Common Core, music programs and student needs top new LCUSD board president’s list

In their first meeting of 2016, La Cañada Unified school board members reflected upon progress made in the first semester of the school year and looked ahead to new things on the horizon for the rest of the school year and beyond.

Newly elected board President David Sagal offered his thoughts on the continued advancements made throughout the district since he first joined the governing board in 2013, thanking administrators and teachers for successfully navigating tough transitions to new Common Core standards and technology-based learning.

“It has not been easy. Limits have been stretched and endurance tested, but speaking for the board and as a parent, I want to say the results are greatly appreciated,” Sagal said.

Looking ahead, the president identified three areas where he hopes board-level attention will be applied: embracing Common Core instruction and communicating its value to the school community, creating a districtwide initiative that gives all students access to strong instrumental music programs and making the needs of each and every student a priority.

“Thank you very much,” Sagal concluded, “I look forward to a great year.”

Districtwide assessments, school snapshots

Lindi Dreibelbis, the district’s chief director of assessment, shared some findings from recently administered formative assessments, intended not to measure students’ academic performance as much as the progress of in-class instruction.

The administrator shared some results of the teacher-designed, grade-level tests issued to students in November. For example, that 86% of second-graders met math benchmarks and that 90% of middle school students did the same in Spanish 1.

But, she stressed, the results themselves tell only part of the story.

“These are not summative in nature,” she said. “This is a point in time of how the kids are doing. And it’s something that we use to guide our work.”

A 26-member districtwide assessment team, made up of administrators and teachers who previously served on LCUSD’s curriculum council, will continue to refine such internal assessments as they consider such things as the intrinsic value of assessment and whether acquisition of content is the goal of student learning, or simply the doorway to grasping deeper standards.

Dreibelbis also announced that the state-mandated School Accountability Report Cards (SARC) for the 2014-15 are available for viewing by the community. The documents are intended to provide the information about each school site, including demographic information, school safety, academic data, class sizes as well as information on teacher, staff and a school’s finances.

Computer stolen in Palm Crest theft located, returned

Chief Business and Operations Officer Mark Evans informed board members Tuesday that a MacBook laptop stolen from Palm Crest Elementary School during a July 21 burglary in which suspects also took 39 iPads had recently been recovered.

“We actually had a college student, who had gotten the MacBook online and discovered that it was one of our stolen [devices],” Evans said, adding that the laptop was returned.

The recent discovery brings the total number of recovered devices to six; five were located in Long Beach in August, after tracking software installed in the iPads alerted district officials.

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Sara Cardine, sara.cardine@latimes.com

Twitter: @SaraCardine