November 5, 2018
EDCAL 3
Toolkit to protect immigrant students
With reports coming out of San Francisco
that immigrant parents are afraid to register
to vote for local school board positions
because of deportation fears, a letter that
Superintendent of Public Instruction Tom
Torlakson sent out recently to district and
school leaders is worth noting.
In the letter, Torlakson noted that
under Assembly Bill 699, California pub-
lic schools are required by law to provide
protection for students, regardless of immi-
gration status. In April, the state Attorney
General released a policy: “Promoting a
Safe and Secure Learning Environment
For All: Guidance and Model Policies to
Assist K-12 Schools in Responding to
Immigration Issues.” The model policy can
be accessed on the Attorney General’s web-
site at http://bit.ly/2AysdHE.
The California Department of Education
has now joined a coalition along with
the Children’s Partnership, Californians
Together and the California Association for
Bilingual Education. This coalition is called
ALL IN for Safe Schools for All Families.
The coalition is offering a toolkit to help
school leaders protect students and adhere
to the requirements of AB 699. The toolkit
contains such resources as sample news-
letter language; bilingual, family-friendly
materials to distribute to students; a model
curriculum for educators; and more. The
toolkit can be found at http://allinforsafe-
schools.org.
Torlakson’s letter noted that, as of July 1,
2018, public schools are required to:
• Implement measures to prevent stu-
dents from being discriminated against or
bullied based on their immigration status.
• Ensure schools are teaching students
about the harm of bullying students based
on immigration status.
• Refrain from the unnecessary collec-
tion of immigration status information from
students or families.
• Report police enforcement of immi-
gration laws to school boards.
• Ensure schools are following a family’s
designated emergency plan.
• Inform parents about their children’s
right to a free public education and about
policies to resist assistance with immigra-
tion enforcement at schools.
Expanded Learning leaders honored
through National Lights On Afterschool
Superintendent of Public Instruction
Tom Torlakson congratulated the California
Department of Education 2018 California
Expanded Learning award winners.
“Expanded learning programs are an
important extension of a student’s typical
school day. The programs provide additional
academic support, cultural enrichment, and
social and emotional learning opportuni-
ties,” Torlakson said. “These awards are a
way to recognize the talented and dedicated
staff who are helping students learn, thrive,
and succeed inside and outside the class-
room.”
Studies show that Expanded Learning
programs increase student attendance, cut
dropout rates, reduce juvenile crime, and
boost academic success.
The awards are part of Lights On
Afterschool, a nationwide event celebrating
the role of afterschool programs in keeping
kids safe, inspiring them to learn and help-
ing working families.
Torlakson has been a staunch supporter
of learning and cultural enrichment pro-
grams outside regular school hours. He
created the CDE’s Expanded Learning
Division and has relentlessly fought for
adequate Expanded Learning funding.
In 2017, President Trump proposed elim-
inating all federal funding for Expanded
Learning programs, which would have taken
away $129 million, or about 18 percent
of the total amount California spends on
Expanded Learning. Torlakson vigorously
opposed the proposal to eliminate all federal
funding for Expanded Learning, calling it
“counterproductive and short-sighted.” In
the end, funding was maintained.
The Expanded Learning awards
are divided into three areas: Visionary
Leadership, Emerging Leadership, and
this year’s new category, Inspirational
Leadership. There are two winners selected
for each category.
The six recipients were chosen based on
their outstanding commitment to improv-
ing and enriching the lives of young people
through Expanding Learning.
The California Expanded Learning
Visionary Leadership recipients:
• Allyson Harris, director of Youth
Support Services, Shasta COE
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Continued from page 1
an undergraduate’s transcript, highlighted
in large font. This latter part is to assist
district human resources departments in
recognizing a candidate’s post-grad credits
to place them in the correct corresponding
salary category.
The transcript would be accompanied
by a memo from the dean or director of
Education on the relevant campus. It would
contain a listing of the post-baccalaureate
courses aimed at ensuring appropriate dis-
trict staff can easily interpret students’ tran-
scripts.
Over her 20 year career in Expanded
Learning, Harris has worked in various roles,
including: regional technical support and
training, K–12 grant-funded programs and
fee-based summer programs. Most recently,
Harris was the program director for the
Project SHARE Program in Shasta County,
serving kindergarten through twelfth grade
students attending 25 schools in 18 districts.
• Adrienne Herd, program administra-
tor/grant manager, University of California,
Berkeley
Herd’s passion for working with under-
served communities and after school proj-
ects began when she was a college student
and helped to start a program in partnership
with the NAACP called Saturday Schools
in homes and churches, which taught read-
ing and phonics to struggling students.
During the span of her career, Herd has
been responsible for generating millions of
dollars in local, state, and federal funds to
support families in underserved communi-
ties.
The California Expanded Learning
Inspirational Leadership recipients:
• Sergio Espinoza, director of Special
Projects, Heber ESD
Espinoza’s exposure to the importance
of Expanded Learning Programs began
when he was a child traveling from town
to town with his family and working the
various harvest seasons. He was enrolled in
many schools and after school programs.
That experience motivated Espinoza to
pursue a career in education. He entered
the field as an elementary school teacher
at Heber Elementary School. After receiv-
ing a master’s degree and completing an
Administrative Credentialing program,
he became a district assistant principal.
