33 Students
referred
through CARE 346
Youth benefited
from the SPBCSI 33
Youth in
SPBCSI programs
Health &
Wellness
In 2023 -24, the Beacon Director prioritized checking -in with school staff about CARE referrals throughout the year. However, the CARE team did not meet regularly to review student cases due to staff capacity issues. Next year, the incoming Beacon Director aims to create a better CARE system for all school staff to collaborate more effectively.
Family
Engagement
Many families were engaged through fun -filled events like a Family Science Night and Banquet Night. The Beacon Director collaborated with the SCOW to build community and check -in one -on-one with families to gather feedback through surveys on how to improve school culture.
School
Culture &
Climate
The Beacon Director worked with school staff to improve PBIS systems and encourage students to be more kind, compassionate, and respectful with one another. The Climate Team also included more opportunities for student leadership through the Student Council and Recess Helpers programs.
Lake Elementary School
2023-24 School Profile
Lead Agency: Bay Area Community Resources (BACR)
100%
of youth surveyed like
this program
94%
say this program has
helped them to say
“no” to things they
know are wrong
94%
of youth say in this
program adults care
about them
SAN PABLO BEACON COMMUNITY
SCHOOLS INITIATIVE
San Pablo Beacon Community Schools Initiative Page 2
Lake Elementary School Profile
City Investments
Each San Pablo school worked with a lead agency. The City granted each lead agency staffing and program funding to support the overall implementation of the San Pablo Beacon Community Schools Initiative at that school site.
Staffing
Beacon Director
The Beacon Director provided leadership and implementation of the San Pablo Beacon Community Schools strategy at Dover. 1 Full-time position
Grant Strategies: Coordination of Community Schools
Agency: Bay Area Community Resources (BACR)
Programs
Student Leadership Council
Small youth leadership group that supported school-wide activities. 16 Youth served
Grant Strategy: Youth Development & Leadership
Agency: Bay Area Community Resources (BACR)
“It's fun and I get to play games with the kids.” — Lake student1
1 Youth quotes are modified in length and for clarity.
San Pablo Beacon Community Schools Initiative Page 3
Lake Elementary School Profile
Recess Helpers
Recess Helpers helped at recess and play times by distributing equipment and facilitating games. 17 Youth served
Grant Strategy: Youth Development & Leadership
Agency: Bay Area Community Resources (BACR)
“I like to learn how to take care of others.” — Lake student Events
The Beacon Director organized a variety of events throughout the school year to improve school culture and climate and engage with parents and families.
6 Events
85 Average
Student Attendance*
61 Average
Family Attendance*
2023-24 Lake Events
Family Night
Banquet
Lake Elementary organized a Family Night School Banquet to families, students, and staff to campus.
Family Science Fun
Night
This event included different science activities stationed throughout the cafeteria for families and students to participate in.
Lake Math Night This was an engaging event where students and families came together to explore and enjoy interactive math activities.
Literacy Night
Family Literacy Night was an event where families engaged in immersive workshops led by teachers to enhance children's literacy skills. Each family participated in two workshops, received valuable materials for home literacy activities to help strengthen the connection between families and literacy.
Source: Cityspan Events data, August 2024. *Averages calculated across events that provided attendance data.
San Pablo Beacon Community Schools Initiative Page 4
Lake Elementary School Profile
Youth Outcomes
San Pablo Beacon Community Schools Initiative programs are rooted in positive youth development practice. Youth survey data suggest programs are helping youth build personal and social competencies.
Figure 1: Youth felt empowered and supported.
Figure 2: Youth developed social competencies.
Figure 3: Youth demonstrated commitment to learning.
Source: Youth Surveys (N=17), 2023-24. Surveys are from programs directly funded by the SPBCSI or led by a Beacon Director. This represents a subset of the total programs offered at the school. 82%
82%
88%
100%
This program has helped me to try harder in school.
This program has helped me to stay away from fights.
In this program I feel safe.
I like this program.
63%
82%
94%
94%
In this program I can go to an adult for advice.
In this program I learn how to work out my problems.
This program has helped me to say "no" to things I know are wrong.
In this program the adults care about me.
71%
76%
81%
82%
This program has helped me to like school more.
This program has helped me to care more about my school.
In this program I learn how to make goals.
This program has helped me to pay attention in class more.
San Pablo Beacon Community Schools Initiative Page 5
Lake Elementary School Profile
Community Schools Coordination
For the 2023-24 school year, San Pablo schools focused on implementing the San Pablo Beacon Community Schools Initiative priorities focused on health and wellness, family engagement, and school culture and climate. In this section, we summarize findings drawn from interviews with the school’s Principal, Beacon Director, and lead agency supervisor, as well as documents provided by the City of San Pablo.
After one year of service at Lake, the Beacon Director transitioned to pursue other career opportunities during the spring semester. A new Beacon Director joined the last two months of school to fulfill the previous Beacon Director’s remaining responsibilities. Both Beacon Directors worked closely with school staff to provide extensive support and resources to students, families, and staff to improve students’ academic experiences.
