School board preview: Trustees to discuss student outcomes on March 3

Fields and furniture, SARC and special education, all on the March 3 agenda.|

Also on the agenda

Woodland Star’s annual report to the SVUSD board

A district technology overview

An update on the district’s new furniture order

Next steps on the artificial turf field project at SVHS

A classroom construction project planned for Sonoma Charter School

District contracts with the private schools attended by special education students

The Sonoma Valley Unified School District board of trustees will meet Tuesday, March 3 - and topics on the packed agenda range from an update on the new high school athletic fields and new classroom furniture to a technology update and Woodland Star Charter School’s formal annual review.

The two most student-outcome-centered agenda items are the 2019 state-mandated school report cards for each campus and a report by a consultant who has been tasked with figuring out how to improve outcomes among the district’s special education population.

School site report cards

For the past 30 years, state law has required that schools receiving state funding must prepare and distribute a School Accountability Report Card. The purpose of the report card is to provide parents and the community with important information about each school as well as its progress in achieving goals.

Each February, every school in California is required by state law to publish a SARC.

At its March 3 meeting, the board will discuss each campus’s school accountability report card, based on the previous school year information, and approve the reports.

These report cards can be found online at sarconline.org. This is different from the California Public School Dashboard, which is online at caschooldashboard.org. Both reports rely largely on information collected by the California Department of Education, most of which is available on DataQuest at dq.cde.ca.gov/dataquest.

The School Accountability Report Cards cover a wide array of school performance measures as well as elements of school description, demographic data, class size, family engagement and other factors.

Special education services

Sonoma Valley Unified is currently labeled by the state as needing “differentiated assistance” as a result of its low outcomes and test scores for students with disabilities, particularly with regard to four key measures: graduation rates, suspension rates, college and career readiness and academic achievement in math and English language arts. The district is working with a consultant, Judy Elliott, paid for by the Sonoma County Office of Education, to both study the problems as identified and to work on solutions. At Tuesday night’s meeting, Elliott will present on the work she has been doing and what lies ahead.

Elliott’s work is focusing on identifying practices, infrastructure and systems in SVUSD that guide special education instruction, develop recommendations, address systemic issues that are barriers to improving teaching, prioritize and amend practices that impact special education services and plan for areas that need support and improvement.

The meeting will be held at 5:30 p.m. at the school district office at 17850 Railroad Ave. It can also be viewed online on KSVY Channel 27.

Also on the agenda

Woodland Star’s annual report to the SVUSD board

A district technology overview

An update on the district’s new furniture order

Next steps on the artificial turf field project at SVHS

A classroom construction project planned for Sonoma Charter School

District contracts with the private schools attended by special education students

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