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Piedmont Middle School principal outlines restorative practices, counseling expansion and student leadership
Summary
Principal Karen Shipp told the board that Piedmont Middle School is emphasizing restorative justice training, expanded counseling contacts, co‑taught classes, and programs such as ASB, intramurals and career speakers; the school plans a disaggregated dataset to track equity outcomes.
Principal Karen Shipp delivered a comprehensive "state of school" presentation on the middle school's goals, programs and staffing, telling trustees the site plan flows from the district strategic plan and LCAP.
Shipp outlined seven focus areas including restorative justice professional development (differentiated training options for staff), monthly film series tied to heritage months, and renewed counseling capacity with two counselors at PMS. She described co‑taught classrooms, an expanded broadcast elective, interventions (study skills, math lab, reading intervention), and leadership opportunities (ASB with ~60 student participants, intramurals, Safe School Ambassadors). She said the site will create a locally maintained, disaggregated dataset to track historically under‑represented students.
Board members and the student representatives asked about counseling FTEs, 8th→9th grade articulation with high schools and attendance monitoring. Principal Shipp said the district holds spring articulation meetings with incoming teachers and high‑school counselors and that counselors regularly review attendance reports to identify students needing individualized outreach. Parent Diana Lee asked for more academic detail in future state‑of‑school presentations; Shipp agreed and described prior cross‑department articulation for science.
