FUHSD board renews contract with Apex, discusses long-term objectives

During the Monday, July 27, Fallbrook Union High School District special board meeting, the board of trustees voted 4-0 to renew the district's contract with Apex for the upcoming school year.

Trustee Lee De Meo was unable to attend the meeting and did not vote on the issue.

Because of the COVID-19 pandemic and the mandate from Gov. Gavin Newsom for districts to begin the school year with distance learning, the district has expanded its license from the 250-student license it normally pays for to a license for all students.

The program is for FUHSD students who are credit deficient to complete courses online. The $39,480 price tag will be paid with instructional material funds.

Before the vote, questions were asked of Ilsa Garza-Gonzalez, superintendent of FUHSD, whether the district would be given a discount in instances where Apex was not being used.

"At this time, the teachers and the reopening committee have been looking at continuing with Apex when we move into a hybrid model, and it was only when we went to 100% traditional that we would look at not using Apex on a year contract," Garza-Gonzalez said.

The board said it would reconsider using Apex again next year depending on whether FUHS was able to reopen fully or not.

Garza-Gonzalez said the digital curriculum for the upcoming school year will be Apex, and the school will continue to use Google for its online classes.

"The only courses that are not included with Apex are some of our CTE courses," the superintendent said. "But, for the most part, everything else is readily available. It is aligned to California's common core standard, cleared by NCAA, and it includes our advanced placement and (International Baccalaureate) courses as well."

Garza-Gonzalez said the contract applies to all students within the district at all three schools and all students in varying programs.

"We expect all of our students to receive instruction that is standards aligned," she said. "What Apex does offer both our English language learners and our special education students is translation, scaffolding and text to speech. It includes all of the different differentiation modalities that we would need to be able to make the curriculum accessible to our students with special needs and with the English learners."

The board of trustees moved on to a board governance work study session and goal setting workshop to establish long and short-term goals for the district.

Former interim superintendent, Lou Obermeyer, facilitated the discussion.

"My hope and goal for you as a board and superintendent as the governance team is to set long-term goals today that will really stay the course," Obermeyer said. "And by that, what I mean is that you will have goals when we get done with our discussion today that will see you through the next, perhaps three to five years or perhaps longer. And when you write your goals like that, where you stay the course, I have found that districts are very successful because you're not going here, there, and just changing with the wind, etc. When you know where you want to go and you have a vision, and then you take your smaller steps to get you there, which are the objectives, then I've found that districts can be very successful. Your goals can stay the same, I recommend they do stay the same for a number of years, your annual objectives will change as you make progress and as your needs change."

One by one, each board member shared five goals for the district that they would like to see established. The suggestions from each trustee were shared with Obermeyer before the Monday meeting and at the end of the discussion, she shared a combined listing of goals for the district.

The first grouping of goals included enhancing opportunities for student achievement and success. Within that grouping included continuing to support an implement FUHS's IB program, offering elective classes that meet student interests and needs, expanding options for students in the career center for trade and union partnerships, improving coordination with community colleges for certificate programs and implementing a social support program for incoming freshman.

The second proposed a goal of establishing and maintaining fiscal responsibility and solvency within the district. The trustees want to operate within the district's budget, establish a percentage level goal for the district's reserve and research adjusting the bylaws to reflect the monies allocated to supporting student learning versus administrative costs.

The third goal pertained to continuing to establish, implement and refine career and technical education based on student interests, needs and industry growth. The suggested reviewing and researching agreements with local colleges and ensure that those career paths are presented to all students.

The final goal was to provide modernized and new facilities for students to optimize achievement for all students. That included prioritizing the spending of bond funds, completing outstanding projects, holding board workshops to set priorities in spending those funds and finalizing a sola agreement to include scope, funding and projected savings.

Jeff Pack can be reached by email at [email protected].