The District Board of Trustees met for its monthly meeting on Wednesday, May 7. The Board recognized bilingual resource teachers and newly reclassified students. They also received a wellness update and a presentation from counselors involved in a program led by Hatching Results consulting.
Recognition of Bilingual Resource Teachers and Newly Reclassified Students
Superintendent Crystal Leach recognized the District’s bilingual resource teachers and their support for non-native English speakers.
Afterward, the Board recognized students who had recently been reclassified as fluent in English, praising their dedication to their education both in and out of the classroom.
Wellness Update
The District’s Wellness Programs Coordinator, Stephen Emmi, and Assistant Superintendent of Student Services, Elizabeth Chacón, presented an annual update to the Board on wellness resource usage in the District. Chacón outlined the District’s four primary wellness goals: physical health, mental health, sexual health, and substance misuse.
Emmi subsequently described the successes of the past year’s three tiers of services—Tier 3 is one-on-one counseling, Tier 2 is non-regular counseling sessions, and Tier 1 encompasses a broad range of resources, ranging from wellness spaces to visits from facility dogs. Emmi highlighted the 1,772 students supported by Tier 3 resources, 4,051 by Tier 2, and 9,930 by Tier 1 this year.
Emmi and Chacón also mentioned their aspirations to further develop and encourage student reliance on the Tier 1 and 2 resources in the coming year, instead of costly Tier 3 services.
Hatching Results Presentation
Hatching Results, a company that provides professional services designed to improve school counseling, has been working with the District this past year. The company’s vice president, Whitney Triplett, and professional learning specialist, Josh Godinez, presented alongside the District’s school counselors on the results of the past year’s Hatching initiatives. Triplett highlighted the strong support for the workshops and initiatives among SUHSD counselors and celebrated their recognition at the National School Counseling Leadership Conference.
After an overview of the program’s success across the schools, counselors from M-A, Woodside, Sequoia, and TIDE presented their individual schools’ results. M-A Counselor Karina Escobar Weaver presented on behalf of the M-A school counselors and shared a new approach to set up all students for success in high school, regardless of previous academic achievement: counselors target struggling students in the early stages of their high school career and work directly with them alongside their parents and teachers to successfully pass at least two classes they were previously failing in.
She described how the counseling team focuses on educating freshmen on graduation requirements through in-class presentations, noting that many students who were put into this program managed to improve their grades.
To conclude the presentation, Triplett outlined the plans for the upcoming and final year of the District’s partnership with Hatching Results. Counselors are actively working to strengthen accountability within their programs, get more specific and representative feedback, and designate more time to support students who aren’t on track to meet graduation requirements.
The Board will convene again on May 21.