Currently he is the project director and
Special Education director for Heber
School District and coordinator for the
After School Education and Safety pro-
gram. Espinoza’s goal for ASES is to ensure
that students are exposed to cultural and
enrichment activities that go beyond activi-
ties in the classroom.
• Linda Burkholder, director of Family
Engagement and Support Services, Folsom
Cordova USD
For almost two decades, Burkholder has
In meetings between the Human
Resources Council and the CSU
Chancellor’s Office, there is strong agree-
ment regarding the importance of recog-
nizing post-graduate units taken by new
teachers as undergraduates so as not to
discourage four-year credential pathways.
ACSA urges all human resources leaders
and other involved staff to begin recogniz-
ing post-grad undergraduate coursework in
entering salary decisions. The result will be
that earning of a credential with a bachelor’s
degree will result in the same salary level as
earning a credential in a fifth-year program
following a bachelor’s degree.
At this time, limited numbers of CSU
teacher candidates have completed cre-
supported the dedicated staff members of
the After School Education and Safety
program. The program serves more than
500 students at nine Title 1 school sites in
Rancho Cordova. Burkholder also directs
the school district’s Family Engagement
Summer Academy, which offers a no-cost,
locally-funded, four-week STEM enrich-
ment program for elementary students.
Parents are also allowed to enroll as co-
learners alongside their children. This year,
Burkholder was selected by her fellow dis-
trict administrators as Folsom Cordova
USD’s 2018 Administrator of the Year.
The California Expanded Learning
Emerging Leadership recipients:
• David Anderson, Manager, Expanded
Learning Program, Lennox SD
Anderson joined Lennox School District
in 2013 as the coordinator for the Expanded
Learning program. He was later promoted
to manager where he currently oversees
daily operations and a host of academic and
enrichment programs, including homework
assistance, sign language, video game design,
and Mandarin Chinese. Anderson takes his
leadership seriously and operates a program
that helps to lay a solid academic, career, and
civic foundation for students. He believes
that through youth, we may change the
world in one generation.
•
Adilene Herrera, After School
Programs coordinator, Healdsburg Parks
and Recreation Department
Herrera has worked for the City of
Healdsburg for six years. She has an outgo-
ing personality that helps her connect with
her students and encourage them to unleash
their creativity. Herrera attributes the pas-
sion she has for her work to the amazing
mentors and teachers she has had in her
own life.
Lights On Afterschool was launched
in October 2000 with celebrations in
1,200 communities nationwide. Lights On
Afterschool is a project of the Afterschool
Alliance, a nonprofit organization dedicated
to ensuring that all children have access
to quality, affordable afterschool programs.
For more information, visit the Lights On
Afterschool website at www.afterschoolal-
liance.org/loa.cfm.
dentials as undergraduates. However, it is
important to assist each of these candidates
as they are hired for entering positions. The
number will increase in spring 2019 and
significantly by spring 2020.
Should you have any questions about
this, please don’t hesitate to contact ACSA
Legislative Advocate Laura Preston at
[email protected] or Joan Bissell in the
CSU Chancellor’s Office at jbissell@cal-
state.edu.
More information can be found at www2.
calstate.edu/impact-of-the-csu/teacher-educa-
tion/Pages/resources.aspx.
The launch of the Fatal
School Violence Toolkit
sparked a substantive
discussion from our ACSA leaders at
the October board of directors meet-
ing.
The question I was left with: how do
we begin to address mental wellness?
Our members have done an incredible
job contributing content to the toolkit,
including resources for before, during
and after an incident. But I’ve been
reflecting on the “before” part of con-
fronting school violence and thinking
that ACSA can take a leadership role in
addressing mental wellness.
Consider the school violence incidents
in the past year. Parkland is the tragedy
that always comes to my mind, but
there have been more than 50 in the
United States this year. Each of them
unique in circumstances and victims,
but often with one common trend:
mental wellness.
As education leaders and student
advocates, we have a responsibility to
support the whole child. We have to be
observant of behaviors and trends. We
have to understand the school climate
we create and what is happening in our
communities.
But we have to be honest with our-
selves. Many of us don’t have the
resources we need. The tactics and
tools, the research and evidence-based
practices. We spend hours focusing our
professional development on budgets
and curriculum and now even school
safety. But where do we find the
resources to support mental wellness?
As we move into 2019, ACSA is form-
ing a Mental Wellness Task Force. This
task force will focus on mental health
practices, wellness, mindfulness and
social-emotional learning practices in
schools and districts.
In forming this task force, I’m hoping
to identify and highlight schools and
districts doing good work on mental
wellness. I’m hoping we can make real
change in the state Capitol by increas-
ing funding and making it easier for
districts to apply for funding of mental
health initiatives.
Above all else, I want to make these
resources available to our members.
I want to take everything we create,
research, and develop and place it in
the ACSA Resource Hub, which already
has high-quality resources for our
members
We are searching for a well-rounded
task force with representation at all lev-
els of educational leadership, especially
members with expertise in this area or
who are doing innovative work in their
schools and districts to meet the needs
of their students.
More than anything, we want members
who are committed to California public
school students. If you are interested,
I encourage you to answer a few ques-
tions on our online platform at https://
tinyurl.com/ACSA-MentalWellness.
ACSA also offers a number of resourc-
es on school climate and building a
sense of student connectedness on
our Resource Hub at content.acsa.org.
– Holly Edds
ACSA President