La Canada Unified principals outline RTP progress: interventions, PBIS and wellness centers show early gains
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Summary
Elementary and secondary leaders presented Responsive Teaching Plans showing targeted interventions, DIBELS progress monitoring, PBIS rollouts and growing wellness center use; principals reported districtwide intervention exits and positive student perception data.
La Canada Unified school leaders gave a detailed update on the district's Responsive Teaching Plans (RTP) during the March 24 board meeting, reporting instructional interventions, PBIS implementation and wellness center usage across elementary, middle and high school sites.
Elementary principals described intervention staffing models (a 0.6 FTE credentialed teacher and a full-time paraprofessional at each site), weekly progress monitoring with DIBELS, small-group instruction for K'–3 students and curriculum resources such as Heggerty and Journeys. They said interventions are tailored by DIBELS subtests and that the program has already produced notable gains: the presenters reported 38 districtwide student exits from the intervention program to date and anticipated 22 additional exits in the coming months.
Principals shared examples of individual progress: one first grader moved from identifying a small fraction of letters to recognizing more than 80% and another student's oral reading fluency rose markedly. Presenters emphasized that benchmarks shift through the year, which affects how gains are displayed on graphs.
At the secondary level, the RTP update highlighted academic supports such as office hours, after-school tutoring (math lab, writing lab, homework club), DF-list targeting and advisory-based interventions for students receiving Ds or Fs. Middle- and high-school presenters described PBIS matrices that were developed at the site level, DEI oversight committees, classroom-based presentations and assemblies on topics that include social media safety and student wellness.
Wellness-center data were reviewed: presenters said the middle- and high-school wellness centers are active, with the high school reporting about 95 distinct students and several hundred visits (figure cited as contributing to roughly 470 visits in the period reported). Top presenting issues included anxiety, depression, grief and peer relationships; staff noted that some increases in grief-related visits followed recent fire events in the region. District staff also described Sage therapists and a coordinated counselor network that routes student concerns between wellness centers and counselors.
Trustees asked about bullying protocols, document sharing (flowcharts), and how wellness and academic data are integrated; principals described site-level flowcharts, parent communications and case management meetings with special education staff when needed. Board members praised the work and noted the program as a distinguishing feature of the district's support system.
No formal board action was required for the RTP presentations; the board received the information and asked staff to bring administrative regulations for specific policies (where missing) in future items.
