Overview
With the shift to remote instruction, Monterey Peninsula leaders realized that some students were struggling with attendance and engagement. Given schools had a number of classified personnel whose jobs did not have a virtual equivalent (e.g., campus monitors), leaders looked to redeploy that personnel to directly address those needs.
Approach
District leaders worked with site principals to assess capacity and develop plans. Principals were asked to show clear ways this personnel could directly plug into the existing tiered interventions at the site level. If they couldn’t, staff were pulled into other areas of need (e.g., materials delivery and food services). This flexible approach helped build stronger engagement with the students who needed it the most.
“Our follow-up and kind of systems of support have gotten so much stronger during the pandemic. Now [these classified staff] are making home visits. They're making calls. They're following up in ways that I think have been really effective. […] Often it's really just a core group of students that are missing a ton of school. And so I think this has allowed us to focus on that core group in a different way than we've done previously.” - PK Diffenbaugh, Superintendent, Monterey Peninsula Unified School District
This strategy is a part of TLA's Hop, Skip, Leapfrog release, which explores the concrete ways in which schools and systems pursued student-centered innovation during COVID-19. Explore the full guide to find additional strategies, insights, and resources.
Monterrey Peninsula Unified School District serves K-12th grade students and is located in Monterey, CA.