What Happened Last Night?

Encore's School Board met last night for their regular Board Meeting. If you ever want to join our school board, you can watch (or listen) to our board meeting by clicking the link on our website. I am going to give you a quick recap of the hghlights to last night's meeting.

• WASC - Encore's mid cycle visit started yesterday virtually, but was cut short due to circumstances beyond the control of our WASC chair. Our visit has been rescheduled for March 1-2.

• Assistant Dean of Students Report - Mrs. Julia Dolf covered several topics relating to the end of semester 1 including the formalized assessments for EL students, the IS student end of semester 1 assessment, grade recovery packets for students with Fs, and the second semester plan for students Distance Learning with Zoom fatigue.

• Head Administrative Counselor Report - Mrs. Esther Haskins covered several topics relating to the counseling department including the ongoing coordination with VVC for the dual enrollment MOU that is hopefully going to start in the fall. She also covered the use of Care Solace through Encore's SELPA for the emotional health of our families and the coordination of the BRIDGE program for our seniors going to VVC in the fall.

• EL Course Report - Mr. Dylan Zamanis gave his twice annual report to the board about the contents and progress in his EL course for high school. He discussed the pedagogy behind his class and how his class supports English Learners.

• NWEA Contract - After the benchmark program Naiku was removed from the California approved benchmark list in November, Encore is going back to NWEA for formalized, third party benchmarks. NWEA is a California Department of Education firm that creates benchmark testing for students to take throughout the year so a school can obtain objective growth reports for student achievement. Last night's vote to approve the contract added the science component to the benchmarks, so students will be tested three times per year in math, English, and science to gauge student achievement and prep the students for annual state testing.

• Academic Excellence Committee - Encore's School Board approved the mission and description of the Academic Excellence Committee that comprises of students, parents, teachers, administration, and a board member to help drive the main annual academic goals for Encore. Their goals will become part of the annual LCAP/SPSA (School plan).

• Changes to Encore's Board Calendar - At last night's meeting, Encore's School Board voted to move some of the board meeting dates so that Encore will be available to attend HUSD Board meetings. They also voted to move the meeting to 6:30 pm. There is a link on Encore's home page for the general public to log in to board meetings while they are in progress. You can also find the board calendar under the "Board" link on the homepage.

• COVID reopening plan - While Encore has no scheduled date for students to return to in person instruction, an updated plan has been approved based on the Governor's new guidelines. This plan was approved in last night's meeting.

• Fiscal Controller Position - Encore is adding a fiscal controller to the staff by March 1 that will work directly with the staff of six from Encore's backoffice fiscal office, DMS. This position will work to process on campus transactions and will be the seventh person on the fiscal team to work on the fiscal processing for Encore to improve transparency.

• ASB gets a name change - After discussions with Encore's third party bookkeeper that is working directly with the student services debit account, it was recommended by the bookkeeper to update the name of Encore's student government since the term "ASB" refers to a specific and formalized grouping. Our student government (known moving forward as ESG "Encore Student Government") is not a formalized ASB. This namesake has caused confusion over the years so we are eliminating the confusion and have formally adopted the name change to ESG. There are several schools in the state of California that make this distinction.

• Fiscal Reporting - Each month, full detail of the Student Services Debit account, and Encore's fiscal reporting is approved as consent items for the board. Last night, November and December student services books were reviewed and approved along with January Warrant reports, Retirement Contribution reports, and the November Financial reports. These are routine and nature and are always available for the public to see from the "Board" link on our website.

I would like to take a minute to thank our amazing Board, especially our Board president Mrs. Suzanne Cherry, for their leadership and support throughout the school year. Their feedback and insight is appreciated and has helped Encore shape and build the programs on a path of constant improvement.

Thank you and have a great day.