The weather these past few weeks prompted me to prop my back office door open and enjoy the clean air and friendly breeze.  Now, however, I keep the door ajar so I don't miss out on the delightful sounds of students walking by or enjoying PE classes and sports on the San Mateo High School stadium field.  While I don't know their names and catch only snippets of their banter, their effusive spirits make me smile.
 
This year I have seen joyful students in so many places and in every school -- in musicals, dance performances, student activities, and sporting events. There are also amusing moments where students are just hanging around with friends or engaging in playful banter.
 
A particular facet of SMUHSD life I have enjoyed is the remarkable school spirit our students display.  They cheer their classmates at sporting events and boisterously support their thespian and dancing friends.  Our students have more school pride in general than I have seen in my career.  I won't soon forget the faces of our student athletes and their fans after an upset victory against a rival school!
 
I also see a different form of this happy excitement in classrooms with skilled teachers who celebrate learning, rigor, and creativity.  These classmates relish the conquest of a difficult problem or a student project that stretches participants to accomplishments that neither student nor, perhaps, teacher saw coming.  We are at our best when we nurture that upbeat, happy spirit in our students in every area of our operation.
 
Just like parents, we educators spend a lot of time worrying about students - their physical and mental health, their often bewildering behavior, and their seeming irresponsibility.  But teenagers can also be so wonderfully, uniquely heartwarming and blissful.  And it is this teenage enthusiasm that propels us forward and, often, helps us understand what it means to be celebratory souls.

This newsletter is meant to highlight some of the activities that took place from a district perspective this year. It is kind of our "year in review" for you.  We also hope it provides insight into some of the initiatives that will define our work in the coming year. 

I hope you find its contents helpful as you support your student through these four, most formative years of life.  And while nobody can be joyous all the time, I hope your student has had his or her fair dose of it this year, with more to come!

Sincerely,

Kevin Skelly, Ph.D.
Superintendent

Let There Be (Stadium) Light!

In April of 2015, before I arrived to serve this District, I was told that a well-respected North Central community advocate got up to the microphone to address the Board on stadium lights and said, "Let There Be Light!" I could not agree more!

Up until this year, the SMUHSD was the only district in the county without lights on most campuses or at least planning for them. If all goes well, five SMUHSD high schools - Aragon, Capuchino, Hillsdale, Mills and San Mateo high schools - will have lights sometime this fall. 

After several board meeting discussions, three community workshops, and meetings with individual neighbors, the Board unanimously voted to move forward with Board Policy and Administrative Regulation 7325 for the Stadium Lights and Public Address Systems Project at its January 14th Board meeting.  And now we are in the California Environmental Quality Act (CEQA) process. With fingers crossed, our students and their families looking to enjoy competitions will be watching night games this fall!

With the latest technology in lighting systems, our students can gain more academic time and families can come together to watch their students in contests in the evening. In addition, community groups that struggle to find space in the dearth of our county's accessible playing fields now will have some options on the nights our students do not need the space. In addition, stadium lights will allow us to begin the conversation on implementing a later start time, so our students can get the extra sleep research tells us teenagers so desperately need.

We are looking forward to demonstrating to our school neighbors that we can be good neighbors and will be installing new parking signage, adding litter receptacles, formulating traffic plans with local police departments, and honoring the time limits set forth in the adopted administrative regulation to address the legitimate concerns our neighbors have about night time lights.

And with that, "Let There Be Light!"

New District Office Coming in 17/18

 

During my career I have seen some humble district offices, but none more modest than the one we have here.  And while district offices should be low on everyone's list of priorities, it's time to rebuild ours. When I came to the district, I heard about leaking roofs, stale air, no meeting space, and the most challenging...our game of "musical bathrooms" when most of the bathrooms would not work.

Well, with a clear vision for Peninsula High, a series of short term module buildings that had been housing staff for at least 30 years (not so short term), and rising construction costs, our team and Board had to do something about providing a District Office that was easily accessible, safe, and welcoming to our many families and hardworking staff.

