SCUSD is a Safe Haven district to protect immigrant children

March 7, 2017 or Alex Barrios: 916-752-3705

Sacramento City schools launch ‘Safe Haven’

campaign to protect undocumented students

Community leaders pledge support for the district’s efforts to inform every student

and their families of the legal rights of the undocumented by distributing tens of

thousands of ‘know your rights’ fliers at all schools, coordinating with community

organizations to provide legal resources in classrooms, and covering all campuses

with banners and lawn signs promoting inclusion and welcoming all students.

SACRAMENTO, CA—The Sacramento City Unified School District (SCUSD) today announced the launch

of a campaign to protect its undocumented students and staff amid growing fears of deportation in

immigrant communities. The campaign is the first of its kind in California and is the next step in

SCUSD’s national leadership on protecting and standing up for undocumented students and their

families. District leaders were joined today by State Assemblymember Jim Cooper, County Supervisor

Patrick Kennedy, City Councilmember Eric Guerra and dozens of students, teachers and community

members.

“Our Safe Haven policy was the first step we took to protect our kids,” said SCUSD Vice President

Jessie Ryan. “Today, we are taking an even bigger step by launching a full campaign to make sure

every undocumented student and parent in our school district knows their rights if approached by

immigration officials.”

In December, SCUSD approved Resolution 2915 which directed Superintendent José Banda to support

the creation of a Safe Haven district that included compliance with a 2011 federal policy that

immigration enforcement officials could not enter district campuses or facilities without prior written

approval from the Superintendent. The resolution also restricts the sharing of student files that can

be used to determine a student’s immigration status.

The district became one of the first districts in the state to adopt a Safe Haven policy, which has since

been described by State Superintendent of Public Instruction Tom Torlakson as a model for the rest

of California. “This resolution sent a strong message up and down the state that if federal

immigration officials try to come on to our schools or use our data to target undocumented students

and their families, we will take proactive measures to protect them,” said Ryan.With today’s announcement, SCUSD is taking further steps to ensure that undocumented students,

staff and families are aware of their rights and feel welcome and included. The district announced it

will distribute tens of thousands of “know your rights” cards in multiple languages to all students and

will assist in coordinating immigration attorneys and providers of other resources to help these

individuals at school sites. District officials also want to reinforce a message that all students are

welcome. The district will begin hanging up multi-colored banners and lawn signs at every school site

with the message: “Safe Haven: ALL students are welcome”. It will also be running a series of ads and

promotional videos on social media to underscore the contributions of undocumented students and

families in the community. Parents, teachers and community members will be encouraged to join the

campaign by signing pledge cards in support of the Safe Haven effort.

“Our campaign is going to reinforce one common theme—that ALL students are welcome at our

schools and that undocumented students play a valuable role in the everyday life of our campuses,

and that they are a part of the fabric of our district,” said SCUSD Superintendent José Banda.

According to Banda, the district will leverage all of its resources and community connections to help

and protect its students.

For SCUSD Board Member Mai Vang, the Safe Haven campaign is very personal. “My parents came to

this country decades ago as refugees,” said Vang, whose parents attended SCUSD schools. “Like

many of the immigrant families that we are seeking to protect today, my parents came here fleeing

an unsafe environment, in need of opportunities that were not possible in their home land. They did

not let hateful rhetoric or people push them out.”

SCUSD is one of the most diverse school districts in the country. As many as one in five of its students

and families could be affected by federal immigration policies. The district has:

• More than 43,000 students

• 48 different spoken languages that include Spanish, Hmong, Armenian, Korean, Tagalog,

Cantonese, Arabic, Vietnamese and Russian

• 64% qualify for free or reduced lunch

• 17,104 are of Latino descent

• 34,896 are students of color

• In 2015-16, nearly one-third of students were English language learners or non-native

speakers

For more information visit www.scusd.edu/safe-haven-district.

# # #

English Learning In Sacramento

 this is the plan for English Learner instruction in Sacramento City Unified.

 

https://www.scusd.edu/principal-bulletin/el-master-plan-2023-24

 

Covid Funding and Schools in California

https://edsource.org/2022/analysis-of-covid-funding-reveals-california-districts-have-spent-little-so-far-to-address-learning-loss/675557

 I thought you would want to see this interesting story from

 

 EdSource: https://edsource.org/?p=650922

Sac City Unified received

 

$276,699,249.90  Covid relief funds.

 

That is $6,918.75 per student.  In addition to normal California funding. 

