2024 ACSA Leadership Summit

Join us as we share the inspiring journey of a low-socioeconomic high school in Virginia Beach. Faced with a lack of systems and procedures, they quickly set to work, focusing on improving the school's "on-time graduation rate" (OTG). Starting with an OTG of 89.43%, they implemented data-driven systems and closely collaborated with school counselors to track student performance. By the end of the first year, their efforts resulted in an impressive 95.16% OTG rate.

Despite this success, they recognized a significant challenge: a chronic absenteeism rate of 27.80%. To address this, they adopted the Coordination of Services Team (COST) model, inspired by the Alameda County Health Care Services. The COST team, comprising various stakeholders, met weekly to discuss roughly 200 students at risk of not graduating. Through these meetings, they identified tier 2 and 3 supports and targeted interventions, focusing on improving attendance.

By the end of the second year, their comprehensive approach led to a 94.17% OTG rate and a slight decrease in chronic absenteeism. In their third year, they intensified their interventions, achieving a remarkable reduction in chronic absenteeism to 13.64% and projecting an OTG rate of 98.15%.

This session will provide an in-depth look at their strategies, interventions, and the sustainable systems they built. Attendees will leave with practical insights on implementing similar tracking systems, understanding the power of the COST model, and exploring a variety of interventions to improve graduation rates and reduce absenteeism in their own schools.

Healthy relationships are key to building strong communications through teamwork, collaboration, community engagement, and mutual success in the workplace.

But how do you go about building and nurturing those relationships to help support your organization’s communication and community engagement?

Hear from Woodland Joint Unified School District Superintendent Elodia Ortega-Lampkin and Public Information Officer (PIO) Jerry Jimenez on how they worked together during their first two years to create a strong district communication program.

Spoiler alert: Building a mutually positive and supportive relationship built on trust is the secret ingredient.

Not a superintendent or PIO? Not a problem!

This session is aimed at current or aspiring directors, administrators, associate superintendents, assistant superintendents, and superintendents.

Using real-life examples, this session will provide attendees with lessons learned on how to collaborate to develop an effective communication and community engagement program.