For three hours and thirty-five minutes, the Burbank Unified School District came together at city hall on Thursday.
Three brand new student representatives were introduced, and all three young ladies spoke.
They included Burroughs High’s Lauren Nestor, Burbank’s Rose Ilangesyan and Monterey’s Vivian Munoz.
“The classes are large as usual,” Nestor said. “Everyone is doing a great job showing school spirit. Everyone is spreading kindness throughout the school.”
Ilangesyan added: “During Spirit Week, all the students and staff are doing a great job,” she noted. “For our next football game [versus Fillmore on Thursday September 12], the theme is the Wild West.”
Munoz, who will graduate in December, is pleased to be back in school.
“I’m happy with all the new changes,” she said and urged everyone that’s 18 years old to register and vote in the November election. “It’s important to vote,” she pointed out.
There was only one five-minute public speaker and it was the everpresent Joel Schlossman, who was holding a placard that read: No New Tax. Vote No On ABC.
Schlossman spent a fair amount of time criticizing President Dr. Emily Weisberg, Clerk Abby Pontzer Kamkar and Vice President Dr. Armond Aghakhanian.
Each responded to Schlossman’s criticism, including Superintendent Dr. John Paramo.
In essence, each said that his approach when addressing the board leaves a lot to be desired.
Perhaps if he changed, more people would listen to what he was saying. As the adage goes: You reap what you sow.
A report on the Mathematics Collaborative was given by Dr. Robyn Anders, Director of Instructional Technology and Accountability, Instructional Services.
Burroughs Math Department Chairman and golf coach Greg Everhart also spoke.
“The more we learn, the better they learn,” Everhart said of the students.
First some background: Burbank Unified School District has participated in a multi-school collaborative facilitated by California Education Partners and has been an active participant in the collaborative the past six consecutive years. The goal of the collaborative was to address A-G completion and keeping students on-track for completion.
BUSD has identified math and the correlation between Algebra and Algebra II as its focus for increasing A-G rates.
Moreover, within the collaborative, the district looked at multiple data points to identify an A-G on-track indicator that would determine or have a significant impact on A-G completion.
For BUSD, the indicator that was selected was Hispanic/Latino students and the “D” and “F” rate associated with this subgroup in Algebra I.
Local data indicates that the percentage of Hispanic/Latino students receiving Ds and Fs has decreased significantly since implementing strategies and practices to improve student performance.
As they enter year seven, they will no longer be in a partnership with California Education Partners as the district will continue this work independently.
The district wide Goals for 2022-2023 are: 1. Students will be career/college ready via high-quality instruction. 2. Students will be physically, emotionally, and mentally healthy. 3. Recruit and retain highly qualified employee’s discussion/issues.
As a result of the collaborative and local initiatives within BUSD, the following strategies and practices have occurred and contributed to the successful decline in the “D” and “F” rate for Hispanic/Latino students in Algebra I and other math courses.
BUSD will need to continue to support teacher collaboration both at the site and across the district for these promising practices to continue to scale and grow.
Future efforts to continue this work include:
1) Maintaining current practices in Algebra and identifying additional ways to reduce the “D” and “F” rate in Algebra I by onboarding new teachers.
2) Continue to grow the practices identified as successful in high school to other courses including Geometry and Algebra II and Pre-Calculus.
3) Expand the implementation of PLC practices and instructional practices by involving more MS teachers in the same collaborative process at our Middle Schools.
“It’s good that middle school math is trending in the right direction,” Dr. Paramo said.
“I love that the numbers are going up,” Dr. Aghakhanian said.
On another matter, it was proclaimed by the board that September 15 through October 15 is National Hispanic Heritage Month.
The schools in the city will celebrate the histories, cultures, and contributions of American citizens whose ancestors came from Spain, Mexico, the Caribbean, and Central and South America.
The observation began in 1968 as Hispanic Heritage Week under President Lyndon Johnson.
It was expanded under President Ronald Reagan in 1988 to cover 30 days starting September 15th and ending on October 15th.
It was enacted into law on August 17, 1988. September 15th is significant because it is the anniversary of independence for Latin American countries Costa Rica, El Salvador, Guatemala, Honduras, and Nicaragua.
In addition, Mexico and Chile celebrate their independence days on September 16th and September 18th, respectively.
National Hispanic Heritage Month traditionally honors the cultures and contributions of both Hispanic and Latino Americans as we celebrate heritage rooted in all Latin American countries.
At the close of the meeting, Dr. Weisberg recognized the four people who lost their lives after being gunned down by a 14-year-old student at Apalachee High in Georgia.
“Enough is enough,” she said of all these senseless shootings. “The problem is easy access to guns. We need to push for meaningful change.”