   

Strike FAQ for Our Community

Strike FAQ for Our Community: When will the strike begin?SCTA and SEIU 1021 are on strike beginning March 23, 2022. Why are SCTA and SEIU 1021 on strike? We are on strike because every student deserves a teacher in their classroom in a fully staffed school.  We are facing a severe staffing crisis in our district. It’s time to prioritize […]

Every Day in SCUSD

 

Every Sac City Student Should Receive Quality Education,

 

Every Day at SCUSD

 

Sacramento City Unified Should Close Some Schools

  

In  Sacramento City Unified school after school classes are being merged together without a certified teacher in charge. 

The current goal is to keep schools “open”. The problem is what is happening in these “open” schools. Can it be called education?

 

Schooling is fractured, disrupted.   This is not education- and it should stop. ( see post below)

 

It has been clear since last May, that there was a possibility of a return of the virus, but the district has not planned for the return .  They have not even maintained the inadequate on line  distance learning of last year. 

 

Currently classes are being combined and merged. Often substitutes are left  in charge of instruction for large mixed groups of students.

 

This is not in person learning.  It may well not even be safe child care.

 

In schools where more than 20% of the students test positive, the school should be closed for at least two weeks.  And, teachers should stay home for the full quarantine time. 

 

We recognize that distance learning last year did not work well, but the current confusion may well be worse.  For over 40 % of the district students are not in an positive educational environment.

 

The district should close all high impacted schools until they have a plan for the schools and a sufficient number of professional teachers to conduct classes – not mega, merged classes.

 

More to follow. 

 

15,000 Sac City Students Went Without a Regular Teacher Today. Tomorrow Will Likely Be Worse.

15,000 Sac City Students Went Without a Regular Teacher Today. Tomorrow Will Likely Be Worse.: As Superintendent Jorge Aguilar Continues to Demand $10,000 Per Year Cut in Teacher Take-Home Pay While Taking a New, Massive Increase in Total Compensation for Himself The crisis for students at Sac City continues to worsen. Since classes resumed on January 3, the number of students without a regular teacher in the classroom has skyrocketed […]

Record Funding to School Districts

 

Record Funding to Support Educator Retention and Professional Learning ($1.5 billion):
How is your District Planning to Spend It?

 

Para español, favor de hacer clic aquí.

This fall, school districts, charter schools and county offices of education are receiving record investments to support educator retention and professional learning. These investments include $1.5 billion statewide in Educator Effectiveness Funds. They are required to spend the funds on professional learning for teachers and administrators, as well as paraprofessionals and classified staff who work with students. They are also encouraged to invite teachers and other school staff to identify the topics of professional learning they need. Districts will begin receiving their Educator Effectiveness allocations by early 2022. 

There's big money involved

There’s big money involved: 

~$131 million in Los Angeles Unified School District

~$18 million in Fresno Unified School District

~$12 million in San Bernardino City Unified School District

~$14 million in Long Beach Unified School District

~$9 million in Sacramento City Unified School District

~$10 million in Oakland Unified School District

~$1.5 million in Alisal Union School District

~$7 million in West Contra Costa Unified School District

~$6 million in San José Unified School District

~$2 million in Alum Rock Union School District

~$4 million in East Side Union High School District

~$6.5 million in Pomona Unified School District

~$3.5 million in Salinas Union High School District

Check out how much funding your district will receive in this spreadsheet.

Thoughtful and targeted training and professional development for staff can create more inclusive teaching and learning environments, which are essential to attracting and retaining a diverse, prepared educator workforce. Environments where teachers and students feel a strong sense of inclusion and belonging and have support to build restorative and relationship-centered practices promote transformational cultural shifts for racially just schools. 

School districts must adopt a plan by December 30, 2021 that explains how they intend to spend their Educator Effectiveness Funds, starting in the 2021-22 school year and continuing through June 30, 2026. 

What must Educator Effectiveness funds be used for?

Districts must use them to provide instruction, training and professional development for teachers, administrators and other staff who work with students. What could this look like? 

• Coaching and mentoring for staff to foster a meaningful teaching and learning experience
• Programs improving instruction across all subject areas
• Practices and strategies that reengage students and lead to accelerated learning
• Strategies to implement social-emotional learning, trauma-informed practices, access to mental health services and other approaches that improve student well-being
• Practices to foster a positive school climate, including, but not limited to, restorative justice, implicit bias and discrimination and harassment prevention
• Instruction to support effective language-acquisition programs for English   learner students
• Strategies to improve inclusive practices for students receiving special education  services and develop individualized education programs and Section 504 plans
• New professional learning networks for educators
• Education and strategies to incorporate ethnic studies curricula into student instruction for grades 7-12 
• Instruction, education and strategies in early childhood education and expanding universal transitional kindergarten

Check out this infographic on the Educator Effectiveness Plans here [English, Spanish]!

