Super DAC News: March 2024

Hello, Conejo Valley USD Community!

Welcome to this second edition of Super DAC News for the 2023-2024 school year. Super DAC News is a triannual (sent out three times during the school year) newsletter that highlights the work and activities of CVUSD’s six parent district advisory councils and the student district advisory committee. We hope that the information included below is informative and helpful to families, students, staff, community members and community partners.

AADAC has been focused on how best to engage both the parents and students of Conejo Valley to show our students that we SEE them, and to build a greater sense of support & community.

Click here to visit the AADAC webpage and learn more about us.

We held our second Super DAC meeting of the year in March, and for the first time, representatives from Student DAC were able to attend! After all of the advisory council chairs shared updates about their work and priorities, Assistant Superintendent of Instruction Kenny Loo presented about new state requirements and the resulting revamp of the Local Control Accountability Plan. Then, Mr. Loo and principals Aileen Wall of Walnut Elementary, Shane Frank of Colina Middle School and Dr. Eric Bergman of Thousand Oaks High School presented data on student progress and the efforts happening at each grade span to support students. Advisory Council members had table discussions on best practices and next steps — highlights shared with the whole group included teaching students self-advocacy skills, recognizing students for nonacademic reasons and a focus on wellness and bullying and harassment.

After we heard about ongoing racist incidents occurring at school sites across the district during Super DAC in March, the focus of our April DAC meeting was bullying and harassment. We began by inviting members to share at their table about their personal experiences with bullying and harassment. Then, Kenny Loo and Director of Student Support Services Christina Harrison shared about state law and district policies on bullying and harassment. After a discussion of the letter addressing racist incidents that went out to CVUSD families on April 8, we had table talks to brainstorm ideas to address peer to peer bullying and hate speech. We finished with a brief presentation by Mr. Loo on cell phone policy.

For our final meeting of the year in May, we had two main areas of focus. The first was a presentation and discussion led by Mr. Loo on the new Local Control Accountability Plan (LCAP) and the annual district survey of students, parents/guardians and staff, and members were invited to share feedback about specific student progress indicators. Next, we had lively table discussions facilitated by Mr. Loo about the student dress code policy, and each table shared their ideas about potential updates. We also held our Executive Board elections, and the meeting ended with a standout performance by a talented group of student musicians from the Thousand Oaks High School Chamber Orchestra, directed by Mr. Ben Roberts.

We wish everyone a happy summer, and we can’t wait to see everyone at our first meeting of the next school year on September 10, 2024!

Please click here to visit the DAC webpage and learn more about us.

The Student Support Services Department presented information on the following topic: Attendance Policies and Procedures. Christina Harrison, Director of Student Support Services and Amber Bowman, Welfare & Attendance Coordinator Student Support Services presented the information and answered questions about attendance.

The second presentation was on the following topic: Preparing Students for College and Career Success. The presenters were Nikki Ramirez, College and Career Readiness Counselor at Newbury Park High School, Kelsey Daigneault, College and Career Readiness Counselor at Thousand Oaks High School, and Monica Mora, College and Career Readiness Counselor at Westlake High School. Celia Ortiz, Social Worker at Newbury Park High School, Julieta Rodriguez Martinez, Teacher and Stephen Lepire, Principal at Newbury Park High School, presented information about the Newcomer Academy.

Our next meeting is Tuesday, May 28, 2024 from 10 am to 12 noon at the University Center - 2801 Atlas Avenue, Thousand Oaks.

Please click here to visit the DELAC website and learn more about us.

Please click here to visit the GATE-DAC webpage and learn more about us.

Please click here to visit the LGBTQ+AC webpage and learn more about us.

Please click here to visit the SEDAC webpage and learn more about us.

SDAC successfully transitioned to a new Executive Board and Student Chairperson for the 2024-2025! Efforts are already underway to establish and maintain a functioning committee with all of the new representatives for next year.

We were joined by AADAC to begin facilitating conversations regarding racism and prejudice on school campuses. This collaboration has brought forth an abundance of fruitful discussion and innovative brainstorming so we are looking forward to continuing those efforts next year!

A small non official subcommittee organized and curated an End-of-Year presentation of SDAC goals and accomplishments for the 2023-2024 school year that will be presented to the Board of Education in June!

We are finished with our meetings for this year so we will be resuming in August!

Please click here to visit the SDAC webpage and learn more about us.

A DAC or district advisory council/committee is a body made up of parent or student representatives that advises district leadership and administration on education programs, policies and procedures related to student achievement, academic performance, overall success and wellbeing. DACs are one avenue for parents, guardians and students to be involved and have a voice about the education of students in CVUSD.

To learn more about the Student District Advisory Committee, check out their webpage.

District advisory council meetings are open to the public, and all are welcome. To see the upcoming meeting dates for all the parent DACs, check out the Master Schedule.

Upcoming DAC meetings and agendas are available on the district website through BoardDocs, which is the same portal for the Board of Education meetings. Access the BoardDocs portal here.

Website: https://www.conejousd.org/
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/ConejoValleyUnifiedSchoolDistrict
Twitter: @ConejoValleyUSD