LAKEPORT — The Lakeport Unified School District Governing Board was given updates on progress with district goals and meeting English language requirements for non-native English speakers during its monthly meeting Thursday night.
Superintendent Erin Smith-Hagberg gave the board an end-of-the-year report on fulfilling district goals. Smith-Hagberg said the district only needed to work on a few things for next year. One thing she said the district needed to work on for was looking into additional drug and alcohol prevention programs. Another thing the district needed to work on was implementing a technology safety program called iSafe to teach students how to utilize technology safely and responsibly, she said. The district has trained many staff members in utilizing crisis prevention intervention strategies but Smith-Hagberg said the goal is to continue to certify more staff next year. Aside from those items, Smith-Hagberg said she was proud of the district meeting its goals.
Stephanie Wayment, an ELD/ELA specialist at the Lake County Office of Education, gave the board an update into the district”s progress in getting out of corrective action for not meeting Title III standards. Title III is a part of the “No Child Left Behind” Act of 2001. It aims to help students who are not proficient in English to become proficient.
Wayment said the district is currently in the fifth year of corrective action for failing to get some students at a proficient level. The district was required by law to write a new plan to show how it will help those students who are not proficient. Through the plan, nine teachers were trained in helping students with their English proficiency, Wayment said. Engagement strategies for teachers were developed along with pacing guides and assessments for students in grades four through 12. She said there has been great collaboration between teachers trained in English language development and other teachers.
Wayment said the district is planning a language academy this summer to help those students who are known as long-term English learners. The district is also watching those students to see if the intervention programs it has used has produced progress.
The board voted to raise developer fees for the district to comply with the law. Smith-Hagberg said the district had not performed a developer fee study since 2003, which was the longest amount of time between studies of all the school districts in the county.
Jack Schreder & Associates, the firm that did the study, recommended a developer fee study be performed every four years, Smith-Hagberg said. She said the State Allocation Board meets every two years to determine whether developer fees should be raised or not. At its last meeting in Jan. 2010, the allocation board opted to maintain the current fee rate of $2.97 per square foot for residential construction and $0.47 per square foot for commercial or industrial construction. After the firm investigated the district, it was determined the actual impact to the district would be $11.05 per square foot. The board unanimously adopted a resolution adopting the study so that it could collect the fees.
Board member Phil Kirby was absent from the meeting.
Kevin N. Hume can be reached at kevin.n.hume@gmail.com or call directly 263-5636 ext. 14.
