City of San Pablo
Proposal Title:
Support for Social-Emotional Learning (SEL) at Richmond High School
2024 - 2025 School Year
Introduction
The West Contra Costa Unified School District (WCCUSD) is located in the urban area of West Contra Costa County of the San Francisco East Bay Area.
According to the CA Department of Education, during the 2019-2020 school year, WCCUSD enrolled 32,143 students in 54 schools, including 7 comprehensive high schools (HS), 4 alternative schools, six middle schools (MS), and 37 elementary schools (ES). It serves large numbers of disadvantaged students. Last year, 70% of district students qualified for free or reduced-priced meals, compared to 40.6% statewide. Also, 10,711 students (33.8%) of students are English Learners (EL), far exceeding 20.4% statewide. Most of our ELs (82.8%) are Spanish speakers, with 47 other languages represented; 61% of students live with one or more parents who are immigrants, compared to 49.5% statewide. The district serves 122 foster youth, 763 homeless children, and nearly 4,109 (13%) of students receive special education. 1 District racial/ethnic demographics include 51.8% Latino/Hispanic students,
16.7% African American, 11.3% White, 10.8% Asian, 5.2% Filipino, and .8% Pacific Islander.2 In fact, the District’s Ethnic Diversity Index shows that the Richmond Family of Schools has low ethnic diversity scores, terming them ethnically isolated.
Behaviorally, according to the CA Department of Education’s Extended School Attendance Review Board Report, WCCUSD’s Chronic Absenteeism rate was 18% (2017-2018). The CalPads report shows the Dropout Rate was 8.27% (2017-2018). In addition, the district experienced 7 persistent dangerous offenses for the school year.
1 Retrieved from 2017-2018 California Longitudinal Pupil Achieve Data System 2 Ibid.
WCCUSD serves racially diverse, inner-city communities experiencing high poverty and crime rates, with impacts felt from ongoing gentrification that has substantially increased the cost of housing, causing hardships for lower-income families, and increasing the potential to negatively impact academic achievement. The cities of Richmond, where most WCCUSD schools are located, experience greater disparity compared to the county and state. Richmond’s population and children are experiencing poverty at higher rates compared to the county and state.
3 Table 1: Poverty Data Richmond County State
Poverty Rate 17.9% 9.9% 14.3%
Childhood Poverty Rate 25.9% 14.4% 22.7%
It has experienced extremely high rates of violent crime, much of it gang-related.
Once considered one of the most dangerous cities in the U.S., Richmond's violent crime rate is again on the rise. It continues to have entrenched gang problems, with many families exposed to trauma. Richmond’s violent crime rate is more than double that of the United States. These social determinants may trigger social and emotional stress upon children and families that impact a child’s learning and achievement. WCCUSD understands these determinants and is committed to supporting students inside and outside the classroom.
Attendance and Suspension Rates 10/21
Richmond Elementary Schools are in Area 2
Richmond High School is in Area 3
3 U.S. Census Bureau, Population estimates 2017
WCCUSD and Ed Fund Partnership to Support SEL
In 2022, the Ed Fund worked with WCCUSD to develop a new “Climate Coach” position to support the district’s efforts to create inclusive and supportive school climates. The Ed Fund developed the job description for this role and managed the recruitment, hiring, and onboarding process for three coaches. Due to budget constraints and union issues, the district could not hire these positions. Instead, the Ed Fund is now employing the Climate Coaches for WCCUSD. Each coach is on the Ed Fund payroll, receiving their paychecks and benefits through the Ed Fund. Climate coaches support school sites in implementing the Positive Behavior Intervention Systems framework, emphasizing restorative and healing-centered practice training.
Coaches use data to support schools in sustaining positive school climate practices aligned to Community Schools expansion; supporting schools in increasing students’ positive behavior and decreasing discipline disproportionality.
Social-Emotional Learning Intervention: Climate Coach
Schools and teachers are overwhelmed by the mental health needs of students and their families. There is an intense need to provide schools and teachers with a School-Wide Positive Behavior Intervention System (SWPBIS) and Social Emotional Learning (SEL) Curriculum. WCCUSD currently lacks the capacity to implement these strategies. To support schools, WCCUSD, in collaboration with the Ed Fund, has hired 3 full-time Climate Coaches and invested in district-wide Tier 1 (all student) SEL curriculum to improve student wellbeing at Richmond schools while strengthening the district’s ability to respond to Tier 2 & Tier 3 (higher need students). Due to the glaring needs faced by the Richmond High School community, we are looking to hire an additional Climate Coach to support the implementation of SWPBIS at this school site.
