Engineering, computer coding, robotics and project-based learning were some of the key points outlined by Paradise Valley Elementary School principal Swati Dagar in her effort to convince Morgan Hill Unified School District’s board of education to allow a new curriculum focus at the site.
By the end of her initial presentation, which included input from two Paradise Valley teachers and a current sixth-grade student, the board was won over and voted unanimously 7-0 “to engage the school community of Paradise Valley … to design and plan an engineering focus academy for the 2016-17 school year.”
Dagar gave examples of students, former and current, expressing their deep interest in project-based learning tasks such as coding and video game design on the district’s new Google Chromebooks.
“Technology is a tool (students) need to be ready for the world, to be college and career ready,” Dagar said. “I want them to understand that Common Core is not a standard but a real life application.”
Two Paradise Valley parents spoke in support of the change. But they wanted the board and focus academy planners to consider turning the elementary school into a kindergarten through eighth grade campus, similar to two of the district’s existing focus academies at Jackson and San Martin Gwinn. A third focus academy, P.A. Walsh, remains a K-6 site.
“I think this curriculum is really important for our children to have and I already see the benefits at school,” said Terese Knapp, mother of two current PV students. “What we see in this district is a lot of success at our focus schools going K-8, so I’d just like to throw that out as food for thought for the board as you move forward with this decision.”
Another PV parent, Karen Fitch, who has recently challenged the board and district over its decisions on separate issues, also was in favor of the curriculum change.
“This is the most excited I’ve been about something new at our school since we adopted Project Cornerstone on our campus four years ago,” Fitch said. “I am urging you to vote ‘yes’ on this item, but I want one caveat: that PV turn into a K-8 focus academy.”
With the board’s approval, the PV school community was authorized $10,000 “to allow the school community of the administrator, teachers, parents and support staff to develop a proposed plan by working with potential business partners, other educational agencies and educators and researchers specific to the instructional design for a comprehensive engineering-themed focus academy,” the Sept. 15 agenda item states.
Superintendent Steve Betando was especially jazzed about the engineering focus since his son recently graduated with a degree in the field from UC Davis.
“He taught me a lot about engineering over the last four years; in particular, that engineering is about finding solutions when you have a problem and that is what life is really all about,” Betando said. “As I saw what they were doing and what they would like to study, you could see how well aligned it might be to our current movement in instruction and curriculum.”
The PV planning team is expected to return to the board will an extensive plan for the engineering focus no later than December 2015.
