The William S. Hart Union High School District governing board is set to discuss school safety practices, a return to school campuses for cohorts, and the recognition of Black History Month.
One of the first topics of conversation the board will cover is a school safety update from Collyn Nielsen, chief administrative officer for the district, according to the meeting agenda for its Wednesday night session.
The presentation breaks down the 22 items involving safe school best practices in four different categories: mental health and wellness, site security, policy and training, and communication.
Nielsen’s report will go through the various items and explain why each policy is a best practice before highlighting the district’s progress in that area, according to the already publicly available PowerPoint presentation.
Meanwhile, a board meeting last week set the stage for potential permanent closures of multiple Glendale schools.
Due to falling enrollment, the Glendale Elementary School District Governing Board outlined proposed closures of five of the districtâs 17 schools in two phases.
The first phase would close Melvin E. Sine and Isaac E. Imes schools before the 2021-22 school year, with Coyote Ridge, Desert Garden and Bicentennial North potentially closing the following school year.
Facing an $11 million-plus budget deficit, âGESD will ensure financial solvency by providing the community a multi-year process of reorganizing boundaries and repurposing schools by June 2021,â according to a presentation at the Jan. 28 meeting.
While Peoria Unified and Deer Valley school districts are giving students the option of online or in-classroom learning, Glendale Elementary School District is keeping its classrooms closed.
On Thursday, Jan. 21, after Maricopa County updated its school metrics site, GESD Superintendent Cindy Segotta-Jones posted a message notifying families district classrooms would remain closed.
âTo ensure the safety of all, GESD will continue in a virtual model and monitor all data to determine when it is safe to return,â she wrote. She noted district ZIP codes âshow extremely high positivity rates pertaining to COVID-19.â
The data showed the communities surrounding GESD schools had more than 900 new cases per 100,000 population over the last week.
Currently, all K-12 schools in California counties that are in Tier 1 of the State’s Blueprint for a Safer Economy, including Los Angeles County, are prohibited from reopening for in-person instruction, with the exception of four types of on-site programming.
These are:
Specialized services for defined subgroups of children who need in person services and supports
On-site instruction of children in grades TK-2 by schools that have received a Department of Public Health waiver for in-person education.
Students may come on campus for supervised administration of college admission tests, including PSAT, ACT, and SAT exams.
For all four types of on-site programming, students are required to be organized and proceed through the day within cohorts, which the county defines as “a stable group of no more than 12 children or youth and no more than two supervising adults in a supervised environment in which supervising adults and children stay together for all activities and avoid c
Santa Clarita City Council Names Nine Local Commission Appointments
Nine Santa Clarita residents were appointed to local commissions by the Santa Clarita City Council during the first meeting of the new year to serve the community in a variety of roles.
At the Santa Clarita City Council meeting on Jan. 12, each council member nominated one individual to serve on each commission for a four-year term that runs concurrently with that of the council member. When terms expire and vacancies arise, Santa Clarita residents are invited to apply for one of the available positions.
Councilmember Cameron Smyth once again nominated two current commissioners, with Renee Berlin to serve on the Planning Commission and Vanessa Wilk to serve on the Arts Commission.