The new District Office is designed to complement the architecture of the beautiful Performing Arts Center (PAC) and San Mateo High. It will be three stories, set more back from Delaware Street and from the Woodlake Condominiums.  Some draft renderings can be found  here.

The internal spaces will be welcoming, open and a closer match to our needs. Our most public services (e.g., parent meetings, student registration, student services, etc.) will be on the first floor and easily accessible to our families.

This summer, all Student Services functions will move to a temporary home at 839 Hinckley Avenue in Burlingame in preparation for construction. All other district teams will remain to endure the noise. More construction details to come in future editions of the Superintendent's Newsletter. Stay tuned!

Workforce Housing: One Bay Area Solution to Attract and Maintain Talent

 

Here's stating the obvious - it's becoming increasingly difficult for people of modest means to find affordable housing.  The Peninsula's location between San Francisco (the 5th most expensive city in America to live) and San Jose (the 6th most expensive city) makes our housing costs overwhelming to talented young teachers. Even though the SMUHSD has a competitive salary schedule, we are losing teachers because they can't afford to live here.
 
This is coupled with the teacher shortage crisis. California is typically ranked close to the bottom in student-to-teacher ratio, and would need 100,000 additional teachers to bring that ratio to the national average. But, over the next ten years, California will need to replace 106,000 teachers (one-third of the current workforce) just to maintain its current student-to-teacher ratio. In mathematics and science, the number of preliminary credentials awarded to new, fully-prepared teachers dropped by 32 percent and 14 percent, respectively, over the last four years, according to the Washington Post.
 
The Board authorized staff to explore housing on district owned property for teachers and paraprofessionals. We convened a group of people including architects and experts in finance and development.
 
It became clear to us that today's employee wants access to amenities like a good downtown, public transportation, highway access, and close proximity to open space. After many conversations with housing and construction experts, staff, our City partners and elected officials, we think that building on District-owned property could be feasible.
 
At the May 12th Board meeting, staff presented to the Board of Trustees and community members, conceptual designs of ideas for building workforce housing on our school campuses. We explored what workforce housing could look like on all of our sites, but only four schools - Mills, San Mateo High, the Crestmoor property, and Capuchino - were determined to be viable. Through a combination of field modifications with some improvements, there is space on all four of these sites to build workforce housing.
 
After reviewing the strengths and weaknesses of each site, two sites - Mills High and the site of the former Crestmoor High in San Bruno - have been recommended by the Board for further study at this time. The Board authorized $125,000 to do due diligence on these sites and for staff to return to the Board with findings no later than the Board's October 2016 meetings.  There are many questions to be answered - including issues around financing the project, potential partnerships, the involvement of other districts, and the appropriate rental costs. 
 
This is an enormously complicated topic, but one that deserves our best effort and exploration.  It's sad that housing costs are such an impediment to attracting the best staff.  And while we aren't anxious to build housing, it may be necessary.  We welcome the continued input of staff, city partners, public officials, and community members. Email me at [email protected].

Social/Emotional Programs That Support Our Students' Success

 

Good mental health is essential for academic achievement. To better address the connection between students' emotional health and academic success, the District has redesigned the school-based mental health support that is currently in place.

This year, like previous ones, community mental health agencies have been contracted to provide mental health counseling to specific populations. The School-Based Mental Health Program adopted by the Board of Trustees in March 2016 will bring these service providers in-house and make them District employees.  This will provide greater access to mental health services for all students, and align our work to the principles of Multi-Tiered Systems of Support (MTSS). Interventions, resources and supports will be implemented at each site in a tiered format moving from general support to targeted services to intensive interventions. An example of a Tier 1 support could be using instructional strategies related to Culturally Responsive and/or Trauma-Informed classrooms. Tier 2 may include short-term group counseling with a specific focus such as anxiety-reduction. Tier 3 might involve a multi-disciplinary approach involving community agencies, medical practitioners and more intensive mental health interventions.

