One school board member was highly critical of local district schools’ action plans for improving student achievement that were submitted to the board of education for approval Aug. 1.
Before the board approved the Single School Plans for Student Achievement, known as SPSAs, which each of Morgan Hill Unified School District’s 13 schools must submit annually, Trustee Gino Borgioli had a few choice words about them.
“These are the worst SPSAs I’ve seen in the three years I’ve looked at SPSAs (as a member of the school board),” said Borgioli at the Aug. 1 meeting. “We want data.”
Board President Donna Ruebusch defended the principals, many of whom were in attendance at the Aug. 1 meeting, as well as school site and district staffs that helped put together the lengthy documents. She vehemently disagreed with Borgioli’s assessment.
“This is the first year of this particular format for SPSA reports. I appreciate (school staffs) pioneering it and pulling together the data,” Ruebusch said. “I think the narratives are absolutely excellent.”
The state-mandated documents, which are posted on each school’s website, “identify the goals, action items and learning focus for the school based upon analysis of student achievement data from different sources, staff evaluation of existing programs and services and parental input,” according to the Aug. 1 agenda. “The intent….is to create a cycle of continuous improvement of student performance, and to ensure that all students succeed in reaching academic success.”
Borgioli thought the plans were incomplete because they lacked data to back up any effort to improve what he perceived as unacceptable low passing rates on the state’s Smarter Balanced Assessment Consortium tests at certain individual schools.
“Our community is asking for better. Our community deserves better,” said Borgioli before picking apart individual SPSAs for being too vague and general in their strategies.
On the contrary, Ruebusch commended the district for putting together a document that offers a snapshot into each individual school and itemizes the use of funds for programs being offered. She lauded their “Herculean” efforts as being “progressive and aggressive” in aligning the SPSAs with the district’s Local Control Accountability Plan.
“I’m seeing great gains,” Ruebusch said.
Glenn Webb, the district’s Director of Curriculum, Instruction and Assessment, explained that there were late changes from the state in the format and accountability systems for the SPSAs. He said staff had to “work through (those) issues” as well as an abbreviated timeline that demanded the SPSAs be completed prior to the start of the school year for the first time.
Webb said one goal was to ensure that “the dollars that fuel our actions will give us the most return possible.”
“I believe in the goals and plans of the SPSAs,” said Webb, adding that he heard Borgioli’s request for more supporting data “loud and clear.”
