West Sac school board chief leads district shake-up Comprehensive Educational Platform

West Sac school board chief leads district shake-up

July 2nd, 2011 | by Alica Story |

Dave Westin is shaking things up at the Washington Unified School District.

In his 18 months as school board president, the business executive and the other trustees have put administrative staff on notice meet goals or face the consequences.

Washington Unified, which covers the city of West Sacramento, has a history of low student performance although scores have been rising.

District officials have fired or reassigned six employees who didn’t meet expectations. “We are also closely monitoring 60 employees with performance issues this year,” Westin said.

Even the new superintendent, Dayton Gilleland, is not immune. The school board hired him in the summer of 2010 with the provision that he meet 28 measurable objectives, including dramatically improving academic scores and graduation rates and maintaining a balanced budget.

The board spent about two hours in closed session last month reviewing every management position, Westin said.

“We’re going to run the school district like a business,” Westin said. “Not a mom and pop shop. We expect performance and we expect every employee to be evaluated.”

Gilleland said he doesn’t mind the high expectations. “It’s important to establish and to expect objectives,” he said.

Westin said the goals are flexible and that not hitting any one objective won’t result in anyone’s release.

In the last eight years, the district has increased its Academic Performance Index score by 75 points. The district API is an indicator of how well its students score on state tests.

But last year’s increases were remarkable. The school district increased its overall API score by 20 points to 741 the second highest increase in the district’s history, Westin said.

The Natomas Unified and Twin Rivers Unified school districts made similar increases last year.

“I fully expect the district to be one of the top performing in the region for the next several years,” Westin said. “We have gotten over the hump and are now able to move beyond reform and take the district to the next level.”

School board member Adam Menke calls Westin “a driving force.”

He shares the board president’s enthusiasm. “You can’t turn the Titanic on a dime,” he said. “It’s small enough we can turn things a lot quicker. There is no reason that this district can’t be one of the best districts around here.”

Washington Unified officials attribute their success to new math and writing programs, as well as the implementation of intervention programs to catch faltering students.

The interventions include a computer remediation program and professional training so teachers can learn to better check for student understanding and to recognize student needs.

Westin said he has set up town hall meetings for district officials and parents to discuss the school board’s goals and objectives. In January, about 60 people showed up to hear the president’s initiatives for the year, which range from offering health care and social services at schools to bringing in local business people to share expertise with students and to partner with the district to fund programs and scholarships.

Last month , the board also approved a 10-page “Parents Bill of Rights and Responsibilities.” The document outlines parents’ rights to observe classroom instruction, meet with teachers and staff and to be notified of their child’s performance. It also lets parents know what is expected of them.

“I think a lot of things are happening in our district,” Menke said, adding that “the dust is settling” after the recent completion of a new high school and the transition of most of the district’s elementary schools from K-5 to K-8.

But the district, which has a steep economic and academic divide between its south and north sides, still has a long way to go.

Menke said the divide causes problems because the students feed into the same high school. “Do teachers teach to the students that are behind or to the other students?” Menke said.

The district, which has a balanced budget, has the luxury of focusing on academics. Washington Unified officials have managed to avoid the massive layoffs and major program cuts of other districts because past boards had the foresight to plan ahead, said Mary Leland, who began her stint on the board in 2004.

So, instead of layoffs, the district is hiring and last year offered its teachers a one-time 2 percent bonus. Menke said he hopes the district is able to offer jobs to some of the good teachers being laid off by other districts.

The district also has beefed up staff training and requires principals to spend a minimum of five hours a week observing in classrooms, Gilleland said.

“Our expectations are high and those expectations will trickle down through his (Gilleland’s) cabinet and trickle all the way down to the teachers and gardeners,” Westin said.

WASHINGTON UNIFIED BY THE NUMBERS

Washington Unified School District serves students in West Sacramento. It has:

7,166: students

5: K-8 schools

1: K-2 school

1: K-5 school

1: 3-8 school

1: High school

741: API score

419: Teachers/counselors

309: Support staff

Source: Washington Unified School District

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