Sun Valley : 565 Area Educators Share Ideas at Forum

Teachers and school administrators from 14 east San Fernando Valley public schools met in a massive, unprecedented forum to discuss creating a new “community of schools” in the area.

Students were sent home at 12:30 p.m. Tuesday to allow about 565 educators to gather at Francis Polytechnic High School in Sun Valley to meet one another, share ideas and discuss ways to bolster student achievement.

“It was excellent,” said Heather Daims, assistant principal at Polytechnic. “It brought together nearly every teacher from pre-kindergarten through 12th grade, from schools that feed to Poly, to discuss ways we can improve our system.”

A recurrent theme was ensuring continuity and consistency in students’ education, Daims said. Ideas discussed included possibly forming teams of teachers at the middle and high school levels to act as mentors to students as they progress from grade to grade, Daims said.

Teachers also discussed the possibility of developing portfolios to track students’ progress through the system. The portfolios could provide new teachers with background on students that would go beyond letter grades.

Support was voiced for instituting school uniforms at more schools and for reducing the number of students in classes, Daims said.

“The response from teachers was overwhelmingly positive,” said Phyllis Gudoski, a teacher at Strathern Street Elementary School and an organizer of the event. “Teachers are realizing we’ve got to know what teachers in the other grades at other schools are doing,” she said, adding that a plan is in the works to send middle and high school teachers on fact-finding missions to elementary schools, and vice versa.

Schools represented at the meeting included Byrd Middle School, Arminta Street Elementary, Canterbury Avenue Elementary, Glenwood Elementary, Stonehurst Avenue Elementary, Vena Avenue Elementary, Robert H. Lewis High School, Sun Valley Middle School, Camellia Avenue Elementary, Fernangeles Elementary, Roscoe Elementary, Strathern Street Elementary and Vinedale Elementary.

“The next step will be to talk about where we go from here,” added Gudoski, who said she will meet this weekend with teachers from some of the schools for a debriefing on the forum and to plan future programs.