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Simi Valley Unified launches "School Spotlight" series; Garden Grove and Big Springs showcase gains
Summary
The Simi Valley Unified board launched a monthly "School Spotlight" program and heard presentations from Garden Grove and Big Springs elementaries highlighting student-growth strategies, English-learner gains and family-engagement programs.
The Simi Valley Unified School District on Monday introduced a monthly "School Spotlight" series and heard presentations from Garden Grove and Big Springs elementary schools showcasing instructional practices and recent score improvements.
"We are a TK through 5 school... Small but mighty," Garden Grove Principal Nikki Perryman told the school board, outlining a push-in/pull-out ELD model and professional learning community work she said produced substantial gains. "We had a 15% growth in our STAR scores last year earning us the California Distinguished School for 2025," Perryman said, and added staff planned to reclassify nine students from ELD at the next meeting.
At Big Springs, PLC coach Amy Simmons described an enrollment of about 429–431 students and said the school had increased English language arts proficiency from 61.8% to 64% and math from 56.5% to 63.5% year over year. Simmons credited data-driven intervention and flexible intervention windows: "We do intervention more flow, what we need, and when we're meeting as teacher teams," she said.
Both presenters emphasized targeted supports for English learners. Perryman said systematic test-prep and integrated ELD instruction produced notable ELPAC improvements and that "we're actually looking at reclassifying 9 students" who had reached proficiency. Simmons said English-learner progress rose from about 28.6% to roughly 60% in the last year, a jump she attributed to classroom-based, indirect instruction rather than a pullout model.
Trustees praised the new spotlight series as a way to share promising practices across campuses and urged continued focus on sustaining double-digit growth. The district’s measures included family engagement events, after-school supports, and use of Prop. 28 funding for visual and performing arts. President Smolin thanked the presenters and noted the inclusive playground funded by Measure X that some schools now use.
The board did not take any formal action on the spotlights; the segment was informational. The district plans to feature two schools at most board meetings going forward.
