Warner will be reviewing its LCAP Covid-19 Addendum on June 5th at 5 pm. It will be an online meeting. Public is welcome to attend and review the plan.
Local Control Accountability Plan Meeting
Topic: Warner USD LCAP COVID-19 Addendum
Time: Jun 5, 2020 05:00 PM Pacific Time (US and Canada)
Join Zoom Meeting
https://us02web.zoom.us/j/8532...
Meeting ID: 853 2166 6878
Password: 0yb2kK
COVID-19 Operations Written Report
Local Educational Agency (LEA) Name | Contact Name and Title | Email and Phone | Date of Adoption |
Warner Unified School District | David MacLeod Superintendent] | 760-782-3517 | June 8th, 2020 |
Descriptions provided should include sufficient detail yet be sufficiently succinct to promote a broader understanding of the changes your LEA has put in place. LEAs are strongly encouraged to provide descriptions that do not exceed 300 words.
Provide an overview explaining the changes to program offerings that the LEA has made in response to school closures to address the COVID-19 emergency and the major impacts of the closures on students and families.
As a small rural district Warner Unified has a unique role in the community serving 230 plus students, spread over 462 square miles. The preschool, elementary school and middle/high school, along with the district office, are all located on the same site, and together serve as a social center of the community. The school/district closures and stay at home orders have made maintaining that sense of community connection more difficult. Building a welcoming school climate has been a goal at the district, and COVID-19 conditions have made it more challenging. However, staff is committed to maintaining positive relationships and providing community support throughout this difficult time. Parents, staff and students are invited to share ideas, questions and concerns with the Superintendent, through phone calls, emails or social media, just like they used to take advantage of his open-door policy to give input.
In order to help students and families maintain the all-important connection to school, Warner has utilized a strong positive social media presence during the COVID-19 pandemic, sharing positive messages, links to academic and social emotional resources, pictures of staff sending positive messages to students, pictures and stories of seniors, samples of student art work, and more. Parents in the community can also call or email staff members with questions or concerns. A district liaison focuses her work with the local Native American tribes to identify those families who may be more at-risk in this shelter-at-home environment as well as academically at-risk students, and district leadership works with tribal leadership to provide support such as Chromebooks for students, and food or SEL resources for families. Bilingual staff are available to support the Spanish speaking members of the community, maintaining strong school-family connections. The priority for the district is the physical and social-emotional health of their students and community, as well as maintaining academic engagement.
The lack of connectivity has also made transitioning to a virtual learning environment problematic. Although WUSD has 1:1 technology implementation, and all teachers are being trained and are ready for online instruction, the access issues make that impossible at this time. The district has been investigating options to get connectivity to all areas of the district, but that is not yet available. So for now, instruction is occurring via student packets.
Provide a description of how the LEA is meeting the needs of its English learners, foster youth and low-income students.
Warner Unified School District has seen improvement in the academic achievement of both English Learner and Socioeconomically Disadvantaged student groups, based on the 2019 California Schools Dashboard. Both groups of students showed improvement in English Language Arts and Math. Since 82% of the students in WUSD are Socioeconomically Disadvantaged, school and district wide improvements such as the focus on literacy and building a love of reading among the students contributed to their improvement. Those priorities were built into the student packets that were given to students during the school shut-down, and the Reading Specialist and Instructional Aides continue to be available to help students virtually.
For English Learner students the district has worked to hire more bilingual staff to support the students and reach out to the families. These staff members have provided key support during this time of distance learning. Students and parents benefit from staff who can reach out and check in with them to see how they are doing both academically and social-emotionally, and the bilingual staff members can help identify resources for the students or families. As staff prepare the packets for students to work on at home, they take into consideration strategies to meet the diverse needs of their students, and to provide resources when students need additional help. As planning begins for the coming year, more planning and resources will be needed to ensure EL students have access to the same quality of instruction in a virtual or hybrid environment as they would in their classrooms.
Our After School Education & Safety (ASES) program staff are putting together projects(Art & STEM) and sending them out during lunch distribution. Staff is interacting with students & parents via email and phone calls. ASES staff is participating in professional development provided through SDCOE. Staff are preparing for next school year purchasing supplies and creating schedules. After School Safety and Enrichment for Teens (ASSETS) staff are also reaching out to students and preparing for next school year.
Warner Unified School District does not have any students who are foster youth.
Provide a description of the steps that have been taken by the LEA to continue delivering high-quality distance learning opportunities.
Early in March 2020 WUSD began planning for the possibility that district/school closures may be on the horizon. Since parts of the community do not have reliable internet access, the decision was made by staff that the most equitable option was the creation of paper packets. On March 11 packets were distributed to all elementary and middle school students, just in case. Packets were distributed to high school students on March 13. As it turns out, school closures were announced March 13. Due to insightful preplanning, all students were prepared with packets for the first week of closures. Teachers continued to create weekly packets, ultimately to complete the school year. Teachers worked hard to ensure the packets were grade appropriate and standards-based. Students were invited to contact teachers by email or by phone if they needed help, and contact information was included in the packets. One of the benefits of a small district is that the staff know the students and their families well, and design lessons that will be accessible to their students. Messages were sent out to remind parents that the packets were mandatory, packets were collected and reviewed, and progress reports were given out.
Packet distribution (distribution and pick-up) was done in conjunction with meal distribution, and packets could also be dropped off at the district office. Packets were sent home by mail to students who did not pick them up. Reminders to turn in packets, with the student’s name on them, were given regularly. Teachers reached out to students in a variety of ways, and bilingual staff were available to support English Learners.
Looking forward, the district hopes to be able to provide internet access to all families. Once that happens the staff is ready to transition to virtual, online instruction.
Provide a description of the steps that have been taken by the LEA to provide school meals while maintaining social distancing practices.
Warner USD organized weekly meal service for their students at a variety of pick-up locations across the district. Each week’s meal service includes five lunches and five breakfasts. Staff at the lunch distribution sites practice required safety precautions, such as wearing masks and practice social distancing by limiting the number of staff when assembling the lunches. The lunches are delivered at 6 locations within the district, staff deliver lunches to parents in their cars. At the drop off locations at the two tribal halls meals some meals are then delivered directly to student’s homes if needed to ensure the family’s needs are met.
After the first few weeks of meal distribution Warner partnered with an outside company to provide more meal variety, including one hot meal.
Provide a description of the steps that have been taken by the LEA to arrange for supervision of students during ordinary school hours.
If a family needs to arrange for childcare or supervision they have been notified to contact the superintendent who will work with staff and community resources to arrange it. So far, no families have requested assistance in this area.
California Department of Education
May 2020