Historical legacy, future plans discussed at BSD board meeting
A new historical marker commemorating the past, great standardized test scores, ethnic studies and coding were some of the many topics discussed at the Burton School District board meeting Monday. Student representative Dallas Ridings from Burton Middle School opened the bi-monthly board meeting by discussing the great things BMS is doing this academic year.
“Some of the great things BMS does is Red Ribbon Week,” said Ridings. “We have dress up days every day of the week.”
Ridings talked about all of the year round activities BMS has planned, as well as club variety and a sports roundup, adding the impacts those activities are creating at the school site.
The meeting continued with the updates from the board members.
“On behalf of the board I gave a welcome speech at Relay for Life Saturday morning as a cancer survivor,” said board member Jay Rice. He added, “There were a quite a few people there. We had a lower turnout than previous years, but hopefully next year we will have more.”
Obdulia Alvarado, BSD board secretary, shared her experience visiting the Parent Institute For Quality Education (PIQE) programs.
“It was really interesting. We had several parents that came out. The particular night that I went was both English and Spanish. I sat with various groups. There were a lot of questions asked and the presenters had a lot of information for parents,” said Alvarado. “One of the groups that I sat with were grandparents, which I was able to relate to because I am one. I see it as a valuable tool for the parents and grandparents to assist their children to look forward to learning about the importance of education and also going to college.”
Alvarado ended her comments by expressing her gratitude towards the people who are out in the morning greeting students as they walk to school.
“As adults, parents and grandparents dropping off our kids, it makes us feel like we are leaving them in good hands,” she said.
BSD board Vice President Dan Figueroa talked about the dedication on Oct. 13 made to the district by The Ancient and Honorable Order of E. Clampus Vitus Doctor Samuel Gregg George, Chapter 1855.
“The ‘clampers’ were all invited to attend the marker dedication for the first ever Burton School, named ‘Burton Schoolhouse,’” said Figueroa. “There were about 100 people, clampers from all over. Some came from Washington State, Texas and were all wearing red shirts.”
Figueroa mentioned they installed a large rock to mark where the historical building used to be and invited all to go see it at Town & Country Market, 1310 W Olive Ave.
Irene Ortega, BSD communication and community engagement officer was also at the dedication.
“It was really neat to see how far the district has come,” said Irene. “Bill Horst has lots of information. He pulled out an atlas from 1862 and
pointed out to me where certain areas of the town used to be.”
On a laptop placed on the board table was board member Matt Mccracken, listening and approving agenda items via teleconference. Mccracken has been out of town for the past board meetings, but has kept in touch on the meetings.
“I have no presentations to report but I’m monitoring things, and saw that Oak Grove Elementary posted on Central Valley Networked Improvement Communities (CVNIC) training last week. I just wanted to applaud them for their continued efforts to improve on science,” said Mccracken. “They are really putting us on the map, and I just want to applaud the work that they are doing there.”
BSD board President Eddie Hernandez and Interim Superintendent David Shimer had the
opportunity to travel last week with to the California Latino Board Association Conference.
“Some of the highlights that I brought back were the ethnic studies classes at some schools, and the emphasis was on remembering your heritage,” said Hernandez. “We teach to the state standards, but we neglect our heritage. It’s important that we remember the historical value in our country.”
Hernandez requested that discussion of bringing Ethnic Studies for high school students.
BSD board members we are also happy to hear there are now two more Apple Distinguished Schools in their district. Burton Elementary School and William R. Buckley Elementary joined other district schools like Summit Charter Academy Lombardi, Summit Charter Collegiate Academy, Summit Charter Academy Mathew and Jim Maples Academy in the distinction.
Mitzie Styles, principal at JMA, presented along with fourth grade teacher Gareth Brown on their recent trip to an Apple Distinguished Academy in Philadelphia on Sept.16. She said one of her biggest takeaways from the trip was the importance of learning coding.
“I think every adult there said that the most difficult thing to learn was the coding while transitioning to higher grades,” said Styles. “It
would be amazing for our students to walk into the university we visited — which had so many coding opportunities — and be able to code.”
Styles and Brown said they were able to see the many opportunities coding can make for students, and decided to hold teacher development training to learn a little more about coding.
BSD also discussed the recently-released California Assessment of Student Performance
and Progress (CAASPP) scores for 2017. Burton School District recorded an impressive gain of 6.75 percent over 2016 scores to 39.14 percent at or above grade level in English and a 3.85 percent increase from 2016 to 26.82 in math. Anthony Martin reported individually per grade scores
and talked about the increase of outreach opportunities to exceed the percent by next year.
Ortega reported that as of Oct. 24, the district’s ‘Healthy On The Go’ food program will take place at Port Naz, giving a bigger space for people to park and receive their food.