While teachers across the William S. Hart Union High School District were preparing their classrooms this week for the start of school on Monday, the district office was finalizing its goals and plans for the school year.
At the top of the list are increasing attendance and math state test scores, according to Interim Superintendent Michael Vierra.
“In general, obviously, we want to increase learning … but specifically I mentioned that we’re really focusing on our math,” Vierra said.
Part of that plan is a districtwide initiative that Vierra called math “push-in.” That, he said, is the opposite of what has occurred in the past, where students would be pulled out of class to help them bridge the gap to be up to standard, and instead has an extra math teacher going to classes and working with students.
Hart district students scored 18.4 points below the standard on average in state testing in the 2022-23 school year, an increase of 9.1 points from the previous year, according to latest data available on the California School Dashboard website.
The “push-in” program was piloted at a couple of school sites last year before being implemented across the district for this year.
“A big piece of data for us is to really look at our students that were involved in our math ‘push-in’ program and to see if we get similar results to what we did in a short period last year with our pilot program,” Vierra said.
Attendance has been a big emphasis for the district since the COVID-19 pandemic. The district saw that rate rise to nearly 19% in the 2022-23 school year, a steep incline from the 9% rate that it had in 2018-19.
During the first semester of last year, that rate dropped to 16%, 9% less than the same time in 2022-23. Vierra credited the “Be Present” campaign that was rolled out at the beginning of the 2023-24 school year.
“We’re really expanding on that,” Vierra said. “And of course, it’s two-pronged: One is, ‘Be present physically in school.’ I mean, obviously, this is common sense. When you’re in school, you’re going to do better, but research backs it …. But the second part is really trying to work with our students on the importance of being engaged, being in the moment, being present that way as well.”
Vierra used that as a segway to talk about the district’s plans to implement the no-phones policy that has been in place at junior highs and is set to be piloted at Canyon High School this year. Students at Canyon will not be allowed to have phones out during instruction time, he said.
Both district officials and members of the governing board have discussed wanting to bring that policy to every school in the district, but Vierra said it’s a little different at the high schools.
“A lot of discussion about what to do at the secondary level, because obviously the schools are bigger and the students are older,” Vierra said. “And so, we’ve had lots of discussion about that …. And on top of that, we’re going to work on really making information available to our students on healthy use of technology, social media, all the things that go with that.”
Speaking more broadly, Vierra said the district is continually working on aligning all classes to fit into the strategic plan. That includes ensuring that all content standards are identified, with social studies being the main focus this year.
Other things that Vierra said he is looking forward to seeing this year are: the introduction of the Hart High Hawks (students and staff voted last year to make “Hawks” the school’s new mascot); stadium lights being put in at the high school fields that did not yet have them (he said they should all be in place by next week); and a unique outdoor wellness center currently being constructed at Bowman High School.
