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Kimball High officials say '5 Star' engagement program tied to higher participation, lower suspensions
Summary
Kimball High School principal Bill Masler and staff presented the school's 5 Star engagement system, reporting sustained rises in student participation (from roughly 68% early to as high as 98.5%) and a drop in suspension rates (from about 10% to just above 2%), and linking event participation to higher GPAs.
Bill Masler, principal at Kimball High School, told the Tracy Joint Unified School District board that the school's "5 Star" engagement system has helped increase student participation and reduce suspensions.
"We started using it in 2020," Masler said, describing how the program tracks activities, clubs, sports and community service. "You can see how many students are involved." He said the school recorded participation growth from about 68% in the first year to 98.5% in the most recent year.
Stephanie Mason, who described herself as the activities director, explained how 5 Star uses surveys, voting polls and QR-code check-ins for tutoring and activities. Mason said the system lets staff ask students why they are late and collect preferences on matters such as bells, and it makes participation data usable in planning. "So we started using our survey application... our population went up, so we have 15,452 students, and our engagement went up, so 79.4%" she said, describing intermediate gains and later increases after implementing a house system.
Dante Delaringe said the program also supports safety and accountability during drills and emergencies by logging the students who should be in each class and tracking those found elsewhere. He summarized a pattern the team has observed linking engagement and academic outcomes: "The more events that a student attends, the higher their GPA is generally gonna be." Delaringe added that students attending 21 events "are nearly 35 times less likely to fall below a 2 GPA compared to nonparticipants," a figure he presented as derived from the school's 5 Star data.
The presenters also cited disciplinary improvements tied to the program and related interventions. Masler and Delaringe said suspension rates fell from about 10.3% (before the current administrative team) to about 4.6% after their first year together and are now "trending just above 2%." The team described a multi-pronged approach including a "grit team" of teachers and counselors that monitors students at risk and shares themes with professional learning communities.
Board members responded with praise. One trustee thanked the Kimball administration and staff for the work; another noted the school's creativity in soliciting student input on bells and other policies.
The presentation concluded with the presenters saying they will continue to track data and iterate on interventions to keep students engaged and reduce negative outcomes.
