The Pleasanton Unified School District’s tiered support system was a primary focus of the board of trustees earlier this month, a meeting that began with celebrating the progress of the pandemic and the return of in-person events. .

“We are excited to see more and more school events being held in person as the open house season is just around the corner,” PUSD Superintendent David Haglund said at the April 14 regular meeting. “Please continue to follow the health and safety recommendations established by local and state health departments.”

“There are currently no restrictions surrounding the holiday party,” he said to applause.

The discussions of the meeting began with the MTSS which aims to strengthen the structures of intervention and support, and promises to effectively improve the physical, mental and social well-being of the students was unanimously adopted by the trustees.

The counseling program will address early literacy, early numeracy, dyslexia, dyscalculia and dysgraphia, organizers said. Many administrators expressed support for the program and additional counseling training for faculty, which could be a boon for students in need.

“We just need to move all of our teaching staff and give them the training and the tools to teach the students they have in front of them,” Trustee Joan Laursen said. “And then we will add support to the intervention.”

Administrator Kelly Mokashi agreed with Laursen’s views on teacher training and said she advocates for new positions in the field.

“I really emphasize that I hope to see additional positions to support this area of ​​need that is so important to our students, and really build the scaffolding so that we can help our students,” Mokashi said.

This was followed by a detailed report and discussion of the Basic Counseling Blueprint, which includes two strategic objectives:

Strategic Goal I — Organizational Goal 1: Leverage personalized learning strategies and growth-based assessments to increase results and identify opportunity gaps.

Strategic Goal II — Organizational Goal 2: Strengthen intervention and support structures to effectively improve the physical, mental and social well-being of students, families and staff.

Administrators recognized the restoration efforts made by schools to support students and free them from being caught in a negative cycle. Alternative measures such as reducing and using alternatives to suspensions help students thrive.

Laursen said that in addition to the raw data, she would like to hear success stories where students have benefited from the program.

“(Stories) where restorative practice worked, where the counselor reached out and worked with the family, got the help the students needed, and here they are well-adjusted and doing well in school “, she said. “Having some of those stories would be really helpful for us as a board.”

Another suggestion was a request for pre- and post-pandemic data on the number of students who benefited from counseling programs.

“I think there’s a way to collect data since you’ve seen like pre-pandemic versus how many students are seeing now and if there’s some kind of thing just for the future because that we want to be able to have evidence to say this is what worked. That’s why we need full-time counselors,” said trustee Mary Jo Carreon.

Another suggestion came from student representative Anmol Jain, saying engaging peer counselors could make it easier for students to seek help.

“I think there should also be some kind of student body, students are so much easier to contact than working with an adult,” Jain said. “Adults can be intimidating or not understand what a student is really going through.”

Carreon agreed on the benefits of counseling for young people, saying, “My children, my child (who is) in Walnut Grove has benefited tremendously from group counseling, so again, thank you for your work.”

The third element of the evening was action on professional development and materials for Designated and Integrated English Learners, under contract with EL Achieve, which aims to improve outcomes for emerging bilingual students through an integrated delivery model. research-based teaching for designated English language development.

Administrators showed unanimous support and approval for the program and Mokashi stressed the importance of support for those learning English.

“Talking about the impact of this on every child and especially when they learn English as a second language and all the difficulties, we need to make sure that we reach every child, especially with our demographics changing dramatically,” Mokashi said.

A two-year contract with EL has been approved which will also provide leading professional support for designated and integrated English language development.

The final five agenda items were approved in quick succession, including: Memorandum of Understanding Between California School Employees Association, Chapter #155 and Pleasanton Unified School District on Adult Education Reorganization.

Upgraded fire alarm systems in all schools for student safety and consistency for six PUSD schools, which are divided into two groups called packages. Package 1 includes Alisal, Mohr, and Valley View Elementary Schools, and Package 2 includes Donlon and Walnut Grove Elementary Schools and Harvest Park Middle School.

Once approved, the project will bring all school sites up to current building code standards for fire alarms.

An agreement with Benchmark Inspection for inspection services on Batch 5 HVAC and roofing projects at six sites was also approved. Four of these projects have been completed and a fifth is planned for this summer. The request requests that the remaining work be given the highest priority for completion.

The Board signed the Garlex Pizza contract for non-competitive emergency supply, public health emergency declaration and finding a responsible supplier to provide pizza delivery services to 15 campuses operating the USDA Child Nutrition Programs in Pleasanton.

Finally, the search for a fruit and vegetable vendor and five-campus delivery service operating USDA programs in Pleasanton has been approved.