Tier 1 Supports Defined:
Tier 1 supports are universal and preventative measures to support all students Across our District, the following are in place:
● Clearly Defined Expectations at every school site
○ System for teaching expectations to all students; Reinforcement System; Consequence System that is restorative and responsive to student needs ● Social/Emotional Learning implemented in classrooms
○ District Curricula: Sanford Harmony, Second Step, SchoolConnect; Restorative Practices/Community Building
This project aligns with the City of San Pablo’s focus on violence prevention, intervention, and mental health services at Richmond High School. The Climate Coach will help to identify and implement a PBIS framework. This support will include data analysis, fidelity walkthroughs, supporting the implementation of school-wide positive behavior strategies, and PBIS curriculum. Further, the coach will monitor the fidelity of SWPBIS and support the assessment of students' social-emotional well-being from 9th to 12th grade.
The Climate Coach will also provide targeted training to teachers and administrators on how to implement positive, restorative, and healing practices in the classroom, provide and support job-embedded professional development for teachers in building classroom management capacity in the classrooms, and align the work of FSCS Directors and administrators to support specific data-based goals and align progress monitoring to those specific goals.
In collaboration with school site School Community Outreach Workers (SCOWS), the Climate Coach will help families understand social-emotional assessments and support social-emotional growth at home. The Climate Coach will also help adapt the district’s Hoonuit subscription via PowerSchool to help identify students who may be in need of additional support. These students will be referred to their site-based teams. If students do not respond to intervention at the site, the system will allow them to be connected to central office support. The goal of adapting Hoonuit will be to track office discipline referrals, attendance, suspension, and SEL data. School sites (CARE/COST Teams) will be trained to use the system to make more informed interventions and monitor the outcomes of referrals. The goal of the district will be to house all SEL and behavioral data on this new system. The School Climate Department will provide a robust climate team training series to onboard site staff to ensure the system is effective and useful. The other use for the data system will be to gauge the success of interventions. For example, if WCCUSD places a mentor with a student who has been identified for support, the district currently has no way to track if that intervention is making an impact on that student through data. Through the support of data, the coach will align the work of FSCS Directors and administrators, support specific data-based goals, align progress monitoring to those specific goals, and assess outcomes of PBIS at all sites. The Director of Climate and Culture supervises this position.
Anticipated result/benefit:
● 3% or more decrease in chronic absenteeism rate per year/per site ● 2% or more decrease in suspension rate per year/per site ● # students served: 1,500 students
Why this is a good choice:
In addition to working with LaShante Smith, Director of Climate and Culture and Martine Blake, Director of Community Engagement. All agreed that the top priority for WCCUSD with respect to SEL was to strengthen the district’s Tier 1 interventions. As a result of distance learning, classroom teachers and schools need support to help all students feel seen, heard, and valued as part of their community. By strengthening Tier 1 support, the district can reduce the enormous strain and demand on Tier 2 & Tier 3 resources.
● There is not going to be enough money (ever) to provide enough 1:1 or small- group mental health counseling for students (Tier 2 & Tier 3). ● Teachers and schools need Tier 1 (all student) tools to help students re-engage with school and each other.
● This is a critical gap for WCCUSD.
● The Cost of a 1.0 FTE Climate Coach: $125,000
Organizational Experience and History
Since 1983, the Ed Fund has partnered with WCCUSD to support students, families, educators, and administrators. Through scholarships, grants, fiscal sponsorship, and strategic fund development, we aim to create vibrant communities that help our youth achieve their highest aspirations. As a result of this 40-year relationship, we have become the lead fund development partner and fiscal sponsor organization for WCCUSD. Throughout the years, the Ed Fund has provided scholarships to Richmond High School students, supported key initiatives through fundraising, and provided grants to support classroom and school-wide student projects. As such, we have developed a strong relationship with Richmond High School.
The Ed Fund has worked closely with the district to support the 5-year $29.5M Full-Service Community Schools (FSCS) grant servicing 28 sites, mainly in Richmond.
An additional seven sites have applied for funding from this grant for the 2024-2025 academic year. In WCCUSD’s 2024-2027 Strategic Plan, the district has outlined its commitment to becoming a ‘Community Schools District”. The FSCS grant has provided the district with a tremendous opportunity to deliver on the vision of the Full Service Community School Model while defining what education in WCCUSD looks like. The Ed Fund has been a crucial thought partner in this expansion and has provided crucial support in its delivery
Further work is being done to support the development of the FSCS grant through the Ed Fund’s participation in the Support Collaborative, a group comprised of parents, partner organizations, community members, and district staff who serve as a decision-making body that guides grant systems and expenditures. The Collaborative work has been fruitful, resulting in the inclusion of FSCS in the collective bargaining agreement for WCCUSD - a first-in-the-nation recognition of FSCS. As such, FSCS has been named a subcommittee of the Supervisors & Mayors meetings for West Contra Costa.
