NUSD Board Highlights - October 6, 2015

WELCOME CINTHIA ANGELICOLA!

Novato Unified School District Board of Trustee meetings will now have Spanish interpretation available! Cinthia Angelicola, Novato High School Community Liaison, will be at the Board meetings and will be available to provide Spanish interpretation via headsets and English translation for Public Comment.

STUDENT PRESENTATION

Students in the Pre-K program at Lynwood Elementary School demonstrated a lesson from the Second Step social-emotional curriculum with Robin Pence. The Pre-K program staff and the Kindergarten staff at Lynwood work closely together for a smooth transition from Pre-K to K.

STAFF REPORTS

Solar Options for School Facilities: Karen Maloney, Assistant Superintendent Business & Operations, presented to the Board solar options to explore to reduce electricity costs. Years ago, the district started to look at solar options and then came the recession. Right now three factors are contributing to the urgency of taking a serious look at solar:

o The capping of Net Energy Metering program, currently scheduled for July 1, 2017, but could occur much sooner.

o Expiration of A-6 tariff rate, a rate favorable to solar PV installations is set to expire at the end of 2016.

o Investment Tax Credits providing investors incentive to receive credits on investments in solar is scheduled to expire at the end of 2016.

Two firms, Opterra Energy and Sun Edison, are currently preparing feasibility studies to estimate the potential savings from installing solar parking structures and solar panels on remote fields. In addition, Helios Bay Area (a Climate Protection Program through the Bay Area Air Quality Management District) prepared an analysis (solar master plan) to assess the current feasibility of solar projects in NUSD. The Helios Solar Master Plan for NUSD and more information can be found on the Solar Energy webpage under Business Services/Facilities on the NUSD website. (Staff Report 8.b.)

English Learner Program Overview: Melissa Diaz, NUSD’s new English learner Coordinator, gave the Board an update on how NUSD is supporting our English learners. NUSD has an Integrated and Designated ELD (English Language Development) program that works in tandem. The teachers using the Integrated ELD program work with the English learners in their classrooms using the California ELD Standards in tandem with the California Common Core State Standards for ELA/Literacy and other contents standards. Teachers using the Designated ELD program have protected time to use the California ELD Standards as the focal standards in ways that build into and from content instruction.

Teachers are also provided professional development that includes:

- Project GLAD (Guided Language Acquisition Development)

- SIOP (Sheltered Instruction Observation Protocol)

- Kevin Clark Consulting, including teacher training and coaching support

Currently, NUSD has 1,148 English learners representing 14% of total students. Ms. Diaz provided a breakdown of English Learners by CELDT (California English Learner Development Test) level:

o 10% Advanced

o 39% Early Advanced

o 34% Intermediate

o 11% Early Intermediate

o 6% Beginning

Of those 1,145 English learners, 311 are classified as Long-term English learners which is a formal educational classification given to students who have been enrolled in a school within the U.S. for more than six years, who are not progressing toward English proficiency, and who are struggling academically due to their limited English skills. Getting these students the language skills needed to succeed in their classes is a priority this year. (Staff Report 8.a.)