Lynwood Rotary Meeting Update 04-23-2015

For the meeting on April 23,  2015  12pm – 1:30pm ,  members and guests listened to a most informative presentation by Paul Gothold, Superintendent for the Lynwood Unified School District (LUSD).  In his introduction of Mr. Gothold, Daniel mentioned that the Lynwood Rotary Club was most pleased when he joined the Lynwood Rotary Club during the last year and noting that the Lynwood School District has achieved impressive improvements in the two years that Mr. Gothold has been serving as the superintendent.

 

The Superintendent distributed a packet of reports and announcements to everyone in attendance and then briefly described the highlights of the data.  Paul described the strategic plan, its objectives and strategies.  Paul noted that it is a kid’s choice whether to decide to go or not to go to college.  But it is important that the schooling received will make it possible for each student to go on to college.  Examples of areas of study were students studying in engineering fields to include a LUSD student at Cerritos College, who already has an opportunity for highly paid employment .  Also mentioned is a construction trades program at Lynwood High School.  The school district is very oriented to educational fields that will offer the most current job opportunities, such as engineering, healthcare, computer programming that includes game design.

 

The prestigious California Golden Bell Award was mentioned.  To quote in part from a summary:  LUSD “has demonstrated success under this data-driven model, experiencing significant growth on the Academic Performance Index (API), statewide accountability measure used to evaluate school and school district success in terms of student achievement.  Between 2011 and 2013, Lynwood Unified saw: 

a 34 point increase in Academic Performance Index (API) scores, from 689 to 723;

significant API growth for all student subgroups, including a 18-point increase for African-American students; a 12-point increase for Hispanic/Latino students; a 32-point increase for students with disabilities; and a 14-point increase for students classified as socioeconomically disadvantaged;

a decrease in drop-out rates, from 32.2 percent in 2010, to 18 percent

 

Also noted, this Model has created a system-wide structure that allows teams of educators at each school site to analyze student performance throughout the year to identify barriers to achievement, collaborating to ultimately develop tools and support to help students succeed.

 

Among the comments from the audience was that of Martina Rodriguez, next year’s club president, who has considerable experience with the LUSD School Board, noting the positive changes occurring within the school district, and the willingness of the school administrators to address all the issues in order to maximize opportunities for success for all students.
 

Before the Superintendent’s presentation, Daniel mentioned last week’s presentation by two actors from the film, McFarland USA, Rafael Martinez and Hector Duran.  Briefly, Daniel mentioned that the film is based on a real-life story of a coach, Jim White, portrayed by Kevin Costner, organizing in 1987 a cross-country team for the first time at McFarland High School, which town is part of an agriculture area worked by Mexican American families, located 25 miles north of Bakersfield.  Rafael and Hector portrayed two of the seven boys on the team.  The coach, Jim White, in real life emphasized a positive attitude that made possible the championship win.  Rafael and Hector described the camaraderie that developed among all the actors and credited the role of the Director, Niki Caro, in her efforts and success in portraying the real lives of the team members and of their families and of the McFarland  community.  Rafael and Hector wrote personal notes on copies of the publicity photo that shows the boys running along a beach (the boys from McFarland had never been to a beach before) to each person attending this meeting.  Daniel asked who had seen this movie and Irene Garcia said she had seen the movie and that the movie reminded her of her experience growing up in the area of McFarland.