Health and Wellness
"In terms of student health and wellness. She's a huge part of our CARE team process and our Student Success Team process in contacting all our parents and setting up those meetings and building that trust with some of our newer families or families that we haven't interacted with." —Principal During the school year, the previous Beacon
Director worked closely with the Principal
and Vice Principal to create a structured
CARE team. Although L ake faced many
staff transitions, two mental health interns
were hired with funding from BACR to
better support student’s mental health needs.
The interns provided much needed direct
support and were responsive to studen ts’
needs.
The Beacon Director worked closely with
school staff and the interns to create robust communication systems. They reach ed out regularly to teachers in the hallway or classroom to gather additional information about student referrals.
This outreach created a stronger communication channel between school staff and ensured students’ wellness needs were met.
The Beacon Director worked closely with the mental health interns and therapist to ensure students were supported by reaching as many students as possible . They were able to conduct private counseling sessions to best support students and provided updates in the CARE team on students’ progress. Also, the CARE team reviewed student referral reports at the end of the year to create
San Pablo Beacon Community Schools Initiative Page 6
Lake Elementary School Profile
plans for next year. The Beacon Director who joined Lake two months before the school year ended hopes to create a stronger CARE team that meets regularly and functions more efficiently for the following school year.
Figure 4: CARE referrals
Students referred
◼◼◼◼◼◼◼◼◼◼
School overall
◼◼◼◼◼◼◼◼◼◼
35 referrals for
33 unduplicated students
9 out of 10 (85%) students referred were
Latinx.
Academic Needs referrals
were most common.
10% of the student
population was referred.
Most students referred were in 1st grade. Nearly 6 out of 10 students referred were male.
Sources: Cityspan Crisis Assessment Referral and Evaluation (CARE) data, August 2024; CDE, DataQuest 2023-24 Enrollment Data, accessed August 2024.
Family Engagement
“I think it was very important for me to hear from parents when they had concerns for their students. So whether they dropped in or they called me, I always made it a priority for them to come into my office to have that space to be able to share their concerns and needs for their students.” — Beacon Director The Beacon Director prioritized family engagement with the support of the Climate and Culture Team. They reached out to families through direct phone calls, ParentSquare, and flyers about family events on campus. The School Community
Outreach Worker (SCOW) and Beacon Director supported
caregivers through fun -filled events an d engaging them through online surveys. They created a Family Science Night and Family Banquet Night where families could join in
community. According to the Beacon Director, b oth events were well attended and encouraged more caregiver volunteer participation. A goal for next year is to continue hosting successful family events and creating more effective outreach systems to further increase family engagement.
2%
14%
14%
70%
Health
Social
Emotional
Academic
10%
0%
21% 27% 21%
6%
21%
3%
Pre-K K 1 2 3 4 5
Students referred School overall
58%
52%
42%
48%
Students
referred
School
overall
San Pablo Beacon Community Schools Initiative Page 7
Lake Elementary School Profile
School Culture and Climate
“I think the community school director is sort of a point person and re-establishes those connections with the community. So that's been super helpful. In terms of school climate, she was a big part of our PBIS program and running our Lake store and our raffle, which are ways where students can spend their Lion bucks that they earn by showing their good citizenship and being kind and being responsible and being respectful.” — Principal
The Beacon Director , in collaboration with school staff , created a Culture and Climate team to improve communication systems and staff morale. The team supported teachers to share feedback on ways to improve communication and plan school improvements during their meetings. The Beacon Director also established a Student Council to encourage students to exercise their voice and plan events together. An afterschool program called Love, Learn, Success provided direct enrichment opportunities like performing and visual arts activities . The afterschool program coordinator also attended the CARE team meetings to discuss student needs afterschool.
The Beacon Director supported the successful implementation of Positive Behavioral Interventions and Supports (PBIS) through running the Lake student store. Students earned “Lion Bucks” or good citizen tickets when teachers observed them showing kindness, cooperating, and working well together at school.
Students also participated in a raffle to win prizes and be further rewarded for good citizenship.
Lessons Learned
At the close of the interviews, the Principal and Beacon Director reflected on their experiences from the past year.
• “We are all doing our best and doing above and beyond. So how can we engage with folks so that they want to do it so that we're not trying to force this. I think teachers feel that way. Families feel that way. And staff too. We all feel like we're doing a lot, so how can we try to do more without it feeling overwhelming?” – Principal • “At Lake, I think continuing to be transparent with one another and keep the communication going. Before I left, we were heading in a really good direction. I think it's just spending time to hear staff, hear parents hear one another out and come up together with the solution. I think that that's what the culture and climate was really working on, really building that culture.” – Beacon Director
San Pablo Beacon Community Schools Initiative Page 8
Lake Elementary School Profile
Plans for Next Year
The Principal and Beacon Director also took time to share their plans for the coming school year. • Building up the Learning Center’s staff capacity to help more students succeed. • Acclimating to a new school building opening in Fall 2024.
“Feel like this community school, the
whole initiative has been a huge
opportunity for us to build a school that
might work differently. And so we've
really been trying to consider all
possibilities and getting parent input
and that's been really great. It’s been
really valuable in terms of bringing
different groups of people together and
thinking about how we create this
community school with all these things
that we want it to be.”
— Principal