To help ensure the efficacy and fidelity of the program, the District is working in collaboration with respected and knowledgeable community partners. The Peninsula Health Care District approved a sizable grant to support our School-Based Mental Health Program (SBMH) for the next three years. As part of the development and implementation of the updated SBMH program, San Mateo Union High School District will be collaborating with Stanford University staff members who will provide guidance and professional development.

The District is hiring therapists and interns who will be part of the leadership support teams at each site. Additionally, Health and Wellness Coordinators will be working to increase community outreach, develop the tiered interventions and provide further support to the site and District communities. Together, all mental health personnel - in collaboration with their sites - will explore District trends, while focusing on the needs of the individual school communities. The goal is to build upon the existing student support structures and create a wider continuum of support for SMUHSD students and their families. We expect to have our new School Based Mental Health program fully implemented by the start of school this fall.

Supporting all of our students in their emotional well-being is a priority for the SMUHSD, and this additional investment in student mental and emotional health is a sign of its importance.

The Latest News on Science and the Next Generation Science Standards (NGSS)

 

This year, science teachers engaged in professional development activities to better understand how to implement the science and engineering practices in the Next Generation Science Standards (NGSS). NGSS describe the key scientific ideas and practices that all students should learn by the time they graduate from high school. NGSS detail performance expectations for kindergarten through grades eight and high school.

In October, Katie Ward from Aragon High School presented a tool called the "WIS/WIM" as a protocol that students can use to better understand data and graphically displayed information. This supports the science and engineering practice of deepening student understanding of scientific phenomenon through the practice of analyzing and interpreting data. Students identify trends (what I see) in graphs, then pair them with statements (what it means) that connect the trends to key concepts.   Science teachers throughout the District implemented this strategy at least once with their students, and brought samples of student work to our February professional development day. In February, science teachers used a student work protocol to examine student work in small, course-alike groups to determine the extent to which they were able to address the science and engineering practice of analyzing and interpreting data. 

Science teachers also participated in a day that focused on two science and engineering practices: creating, revising and testing models, and engaging in argument from evidence.  A team of teachers, Miguel Appleman from San Mateo High School, Jennifer Wekselgreene from Capuchino High School, and Geoff Gould from Burlingame High School, and Sabbie Hopkins (District Science Coordinator) attended the NGSS Rollout #2 Symposium to deepen their understanding of these science and engineering practices using tools and examples prepared by the California Department of Education (CDE).  These teachers along with Melonie Cotter, our NGSS Content Specialist, and Sally Seebode from San Mateo High School, created three separate professional development days for teachers in specific science content areas (biology, chemistry and physics).  During these professional development days, science teachers participated in hands-on student learning experiences that modeled the integration of science and engineering practices.

This summer, we will be offering two professional development days that focus on using CDE-developed tools for aligning units to all three dimensions of the NGSS.  Our summer team includes Katie Ward and Kevin Doyle from Aragon High School, Chris Lipski from Hillsdale High School, Elizabeth Doggett from San Mateo High School, Melonie Cotter from Mills High School, and Sabbie Hopkins from Burlingame High School.

We believe NGSS will really help to improve students' understanding of the world around them, and we are excited to continue to support our teachers in the NGSS implementation!

Professional Development = Better High School Student Experience

 

SMUHSD teachers' commitment to improving their classroom curriculum, instruction and assessment for students' academic growth can be seen in their participation in this past year's professional development activities.

In 2015-2016, our teachers participated in four professional development days focused on learning how to integrate academic literacy and language, and instructional technology into the curriculum, supporting students' social and emotional well-being in classroom practices, and collaborating with teacher teams to review and analyze students' work in order to refine instructional practices supporting all students' academic success. 

