At a special board retreat, Humboldt Unified School District trustees reviewed results from a recent community summit and incorporated stakeholder feedback into three recommended priorities: enhanced student achievement (growth and proficiency), educator and staff development, and strengthened community partnerships and family investment.

Superintendent Dr. Griffin summarized the summit’s outputs and said stakeholders prioritized core academic and technical skills plus social and soft skills: “I was just really impressed by the stakeholders that were in this room and the amount of leadership from our community that showed up to support our district,” she told trustees. The report added community requests such as encouraging student confidence, situational awareness, social time and valuing music, art and culture.

Trustees discussed specific additions suggested at tables, such as manners and basic citizenship (holding doors, saying please and thank you) and the inclusion of arts and culture as community-valued skills. Board Member Bell noted that arts offerings in local high school catalogs reflect community priorities.

On recommended priorities, board members generally endorsed the stakeholder framing and asked staff to reframe some language (for example, placing proficiency ahead of growth when tracking academic outcomes) and to present the revised list for the district strategic plan update.

Dr. Griffin told the board the summit input will feed the strategic planning process and that staff would return with refined wording and linkage to monitoring practices and calendar entries. Trustees also asked staff to include family and community “investment” language to recognize contributions beyond attendance at school events.

No formal vote was taken to adopt the priorities at this retreat; the board directed staff to fold summit feedback into the district’s strategic planning documents and to return SMART goal proposals and monitoring timelines for future approval.