The following responses are from the Parent Advisory Committee and the English Learner Parent Advisory Committee.
Q: What are Tier I, II and II supports to students for the Multi-Tiered System of Support (MTSS)?
A:
- Tier I are supports for all students
- Tier II are supports that most students would receive when needed
- Tier III are targeted supports for specific students
Q: Since there are only two College and Career Coordination Specialists, which schools will they be located at and will students from other schools be able to access them?
- Natomas High School and Inderkum High School
- Currently the plan is to have them work with the students at their school
Q: A parent asks for a copy of the Cycle of Continuous Learning and Improvement model
Image of Cycle of Continuous Learning and Improvement
Q: Is State budget connected to Federal dollars?
A: Not directly
Q: Will the Promise Program continue at Natomas Middle, and what is it? Is this done by admin or counselors or what?
A: The Promise Program is only offered at Discovery High School and will continue there next year. This is a joint venture with NUSD and Sacramento County Office of Education as an alternative to expulsion for grades 7-12. There is a specific teacher for the Promise Program, the Principal is the onsite administrator for the program, there is also an administrator from NUSD and SCOE.
Q: Are all three programs [Freedom Schools, Improve Your Tomorrow, and Aim High (Ruthie Bolton] being handled by an outside agency?
A: Yes
Q: Are the Freedom Schools, Improve Your Tomorrow, and Aim High (Ruthie Bolton) programs for high school students?
A: Improve Your Tomorrow focuses on 8-12th grades, Aim High focuses on 6-7th grades, and Freedom Schools focuses on 9-12th grades.
Q: Some parents don’t have an idea what the choices are for 8th graders going to 9th grade. I think we need to do a much better job emailing parents about their choices.
A: Thank you for this feedback.
Q: 5th grade is another area where we don’t do a good job retaining our students.
A: Thank you for this feedback.
Q: Can you tell us more about this broadcasting class – who will oversee the teacher who is not credentialed.
A: The teacher has a CTE Credential and will be directly supervised by the Principal and will be supported by the CTE Director
Q: You’re starting with zero period for Broadcast Media next year?
A: A zero period in addition to four sections of Broadcast Media I
Q: What are CAC meetings? Is open to every kid with an IEP, general ed?
A: The Community Advisory Committee is a group that meets to discuss and inform the district about the needs of Special Education Students. The CAC meetings are typically for parents of students in special education; however, this year, we worked collaboratively with Parent University and extended the invitation to the community as we provided parent training that extends beyond students with disabilities.
Q: What is the projected growth for NUSD for next school year?
A: NUSD (with the Charter Schools) is projected to grow between 200 and 400 students in 2016-2017.
Q: Once you realize how many students you are losing, will you need to build the new elementary school?
A: The need for an additional elementary school is determined by the lack of a NUSD elementary school in the North West (west of I-5) as well as the projections for housing development in the area.
Q: Have you found out from why students are leaving to charter schools? What is the district doing to shore up the enrollment with these students leaving?
A: NUSD is a district of choice where many families have students who attend different charter and non-charter schools each year. Over the past five years the district enrollment for both charter and non-charter schools has increased and projections for the next 5-10 years shows even more growth with new homes being built in Natomas.
Q: The Parent Advisory Committee members should share out what we learn in these meetings with other parents.
A: Thank you for the suggestion.
Q: Can we get a copy of the awards application– Gold Ribbon – our school is actively looking at something to strive for. It was requested to send to the whole group.
A: For more information regarding the Gold Ribbon Award, the qualification, and application process please visit the California Department of Education webpage for the Gold Ribbon Award.
Q: Do we have a permanent grant writer.
A: We do not have a permanent grant writer.
Q: If the Gold Ribbon award isn’t district driven, it is parent/stakeholder driven?
A: For more information regarding the Gold Ribbon Award, the qualification, and application process please visit the California Department of Education webpage for the Gold Ribbon Award at the link above.
Q: Now that we have CAASPP, is there a new API number that we can strive for, like we used to strive for 800?
A: The State of California is working to develop a new accountability system. The State Board is expected to address this in the fall of 2016.
Q: Who determined what students were involved in the student focus groups?
A: Each site was asked to pull together a diverse group of students from different grades, different interests, different needs and different abilities. Site leaders then created student focus groups based on that criteria.
Q: What sites had student focus groups?
A: Student focus groups were held at the following sites: Natomas High, Natomas Gateways, Discovery High, Inderkum High, Natomas Middle, Natomas Park Elementary, and Heron.
Q: What is a ‘3’ on the scale in the survey?
A: The ‘3’ was not defined. The scale that was provided was 1(low) to 5(high), all other numbers were not defined.
Q: Will there only be one additional resource officer and where will they be located?
A: There will be one additional resource officer in NUSD in 2016-2017. This officer will be located at Leroy Greene Academy but will be able to be mobile if they are asked to report to another school site.
Q: What school sites will offer Freedom Schools, Improve Your Tomorrow, and Aim High?
A: Improve Your Tomorrow will be offered at Natomas High, Natomas Gateways Middle, and Discovery High School. Aim High will be offered at Natomas Middle School. Freedom Schools will be offered at elementary sites, those sites have yet to be determined.
Q: How are you determining the needs and placement for the Improve Your Tomorrow and Aim High programs?
A: Like other programs, we will use multiple measure such as student achievement, attendance, and behavior data to identify students who are at risk and need additional supports
Q: How do you know which students should be using the Freedom Schools Program, Improve Your Tomorrow and Aim High programs?
A: Like other programs, we will use multiple measure such as student achievement, attendance, and behavior data to identify students who are at risk and need additional supports
Q: How do you know the sites that best meet the needs of the students for the Freedom Schools Program, Improve Your Tomorrow and Aim High programs?
A: We will use data to determine the students and schools for these programs
Q: Are you looking at student counts and keep it proportionate to each site?
A: Data will be used to identify individual students who need the additional support. This does not mean that there will be proportionate numbers of students receiving the same supports at each school.
