School officials were unprepared for accrediting visit
October
13, 2014
Vallejo
Times-Herald
By John Glidden
According to a blistering
accrediting commission report, officials touring Vallejo High School in the
spring witnessed students bullying others and threats being minimized by an
administrator at the high school.
The report was compiled by a
Visiting Team from the Accrediting Commission for Schools, Western Association
of Schools and Colleges — the agency which accredits schools from kindergarten
through college.
The report comes just more than
a year after a May 2013 Solano County Grand Jury report, "Safety at
Vallejo High School," noted lack of discipline enforcement, non-adherence
to the student handbook, absence of communication between the Vallejo City
Unified School District, the VHS administration and teachers as major issues
with VHS.
The accrediting report
highlights several areas of concern, including safety of students on campus.
"The Visiting Team
observed students bullying others and threats being made which were reported to
the administrator, who seemed to minimize the situation," the report
states. "Students reported being robbed in the hallways of school and not
having safe places to leave their belongings, including their cars.
"Students reported that in
many classrooms, students swear at their teachers and 'nothing happens to them'
so it makes them feel unsafe especially since the situation could
escalate," the report adds. "They also feel that the campus
supervisors and administrators do not all enforce the rules equally and some
not at all and (students) want consistency, accountability and transparency
with behavior."
Alana Shackelford, the
district's Director of Partnerships & Community Engagement, said Monday
that the district instituted a 50 percent administrative change in leadership
at VHS for this school year.
"The district expectation
is that all adults are responsible for all students," Shackelford wrote in
an email about the safety concerns at VHS. "The new VHS administrative
team ensures that there is high visibility of adult presence — administration,
campus safety supervisors, and teachers are visible during heavy traffic times
of the day (before and after school, lunch and passing periods).
"This year we have been
intentional in integrating intervention systems to further create positive
school culture," Shackelford added in her email. "Administration and
teachers have received two trainings focused on Positive Behavior Intervention
and Support, Restorative Justice and Trauma Informed Care, which are systems to
ensure that students understand the rules, have support and are rewarded for
adhering to the rules and that consequences are administered in manner that
minimize the possibility of the infraction occurring again."
Shackelford also wrote that the
leadership at WASC understood that the district was in the midst of
implementing changes at the school, so a revisit to the campus has been
scheduled for this year.
In the WASC report, the
Visiting Team noted that VHS administration was not prepared for the visit.
"The Leadership Team at
the school appeared to be at a loss of what the structure of the visit was
suppose to be," the report states. "The principal indicated that he
thought that the visit was a step after the three-year visit and he did not
seem to fully understand either the limited choices the Visiting Team had to
issue a no accreditation or a two-year term to put the school back on a
six-year cycle and the magnitude of the visit."
The Visiting Team also noted
that "the turnover of teachers (at VHS) has been significant and
troublesome, as well." Also, while visiting VHS, the team observed that
"there was little or no evidence of a variety of teaching strategies and
in some cases virtually any student engagement, even though (the) team was
escorted by an administrator."
Also under review by the team
were the wall-to-wall academies.
"There is still much work
to be done to address student needs and rigorous instruction," the team
wrote. "No data was available to substantiate any improvements, only
perception data that the leadership shared that there were less fights and
violence on campus."
"This is the second year
of our implementation of the wall-to-wall academy construct; this construct
affords us the opportunity to create small learning communities of 300-500
students per academy," Shackelford wrote. "In addition to weekly
academy collaboration for teachers to meet to not only to lesson plan but also
to address academic and socio-emotional needs of students.
"The academic support
provider is a role within the Full Service Community Schools that is a support
to the school site faculty and staff in being the connector of support services
that students might need," she added.
In addition to the May 2013
grand jury report on safety at Vallejo High School, two additional grand jury
reports about the school district were released in the past six months.
In a June report,
"Security Impact on Graduation Rates in Solano County High Schools,"
the grand jury found that at both Vallejo High and Jesse Bethel High, defiance
and disruptions in classrooms were higher than other local high schools.
A July report, "Release of
Confidential Information by the Vallejo City Unified School District,"
found that a district official — later identified as Superintendent Ramona
Bishop — had erred when she sent an email detailing an incident two students
had with Vallejo police. Bishop had included the student's last names in the
email.
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