The Governing Board of the Benicia Unified School District will vote to approve the Single Plans for Student Achievement (SPSA) for each of the site’s four elementary schools at Thursday’s meeting.

The SPSA is established by school site councils to develop goals, aligned to BUSD’s Local Control Accountability Plan, which would support the academic performance of all students. Each site team studies state and local measures to gauge progress and put together plans that represent the uniqueness of each school. The principals of each of Benicia’s elementary schools will present their plans to the school board, just as they did last year.

In its SPSA, Mary Farmar Elementary Principal Wendy Smith outlined the school’s vision and mission statement, which was to “provide a safe, stimulating learning environment in which all children will learn and prepare for the opportunity to attend college if they choose. They will develop a respect for themselves and others with sensitivity to, and appreciation for, cultural and individual diversities.”

Smith outlined three goals: balanced literacy in language arts, increased proficiency in mathematics and implementing Positive Behavior and Intervention Support Strategies. The latter goal was continued from last year due to the postponement of PBIS implementation at Mary Farmar until the 2016-17 school year. For the first goal, the school did not meet the previous year’s goal of having 100 percent of students making progress, but the number of overall proficient students did increase. There was also mostly growth in the math goal for many subgroups.

Joe Henderson Elementary Principal Carin Garton highlighted “the development of well-rounded children with an active interest in learning, intellectual exploration and social involvement” as the school’s objective. Its goals were to increase the total number of students meeting and exceeding grade level standards in literacy and math by 5 percent before the 2017-18 school year, and increasing parental and community partnerships. For the latter goal, the school had increased the number of parent volunteers, but attendance had decreased while tardiness had increased.
Garton noted that Joe Henderson met its literacy goal from the previous year but not its math goal.

Robert Semple Elementary Principal Christina Moore highlighted the school’s mission statement— developed in collaboration with staff, parents and administration— which notes that Semple staff “are committed to creating a learning environment that prepares our students for college and career. We are dedicated and committed to ensuring the academic and personal success of each and every student.”

Robert Semple’s plan shared the other schools’ goals of increased language arts and math proficiency and even had its own goal of implementing a comprehensive PBIS curriculum to support the behavioral and social-emotional needs of all students. In the previous year’s math and language arts goals, Moore noted that not all grade levels had met the 10 percent goal.

Finally, Matthew Turner Elementary Principal Stephen Slater highlighted the school’s mission “to provide students with a positive and safe learning environment where students are encouraged to achieve to their highest potential, to become contributing members of our community to be culturally tolerant and respectful of others, and to be empowered with the knowledge and skills to shape their future.” Goals included meeting or exceeding proficiency on the English Language Arts portion of the California Assessment of Student Performance and Progress 59 percent to 70 percent, increasing math proficiency levels by 10 percent growth in problem solving and modeling/data analysis, and increasing parental and community partnerships.

In other business, Special Services Director Carolyn Patton will be bringing forward a policy regarding the identification and evaluation of students for special education.
The board will meet at 7 p.m., Thursday, in the Benicia Unified School District Board Room at the district building on 350 East K St. There will be an earlier closed session at 6 p.m.

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