DUSD Superintendent and Board have made leaps in restoring programs and direct services to students district-wide, according to DUSD Board Vice President, Irina Okhremtchouk.
In an email to the Patch, Okhremtchouk stated the Board is strongly committed to restoring programs and direct services to DUSD students, in order to improve academic achievement district-wide, while aligning with the District's values, “We believe that all students can learn. Therefore, it is our collective responsibility to ensure that all students do learn, grow, and succeed.”
The Board hopes to attract students from neighboring districts, and make further advancements in restoring critical teaching positions that have been eliminated since 2008, in order to best serve students.
The Vice President provided the following list of decisions that were made at the July 11 board meeting.
K-3 Class size reduction to 25:1
- "DUSD Board has approved K-3 class size reduction at 7/11/13 board meeting to ensure that the students receive quality education in early grades by reducing the ratio to 25 (students) to 1 (teacher) to take place immediately (20013-14 academic school year). First and foremost, this action benefits students in early grades as well as restores critical teaching positions that have been lost due to budget cuts in 2008."
- "DUSD Board has restored Physical Education teachers at the elementary level in May of 2013 – this action ensures that Physical Education classes at DUSD elementary schools are comparable to other academic courses. This action, taken by Board and District Superintendent, reduces enrollments in Elementary Physical Education classes from roughly 100 students per class to 40-45 students per Physical Education class. Additionally, this action restored critical teaching positions that have been lost due to budget cuts in 2008."
- "DUSD Board took action and approved full compensation for extra-duty stipends in May of 2013 to ensure that teachers and other district personnel who are preforming extra duties are compensated fairly."
- "DUSD Board has approved two Teacher on Special Assignment Positions (TOSA) at the 7/11/13 Board meeting per District’s Senior Director of Educational Services Girimonte’s recommendation to provide assistance with Common Core implementation and ultimately raise student achievement district-wide. The TOSA positions are teacher-leadership positions and, thus, will be filled by teachers, which will serve as an additional restoration to the teaching staff in the District."
- "DUSD Board and Superintendent Dolan as well as Independent Study Program (ISP) Parent Advisory Committee have been working tirelessly on expanding and improving the program during the 2012-13 academic year, which now has been revised and due to be implemented upcoming school year (2013-14). Additionally, efforts have taken place to build a strong partnership with the Solano Community College in order to offer community college classes (thus, college credit for high school students) at the Dixon High School. Dixon ISP program now has a part-time coordinator who is in charge of (a) both monitoring the program as well as (b) expansion efforts to attract students from Dixon as well as neighboring communities."
- "DUSD Board, Superintendent Dolan and District Administration are working on the prototype to establish a dual-immersion/bilingual program (Spanish) at the elementary level (the current efforts will materialize and the program will be established/in effect 2014-15 academic school year) in the district to offer more academic options to the students in the district and attract students from neighboring districts."
