Helping students recover from missed learning during the coronavirus pandemic and teachers overcome the lingering stress from COVID-19 are some of the goals set for Waukegan Community Unit School District 60 Superintendent Theresa Plascencia for the next few months.
The District 60 Board of Education voted 6-0 with one abstention to approve an amendment to Plascencia’s contract Tuesday at the Lincoln Center administration building in Waukegan establishing the goals which will be the basis for her annual review in the spring.
Along with developing a plan to help students glean the knowledge which could not be taught as the district and the nation were grappling with finding ways to educate the country’s youth while they learned from computers at home to avoid getting COVID-19, there are other goals.
“This is not just a local problem,” Plascencia said. “It is a national problem.”
Other goals are a plan to improve the achievement of Black male students, get rid of old, out of date computer software, start a self-care campaign to focus on staff wellness and five metrics which can lead to performance bonuses if met.
Plascencia said the decline in reading and math scores at all levels prompted the intensive effort to give students the support they need to eventually be at both the academic and social emotional level they would have achieved had there been no pandemic.
“We’re going to look at what we teach, how we teach and when we teach,” Plascencia said. “We will apply social emotional learning to all of it. We will look at the supports we need and get the resources for it. We know in person learning works better.”
Since students need more time to learn what was missed during the pandemic, Plascencia said after school one on one tutoring will be available. There is a contract with a service which provides instructors with an undergraduate degree in the subject they are teaching.
Board President Brandon Ewing said he is glad to see the program to help Black male students do better after looking at the metrics which show they have an excessively harder time than their peers in the district.
“Black males are over represented in suspensions, underrepresented in advanced placement courses and advanced high school courses and over represented among diverse learners,” Ewing said. “We need to focus on this group of students.”
Since Black male students are disproportionately underperforming at many levels, Plascencia said she plans to work with the principal at each school to improve their performance one student at a time.
“We’re working on equity,” Plascencia said. “We’re going to look at each student and determine what help and supports they need to be successful. We’re going to be looking at these metrics year by year.”
While students were impacted academically as well as socially and emotionally during the pandemic, teachers and other staff members felt stress too. It is one reason some are leaving the profession. Plascencia said the district is launching a campaign focusing on wellness.
Each month has a different theme. Gratitude is the theme in November and it will be joy in December. Plascencia said there will be activities like yoga and Zumba. She hopes it will lead to more teachers and other staff members continuing to teach Waukegan students.
“We want to help our staff with the stress they may feel in the workplace,” Plascencia said. “We’re going to make sure we give them the support they need.”
Along with the four goals, there is a quintet of key performance indicators which board members will consider when looking at Plascencia’s accomplishments. The board wants to see an increase in the graduation rate from 74% to 76% and a bump on freshmen on track to graduate from 65% to 67%, according to the goals set forth in the contract amendment.
The board also wants a 1% increase in diverse learners educated in a classroom with other students, a 2.3% improvement in test scores and one school a year receiving an improved ranking on the annual Illinois State Board of Education Report Card.
Board member Hanna said she feels the goals are good ones but chose to abstain when it was her turn to vote because she wants see higher key performance indicators.