Welcome to our board meeting! We are glad you made an effort to attend this evening!

President Obama signed the new Elementary and Secondary Education Act. It’s called Every Student Succeeds Act (ESSA). Isn’t that a great vision for our nation! The very title has a positive approach, an asset vs. a deficit perspective. This action changes policy that ushered in a top-down mandate to one giving states local control. ESSA’s philosophy is aligned with LCFF and LCAP – input and inclusion are welcomed by all stakeholders. As ESSA rolls out and we learn more, we will be informing everyone.

This month marks my 6th month as superintendent! I want everyone to know I am still smiling and thrilled to be back in Sweetwater. So, what has happened in those 6 months? What have we accomplished?

• Thank you to our Board of Trustees for your guidance, support, and courage to take action in the best interest of our students.
• First and foremost, we have a solid and focused leadership team chosen and on board. Various stakeholders at every level say they already sense a difference in the culture and climate.
• Our district leadership team is proud of the process we engaged in for the revision of the LCAP. With over 1200 stakeholders involved, we know that the four new goals are clear and understood by all. Now it’s time to implement on behalf of our students.
• All contracts are settled and ratified! This allows all of us to concentrate on putting students first and foremost.
• In late November all union presidents, two board members, labor relations, human resources, and I attended State Superintendent’s Labor Management Symposium and have co-authored a letter to all employees communicating we have forged a relationship based on purposeful collaboration. There is strong research and clear evidence that a positive district/labor relationship not only benefits all employees, but also promotes improved student learning.
• With increased funding from LCFF, we have been able to reinstate classified, certificated, and management positions. We have hired 144 new employees in Office-Technical, Operations-Support, Paraprofessional, SCGA, SEA, and management. We aren’t completely where we need to be, but we are approaching decisions in a systematic way.
• We are in the process of evaluating and redesigning our English Learner Master Plan and we revised our graduation requirements for the Class of 2016.
• We are reinstating Beginning Teacher Support and Assessment (BTSA) and will execute our new Educator Effectiveness Grant right away!
• We have been visible at every middle and high school on an equity and culture listening campaign learning valuable information that will help move us forward as a district.
• We are collaborating with SDSU and our Compact Scholars with a new program called Return and Inspire to be a Sweetwater Educator (RISE) where we will guarantee a teaching position for Compact Scholars who graduate in education and major in math, science, or special education. We are so excited about this future possibility.
• We have gone out to the community to seek input on the Long Range Facilities Master Plan. We seek outside perspectives in process improvement reviews with our maintenance department and our planning and construction department.
• Our IT department installed over 1300 desktop computers to counselors, registrars, administrators, and departments around the district and the Technology Task Force has met five time researching and working diligently to present recommendations to our Board of Trustees for the 2016-17 school year. We are on schedule with the rollout of Infinite Campus, our new student information system.
• Grants and Communications has updated our website developing new pages that reflect our new culture of transparency with posted board updates, a superintendent’s message and Board Meeting Highlights after each meeting.
• We are building trust by showing all stakeholders that we are good stewards of public funds by bringing clarity to the fiscal condition of our district.
• We settled our Title IX, the Ollier case and continue to focus on improving facilities to increase equity across the district.
• We are most proud of what seems like a collective sense of relief that people talk about all over the district, a collective exhale, a sense of change in culture that seems to have people starting to believe good intent in leadership actions. We have acknowledged to both internal and external stakeholders that we have not always been great actors and we’ve made mistakes; that we have a willingness to listen to things even if we don’t really want to know but need to hear; and, we have a commitment to work out problems together.

On behalf of our leadership team, we thank you and appreciate that you believe we are moving forward, in the right direction, putting students first.

Thank you for the opportunity to serve and support you!

Sincerely,

Karen Janney, Ed.D.