Our school site leadership teams planned and implemented two of the four days. The teachers' collaborative work during these two days focused on the specific learning needs of their school's students. Our district level coordinators also planned and implemented two days that provided opportunities for our teachers to share best practices and learn from one another across the school sites.

At the core of our professional development days, and all the site and district-supported opportunities is the belief that we can improve student learning through working together as collaborative teacher teams reflecting and refining our curriculum. As our teachers continue to grow professionally and learn best practices, our students will be more supported academically and emotionally in the classroom. Our teachers will again participate in four professional development days during the 2016-2017 school year.

This is immensely important work. Continuous improvement of our teachers means continuous improvement of our students, and we will sustain our efforts to align our professional development work with the work your student does in the classroom.

Saying Good-Bye to Some Amazing Employees
Retiring This Year

 

Working in a school - no matter your position - is really rewarding work. If I was not happy to get up every morning to serve our students and their families, I would need to find a different profession. There is nothing better than preparing our community's youth to be tomorrow's leaders - whether serving a company, non-profit, or being a "leader in life" who is kind and socially responsible.

For many years, the people below have helped to nurture good citizens and have prepared our students for life. Their contributions cannot be measured, nor can our gratitude for their service to the SMUHSD. They will all be missed!

August 2015

• Vesna Vukic, Administrative Assistant, Burlingame High School, 15 years and 5 months of service
• Lakshmi Ram, Instructional Aide I, Burlingame High School, 9 years and 3 months of service
• Leonor Ruiz, Office Assistant II, Burlingame High School, 20 years and 9 months of service

September 2015

• Sophie Tsachres, Staff Assistant, Mills High School, 13 years and 9 months of service
• Debra Belluomini, School Bus Driver, District Office, 14 years and 11 months of service

December 2015

• Pamela Chavez, Executive Coordinator, District Office, 13 years and 4 months of service
• Joan Klink, Director of Fiscal Services and Budget, District Office, 26 years and 9 months of service
• Lori Friel, College, Career & Financial Aid Advisor, Burlingame High School, 17 years and 7 months of service
• Sue Merport, College, Career & Financial Aid Advisor, Hillsdale High School, 18 years and 2 months of service
• Cynthia Clark, Director of Curriculum and Assessment, District Office, 5 years and 5 months of service

April 2016

• Bruce Neuburger, ESL Program Teacher, Adult School, 28 years and 6 months of service

May 2016

• Robert Michelony, Special Education Teacher, Peninsula Alternative High School, 20 years of service
• Maria Sky, Art Teacher, Capuchino High School, 32 years of service
• Gerald Mountain, ELD Teacher, San Mateo High School, 26 years of service
• Betty Chiu, Math Teacher, Mills High School, 15.5 years of service
• James Smith, Social Science Teacher, Aragon High School, 29 years of service
• Michelle Byron, Special Education Teacher, Burlingame High School, 6 years of service
• Howard Freiberg, Dean, San Mateo High School, 27 years of service
• Jeanne McCarthy, Special Education Teacher, Burlingame High School, 15.5 years of service

June 2016

• Sandra Masterson, Site Accounting Technician, Mills High School, 20 years and 5 months of service
• Doug Miner, Music Teacher/West Bay Community Band Teacher, Mills High School/Adult School, 7.5 years/11 years of service
• Gloria Dirkmaat, Director of Special Education, District Office, 7 years of service
• Joseph Mahood, Assistant Principal, Aragon High School, 24 years of service

I want to make sure I thank you for the opportunity to serve this District.  It has been a year filled with joy and satisfaction, in no small part because of the communities and families our schools serve.  And while it hasn't been a fountain of youth converting me back to a teenager, it occurs to me that this new job has given me the chance to experience a level of newness that has been positive and healthy.  Here's hoping that the summer allows you to experience some aspect of joy and the sense of rejuvenation the summer always offers.

With Warmest Regards,

Kevin Skelly, Ph.D.
Superintendent