SMUSD Board Hears Performance Report, Goals

Huntington Middle School Principal Jason Kurtenbach presented San Marino Unified School District’s Local Control Accountability Plan at last week’s Board of Education meeting.
The plan, known as LCAP, highlighted the strong marks of the now-ending 2016-17 school year and also areas of improvement for the upcoming year.
San Marino High School boasted a 98% graduation rate, according to Kurtenbach’s presentation, and had no dropouts this year. English language arts and development students, as well as math students, had improved significantly over the period.
Other highlights included a 1.1% suspension rate and 97% attendance rate.
Greatest needs in the district listed in the presentation included addressing growing suspension rates for English learners, students in special education and Hispanic students. Students with disabilities slipped in the English language arts and math index; English learners scored lower in the English language arts index; white students fell behind in the math index; and Hispanic students fell in both English language arts and math indices.
It also included the evaluation of the brand new California College and Career Indicator tool, which said 14% of SMHS graduates were listed as “not prepared” this year. Kurtenbach added he is still familiarizing himself with the metrics that went into that evaluation and will have more information for the board in the future.
The full report can be found on the board’s agenda at smusd.us.
In other business, the board also formally awarded naming rights for several parts of the Barth Athletics Complex currently under construction at HMS and voted to eliminate an elementary school science coordinator position.
— Zane Hill