Woodland Hills committee presents board its recommendations
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After six months of collecting information, surveying, data mining, meetings and discussions, the ad hoc committee created by Woodland Hills Superintendent Walter Calinger to determine a plan of action for the next 12 years made its recommendations to the school board.
Committee members Randy Lott and Robert Rinsma -- former school board members -- and parent Joe DeCrosta presented the findings Wednesday night for the board to consider as they begin to craft a budget for next year.
The committee distributed a survey to teachers and residents of the 12 communities that make up the Woodland Hills School District. Based on data from those surveys, the committee found that the No. 1 concern in the district was behavioral issues. It recommended creating an alternative school for K-6 students with behavioral issues, placing additional behavioral support services in certain classrooms, and establishing a personalized education plan for every student in third grade and up.
A presentation showed that the committee believes addressing behavioral issues in the district's schools "has the biggest potential to reverse [the] outflow of students to charter and parochial schools."
The committee also recommended increased sharing of resources among buildings and departments; the use of block scheduling at the high school; and eliminating the district's participation in an alternative program at Boyce Campus Middle College. It also recommended adding an African-American cultural studies program for all grades, and purchasing iPads to reduce textbook expense and introduce interactive textbooks.
Mr. Lott said the committee didn't have data on how much could be saved by using iPads in lieu of textbooks, but noted that it would be easier to keep textbooks up to date and would likely be less expensive in the long run.
"There's some great options out there right now," he said.
The responses to expanding the school day and/or school year throughout the district were less definitive, as were ideas for grade reconfigurations among the district's schools.
Survey respondents overwhelmingly supported class sizes of 24 or fewer students and spending money on renovating buildings and/or technology instead of sports facilities.
When asked if they supported the current configuration of community-based neighborhood schools, more than 75 percent of Woodland Hills residents with children in the district said they "definitely" or "maybe" preferred the neighborhood schools.
"It's obviously an endorsement of the status quo in some sense," Mr. Lott said.
The board will consider the committee's recommendations as it begins to hash out a budget for 2012-13, which stands to be a difficult task in light of reduced state funding and more money being paid to charter schools.
First Published February 9, 2012 12:00 am
