Pajaro Valley Unified School District is beginning the new school year with rising test scores at several campuses, students taking a larger role in shaping district policy and construction poised to begin on a long-awaited performing arts center at Pajaro Valley High School.
In an interview Tuesday with The Pajaronian, Superintendent Heather Contreras said nine schools showed what the district considers significant growth on the California Assessment of Student Performance and Progress, with other schools also showing improvement.
That comes after two difficult years in which PVUSD grappled with budget problems and made a series of cuts to bring its finances back into balance.
“We’re starting out the school year with a sense of celebration at several of our schools,” Contreras said. “We’re seeing them pay off, and so it’s a great way to start the school year.”
Contreras pointed to H.A. Hyde, MacQuiddy and Calabasas elementary schools as examples of campuses where academic initiatives are beginning to show results.
H.A. Hyde and MacQuiddy were the first schools to adopt SWUN Math, an instructional model that includes regular coaching for teachers. After a year and a half in the program, both schools saw 5% growth in math on the state accountability measure, Contreras said.
Eight more schools have since adopted the program, including Calabasas.
PVUSD has also introduced training through Language Essentials for Teachers of Reading and Spelling, or LETRS, which teaches educators the science behind how children learn to read and how to identify gaps in their skills. The district has paired that effort with a phonics program for students and reading coaches at some campuses.
Growth was not limited to elementary schools. Contreras said Aptos and Pajaro Valley high schools each showed 11% growth on the state accountability measure compared with the previous year.
Contreras said the results give the district a clearer picture of which strategies are working and can be expanded elsewhere.
Another initiative puts students at the center of district decisions.
The Superintendent’s Student Advisory Council, which includes students from across the district, helped develop new district policies on cellphones and homework last year.
Students studied state law and policies from other districts before working in small groups to develop their own proposals. They took those ideas back to their schools, presented them to one another and eventually reached consensus on recommendations for PVUSD.
Their cellphone proposal ultimately became the policy approved earlier this year by the school board. Students also presented their work directly to trustees.
“It just makes sense to me that they would get involved in the policies that affect them,” Contreras said.
Students also considered whether elementary students should have phones at school, when middle school students should be allowed to use them and how restrictions could affect athletics and after-school programs.
Their homework discussions similarly included the different needs of Advanced Placement students, athletes and younger children, along with whether students have internet access or adults available to help them at home.
This year, the group will tackle an even larger issue: the possibility of school closures as the district grapples with a moribund budget and declining enrollment.
PVUSD is studying how to respond to declining enrollment, including whether some schools should close or consolidate. Contreras said students will receive information similar to what has been presented to the district’s adult advisory group before developing their own recommendations.
“We want to hear from them,” she said.
While students take on a greater role in district policy, one of PVUSD’s largest facilities projects is preparing to move from planning to construction.
The district expects to break ground in early September on the new performing arts center at Pajaro Valley High School, district spokesman Alejandro Chavez said.
The school board recently approved Santa Clara-based Swinerton to manage the project and its subcontractors. District officials hope construction can be completed in about two years.
Contreras said reaching the construction phase so quickly required navigating state approvals and other regulatory hurdles.
“From bond passing to shovel in the ground, to do that in two years is outstanding,” she said, crediting the district’s facilities staff and bond manager.
The performing arts center is one of several facilities projects underway across PVUSD. Summer work included new or improved playgrounds, painting and other upgrades, while groundbreakings are also planned for fields at Rolling Hills Middle School and Pajaro Middle School.
For Contreras, however, the academic gains provide perhaps the clearest reason for optimism as students return.
The goal now, she said, is to determine what produced those improvements and reproduce them throughout the district.
“We’re excited to see that what we thought would happen is happening,” she said, “and we see it translating into the results for the students.”
