The Ukiah Unified School District last week released its response to the April 2019 Grand Jury report findings: Advancing Education Through Sharing, saying it partially disagreed with some of the reports and is working to improve the relationship between charter and public schools.
The Grand Jury found that administrations of the county and the districts have not made policies to encourage interaction between public schools and charter schools, and they need to do a better job at initiating and sharing of innovation, accessibility, and methods to improve education and allow students and parents to make the best choice about schools for their students.
The Grand Jury recommended that the district and charter schools should work together with the Mendocino County Office of Education to improve teaching, schools should offer parents training tools to compare schools, allow teachers at any school in Mendocino County to publish tips and suggestions, and publish test scores on the school’s website.
Ukiah Unified School District Superintendent Deb Kubin said in their response that they partially agreed with most of the findings, but disagreed with the conclusion that Mendocino County had not fulfilled the original mission of charter schools, saying that competition due to charter schools is occurring and increasing learning opportunities for students.
The school district report noted that the relationship between the district and the four authorized charter schools in the county is “positive and collaborative,” but different teaching methods and standards at charter schools make it more difficult for public schools to be collaborative with charter schools. Kubin said the school district has also started offering new school programs like Middle College at Ukiah High, Big Picture Learning at South Valley High School, Ukiah Independent Study Academy, language immersion programs, and STEM programs to provide more career and school options for kids in public schools.
In regard to the Grand Jury report recommendations that more information on test scores and education differences be made public, UUSD recommended that people use the “California School Dashboard” that contains reports about performances of charter and public schools using local standards of performance. The school district stated that it posted its School Accountability Report Cards on its websites, and the state no longer uses API scores. Kubin said they would also work to encourage teachers to contribute to any website or forum about suggestions or improvements that the Mendocino County Office of Education implements.
June 28, 2019
Ukiah Daily Journal
By Curtis Driscoll
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