Monrovia Unified School District
Board of Education Meeting Highlights
February 2023
Recognitions
At its February meetings, the Monrovia Unified School District Board of Education invited students from Monrovia High School’s Project Lead the Way Engineering Pathway and middle school students from the upcoming production of Grease to lead the Pledge of Allegiance. They updated Board members on their work and invited them to upcoming shows. Both groups of students did a fantastic job starting our Board meeting.
The Board highlighted Monrovia’s outstanding counselors at each of our school sites for National School Counseling Week. Our counseling team has had a tremendous impact in helping students achieve school success. This year, Monrovia Unified School District added full-time counselors to all of our elementary school sites to better support our younger students. Here is a video highlighting our new elementary counselors.
The Board also adopted a resolution recognizing February 6-10, 2023, as "National School Counseling Week," celebrating the contribution of school counselors to the students of Monrovia Unified School District. Thank you for all of your hard work and dedication!
The Board of Education & the Monrovia Chamber of Commerce congratulated the following employees on being recipients of Monrovia Unified School District's "Employees of the Month" for February:
- Mireille Salem, Campus Assistant, Clifton Middle School
- Christian Mora, Mathematics Teacher, Clifton Middle School
- Jessica Ramos, Clerical Assistant III, Monrovia High School
- Brandon Equils, Social Science Teacher, Monrovia High School
Actions Taken by the Board of Education
The Board of Education recently approved a plan that will provide new furniture in classrooms at every school in the district, replacing desks, tables, and chairs that are mostly 20 years old at least. The new furniture is flexible in nature and can easily be reconfigured to allow for groupings and configurations of any size and shape. This flexibility will increase collaboration among students and teachers as they engage in academic and social-emotional learning activities. The new furniture will begin being phased into nearly all of our classrooms in the next few months. Plans for the remaining classrooms are being finalized and will be shared with the Board of Education later this spring.
The Board of Education designated Board Member Rob Hammond to be its representative to the San Gabriel Valley Council of Governments ad-hoc committee on mental health.
The Board approved Sports Medicine III as a new course offering at Monrovia High School. The new course will provide an opportunity for the advanced study of sports medicine, including sports medicine-related careers, prevention of athletic injuries, emergency procedures, nutrition, and much more for MHS students.
The Board of Education approved Advanced Placement (AP) Physics 1 as a new course offering at Monrovia High School. The course uses inquiry-based instructional strategies focusing on experimentation to develop students’ understanding of physics principles.
Board members approved the purchase and installation of security cameras at Monrovia High School. In collaboration with the Monrovia Police Department, the District identified 46 locations in high-traffic areas where cameras will be installed, enhancing school safety on the campus. These advanced security cameras will allow the District to respond expeditiously to potential threats and grant live footage access to 1st responders should an emergency arise. Plans to implement security cameras at other school sites are under development.
The Board adopted a resolution recognizing the month of February as "Black History Month," celebrating the contribution of African Americans to society and the Monrovia Unified School District. MUSD would like to thank the Monrovia Duarte Black Alumni Association and community for enriching our schools by organizing many wonderful events celebrating Black History Month involving our students.
Board members adopted a resolution recognizing February 2023 as "Career and Technical Education (CTE) Month." Our CTE pathways career and technical education offer students the opportunity to gain the academic, technical, and employability skills necessary for true career readiness.
The board took action that President Traci Gholar is its designated representative for the Monrovia Coordinating Council.
Staff Presentations to the Board of Education
California School Dashboard Update and District Goals Progress Report - Dr. Greg Gero, Director of Elementary Education
The Board received a staff presentation regarding changes to the California School Dashboard and where Monrovia Unified ranks compared to the rest of the state. This presentation provided updates on two achievement measures:
- District performance on the California Dashboard
- District performance on standardized reading and math assessments.
- Strengths and opportunities to improve were identified for both measures.
Monrovia USD Human Resources Department Update - Dr. Greg Puccia, Assistant Superintendent of Human Resources and Shershonna Huff, Director of Human Resources
The Board of Education received a staff presentation regarding updates to the Human Resources department. The Board commissioned a departmental human resources review in 2022 and was provided a detailed report from Schools Services of California in March of 2022. The Board was provided an update on the HR department's progress towards meeting a number of recommendations from the review on Feb 22, 2023.