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Nonprofit Schools That Can pitches career-readiness, financial-literacy program to Woodland Hills board

Woodland Hills School District Board of Directors · November 13, 2025
AI-Generated Content: All content on this page was generated by AI to highlight key points from the meeting. For complete details and context, we recommend watching the full video. so we can fix them.

Summary

Schools That Can leaders told the Woodland Hills board they have an 8-year partnership with the district and proposed embedding career-readiness and a 0.5-credit financial-literacy curriculum through a co-teaching model, supported by RK Mellon funding and Mathematica data analysis.

Schools That Can, a national nonprofit network, presented its K–12 career-readiness and resiliency work to the Woodland Hills School Board on Nov. 12, proposing to expand programming at Woodland Hills High School and to embed a 0.5-credit financial-literacy unit required by the state for students.

Dr. Carol Wooten, Schools That Can lead consultant for the region, described the group’s co-teaching model and career-readiness units (communications, career exploration, resume and interview skills) and said the organization has worked in Woodland Hills for eight years. Daniel (Dan) Desoden, executive director and lead facilitator, said Schools That Can co-teaches in classrooms alongside district teachers and is not intended to supplant existing staff: "We're not supplanting anybody," he said, describing mock interviews and culminating events that connect students to real employers.

Presenters told the board the program will help address post-pandemic literacy and numeracy gaps while embedding social and emotional wellness. They said the district’s planned requirement that freshmen and subsequent classes complete a 0.5-credit financial-literacy course aligns with Schools That Can’s curriculum and would allow the nonprofit to help implement the work without upending schedules.

Board members asked about costs and training. The presenters noted support from the RK Mellon Foundation and Mathematica (data support) for an adolescent resilience cohort; a separate training line item noted in the bill list involved a University of Florida copyrighted instructional resource (UFLI/UFLY) used in phonics and reading instruction and a $6,000 implementation/training item was discussed as covering training for elementary teachers.

The board welcomed the partnership and was invited to observe classrooms using the materials. The presentation concluded with an offer to share contact information and materials on BoardDocs for follow-up.