Ask your District: 

• Have you asked teachers and other school staff to identify the professional development and training topics that they need to promote inclusion and belonging in their school communities and better serve students and families?
• Have you drafted your Educator Effectiveness Expenditure Plan yet after incorporating staff feedback? If so, could you post the draft online for community members to review?
• What investments do you plan to make with these funds and why? When will you start spending these funds?
• How much of this funding is being used for new services versus continuing existing services?
• When and how are you planning to request feedback from students, families and other community members on this plan?
• What metrics will you use to evaluate the impact of investments made with these funds and how will you report publicly on their effectiveness over time?
• Will you commit to engage with the community before making any material revisions to the Educator Effectiveness Expenditure Plan in the future?

Contact an administrator in your district’s state/federal programs or finance/budget departments with your questions, requests and feedback

This is an ongoing task of Sacramento LULAC. 

Note; Sacramento City Unified continues to under fund education for English Language Learners. They continue to use funds designated for English Language Learners for other tasks.

SCUSD Proposes to Freeze Teachers' Salaries

 

In spite of a $19 million dollar surplus, ( see blog post below)

News Messenger Volume 42, No. 6 | October 15, 2021

SCUSD Rejects SCTA Olive Branch, Demands 5-Year Wage Freeze And Other Concessions That Would REDUCE Take-Home Pay by an Average of $750 PER MONTH

On August 25, we presented an olive branch to the District. There are several crises impacting the District: The approximately 200 vacancies among certificated staff; The massive shortage of substitutes that has resulted in an average of 54 classes per day (affecting 2000 or more students without either a regular or substitute teacher) The District's failure to provide services to students with disabilities that resulted in legal action by the California Department of Education; The challenges in providing a safe and healthy learning environment with the resumption of in-person instruction; during the pandemic; The need to establish and staff an Independent Study program for those students unable to return to in-person instruction. In order to work together to focus on these crises, we proposed to extend our contract with a modest salary increase (3.5%) through June 30, 2022. You can view our proposal here. SCUSD Rejects SCTA's Olive Branch After refusing to respond to our proposal for weeks, on Wednesday SCUSD's bargaining team formally rejected our proposal. Unlike other school districts (including others that are in significantly worse financial shape than SCUSD) that are offering salary increases and other significant incentives to recruit and retain staff, SCUSD's demands for concessions became even more extreme. SCUSD presented its proposal as a package, meaning take it or leave it. The District reiterated it was maintaining all of its previous proposals, as well as additional or changed demands in the following areas: A 5-Year Wage Freeze; Until Wednesday, the District's unacceptable demand for wage freezes was for three years: school years 19-20. 20-21, an 21-22. On Wednesday, the District increased its demand for an additional two years--22-23 and 23-24. You can view the SCUSD proposal here. By comparison, during the same five-year period he is demanding wage freezes, Superintendent Aguilar's pay will increase by 17.5%. Concessions in Health Insurance that Would Result in $750 PER MONTH Reductions in Take-Home Pay. In addition, to the new 5-year wage freeze demand, the District re-proposed its demand for significant cuts in health insurance, including the right to change insurance at any time to any plan the District determines is "appropriate" and increasing costs to employees that would reduce the take-home pay by an average of $750 per month per employee. Some employees would see their health insurance costs increase by $17,500 or more per year. You can view the SCUSD proposal on benefits here. Increased Work Time for Staff, Without Additional Compensation: If a 5-year wage freeze and enormous reductions in take-home pay through health insurance concessions weren't enough, SCUSD re-proposed significant changes to the employees' work day, including eliminating pay for educators who work through their prep periods and other unnecessary changes. Off-Salary Schedule Bonuses: As part of its take it or leave it proposal, the District offered three one-time bonuses of $1000 per year (before taxes) for 21-22, 22-23, 23-24. The bonuses which, according to the District, are "to address additional costs and duties related to COVID-19, less any and all applicable taxes and withholdings." The District specifically excludes substitutes from receiving the "bonus." For the average regular staff member, the "bonus" would only offset approximately 15% of the $750 per month reduction in take-home pay and no one would be eligible for the "bonus" unless we agreed to every other concession the District is demanding--including the 5-year wage freeze.