Wednesday, October 15, 2014

[Solano County] Report: Visiting officials observed bullying at Vallejo High School


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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