By Nick Sestanovich

The Governing Board of the Benicia Unified School District unanimously voted to approve the Single Plans for Student Achievement (SPSA) at Thursday’s meeting.The SPSA is established by school site councils to develop goals, aligned to BUSD’s Local Control Accountability Plan, which would support the academic performance of all students. At the high school level, the Western Association of Schools and Colleges (WASC) goals act as the SPSA, with the goals and actions updated each year to represent continuous growth cycles. Each site team studies state and local measures to gauge progress and put together plans that represent the uniqueness of each school.

Benicia Middle School

Damian Scott, the principal of Benicia Middle School, was the first to present. The first two goals were to increase literacy and math proficiency respectively by 10 percent. The previous year, literacy proficiency had decreased by 5 percent, but math had remained consistent. In terms of other goals from the 2015-2016 school year, Scott noted that BMS saw a 59 percent decrease in suspensions and a 53 percent decrease in incidents. It also met its goal of using technology to promote 21st century learning by having two Chromebooks per every one student and allowing all professional learning opportunities to have a technology focus.

Source: School board OKs achievement plans for middle, high schools