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Teachers and parents urge board to restore reading intervention as trustee raises equity concerns between high schools
Summary
A reading-intervention teacher asked trustees to reverse cuts to intervention positions; Trustee Renee Longshore also presented data showing Granite Hills High may need greater support and asked staff to provide transfer and approval/denial data to assess equitable access.
At the April 10 meeting Brenda Cobbs, a district reading-intervention teacher, asked the Apple Valley Unified board to reconsider a recent vote that terminated some reading-intervention positions and to restore two reading-intervention teachers at each elementary school.
"We have many students moving on to the next grade level who are reading far below level," Cobbs told the board, describing her program’s small-group instruction, I-Ready diagnostic gains and changes in student confidence. She invited any trustee to observe the intervention in action.
Trustee Renee Longshore separately brought a data-driven discussion about equitable access across high school campuses. Longshore presented side-by-side comparisons from public sources showing Granite Hills High School serves higher percentages of economically disadvantaged students, free-lunch recipients, English learners and foster youth than Apple Valley High School. "It is apparent that Granite Hills High School needs more support than it is currently getting," Longshore said, and she asked the superintendent to provide inter- and intra-district transfer records (approved and denied) for Granite Hills and Apple Valley for the 2021–22 through 2024–25 school years.
Why it matters: Reading interventions are directly linked to grade-level outcomes; trustees acknowledged the requests and asked staff to email or prepare the transfer data for future discussion so the board can assess program and resource distribution.
Actions and next steps: Trustees asked the superintendent’s office to produce the transfer and approval/denial data and to email it to board members; staff estimated the request would take several days because it requires pulling multiple datasets. The board did not reverse the staffing change that evening.
Details: Speakers stressed that data represent children and that district decisions on funding and staffing affect equity across campuses. Trustees discussed whether to alter procedure for board member data requests; some trustees noted board bylaws require agendaized requests for extensive reports.