Staff Experience
Robert Bunce, Executive Director
Robert has been an innovative, passionate, and results-driven nonprofit administrator, public school educator, and consultant for over 30 years. Robert joined the West Contra Costa Public Education Fund in 2010 and was charged with implementing the organization’s first strategic plan. Robert helped build the Ed Fund into West Contra Costa’s primary intermediary organization. As the organization has shifted its focus to strategic fund development, Robert has leveraged his ten-year relationship with the community to deliver on the organization’s new vision.
Shakira Reynolds, Director of Strategic Partnerships
Shakira joins the Ed Fund as the Director of Strategic Partnerships, bringing significant experience supporting parents through transformative family engagement, advocacy, and leadership development. She believes empowering families and students is the key to transforming schools and communities and increasing student success. Shakira has previously worked with local Richmond organizations, such as the Richmond CDF Freedom School and Building Blocks for Kids (BBK), and WCCUSD as their Community Engagement Coordinator. Shakira is a proud graduate of Richmond Unified School District (now WCCUSD), with a deep dedication to supporting district families of color with special needs children. She and her husband are raising two beautiful boys with Autism, who have helped refine her purpose–to help create a more just, safe, and equitable world for all children and youth.
Margot Aishiteru, Business Success Manager
Margot Aishiteru joins the Ed Fund as the Business Success Manager with more than 20 years of experience in operations and technology management. She has a passion for advocacy and has been an active volunteer in the West Contra Costa Unified School District community, serving on the Parent Leadership Council, Community Advisory Committee for Special Education (CAC), District Local Control Accountability Plan Parent Student Committee (DLCAPS), and School Site Council (SSC).
Sarah Camacho, Program Manager
Raised in Richmond and a WCCUSD graduate, Sarah joined the Ed Fund as the College Access Coordinator through the AmeriCorps VISTA program in 2020. Sarah graduated from UC Davis with a bachelor’s degree in sociology, Spanish, and Chicanx studies. Throughout her undergraduate career, she worked for the Davis Joint Unified School District as an academic tutor for the Davis Bridge program aimed towards Latinx, immigrant, and/or low-income students who perform below grade level – assisting students overcome difficulties in their academic endeavors. Being a first- generation college student stemming from a community with high crime rates, alcohol/drug abuse, and gang-related activity herself, she wants to extend accessibility into programs that help underserved and under-resourced communities that would help bridge her community’s needs. As a VISTA, she oversaw the Ed Fund’s programs and two COVID-19 rapid response funds, serving over 700 families. In 2021, Sarah joined the Ed Fund as the team’s program manager.
Agency Approach and Fiscal Capacity
Approach
Our mission is the following:
When communities work together to eliminate inequities, our youth will thrive. The West Contra Costa Public Education Fund mobilizes resources for our students and aligns the efforts of our partners to ensure that all students succeed in college, career, and life.
To support this mission, the Ed Fund engages in the following avenues:
1. Fund Development: Over the past three years, the Ed Fund has made significant progress as a strategic fund development partner for the district. Since 2020, we have raised over $2 million in grant funds that directly support WCCUSD initiatives and positions. In FY 22-23, over $700,000 in direct funding (an increase of $100,000) was provided, and over $119,500 in donor-restricted funds were directly granted to WCCUSD to support various programs.
2. Fiscal Sponsorship: Last year, we secured $2.5 million in contracts from the district (an increase of $1 million over the prior year) for our fiscal projects. Our projects raised over $4.6 million to provide essential services and programs to our schools and students. This was a 35% increase from FY 20 - 21.
3. Student-Centered Programs: In line with our equity statement, our programs are designed to uplift the most marginalized students in a district, especially Black students.
2022-2023 Fiscal Year Grants and Scholarships
● Bradley Arts Mini-Grants: $28,342 in arts grants awarded to 40 passion projects using art to disrupt historical inequities
● Black History Month Mini-Grants: $27,000 Black History Month Grants Awarded to 27 classrooms school, school-wide initiatives & community events
● Back to School Grants: $28,750 Grants awarded to 115 teachers ● Scholarships: $19,500.00 awarded to 13 students pursuing higher education
● Ed Fund Grants made to WCCUSD: $119,500
Fiscal Capacity
The Ed Fund has received $225,000 in grant funds from the Hellman Foundation to support this project. Our organizational budget for FY 2023-2024 is $1,653,465. A full breakdown of our FY 2023 - 2024 organizational budget can be found here. Please refer to our FY 22 - 23 annual report here for more information on our work in the community.