critical components that needed to be addressed immediately and focusing on ventilation made sense for the district. For a small, rural school district with very limited funding, the way was not always clear — it was also important to make sure that available Elementary and Secondary School Emergency Relief funding was spent wisely. District staff began to analyze the flood of information that was suddenly available; companies suggesting their equipment could solve air quality concerns suggested the purchase of air scrubbers, filters, etc.

An Affordable Place to Call

How education workforce housing can help solve staffing shortages

By Kimberly Sellery

eadlines this year in newspapers across the state have trumpeted word of a severe teacher shortage — an issue that has built for years and was exacerbated by the COVID-19 pandemic. The average yearly teacher turnover rate in California is 16.5 percent, with 8.5 percent leaving the profession and 8 percent leaving their current school for another, according to a 2018 Learning Policy Institute analysis. In one in 10 districts, however, the teacher turnover rate is 25 percent or higher.

California’s ongoing teacher shortage makes it difficult to fully support the state’s nearly 6 million public school students in obtaining optimal outcomes. When districts cannot fill a position with a qualified teacher, options include long-term substitutes or teachers with substandard credentials, leaving positions vacant, increasing class sizes or canceling courses — all of which affect student achievement negatively. Many sectors are working to alleviate this issue through initiatives such as grow-your-own programs, adjusting credentialing requirements and creating career pathways. In addition, teaching is not the only position experiencing staffing issues, which extend to many corners of the education workforce including paraprofessionals, counselors, cafeteria workers and more.