Latest news with #LodiUnified
Yahoo
26-04-2025
- Automotive
- Yahoo
Lodi Unified to receive funding for zero-emission buses
Apr. 26—Lodi Unified School District is one of four in the county that will be receiving funding to purchase zero-emission electric buses in the near future. Governor Gavin Newsom announced on Wednesday that $500 million was awarded to educational agencies to buy zero-emission school buses and chargers through the Zero-Emissions School Bus and Infrastructure project. The project aims to invest $500 million to deliver 1,000 buses to some 133 school districts across the state by 2035. Clean school buses funded by the state are expected to reduce 18,000 metric tons of greenhouse gas emissions annually, which is equal to taking more than 4,000 cars off the road for a year. More than 70% of the current zero-emission school buses in operation are in California's most pollution-burdened communities, the state said. "Cleaning up the state's school bus fleet is central to California's efforts to provide clean transportation in priority communities that are disproportionately hurt by air pollution," California Air Resources Board Chair Liane Randolph said. "The vast majority of these grants will go to local educational agencies that serve these communities." To date, the state has provided more than $1.3 billion in incentives to fund more than 2,300 zero-emission school buses at school districts, of which 1,100 are already in use. More than 300 districts and local education agencies have purchased at least one zero-emission school bus — and some have made the switch to a 100% clean fleet. Monique Fraticelli Esparza, Lodi Unified's director of transportation, said the district has applied for the Zero-Emissions School Bus and Infrastructure grant, as well as a San Joaquin Valley Air Pollution Control District grant. The district is currently awaiting notification that it qualifies and how much in funding it will receive, she said. "As of now, we do not have any zero-emission buses in our fleet," she said. "These grant applications were submitted with the goal of replacing 20 of our older school buses with 20 new electric buses to support our efforts toward cleaner, more sustainable student transportation." "California has set important benchmarks for removing internal combustion vehicles from our roads and replacing them with clean transportation," California Energy Commission Chair David Hochschild said. "CEC is helping school districts move in that direction by funding ZESBI." The state hopes that the buses will help its efforts to achieve carbon neutrality by 2045 and help protect children who are particularly vulnerable to the health impacts from diesel exhaust. Linden, Manteca and Stockton Unified school districts will also benefit from the state's allocation. Newsom also announced on Wednesday that California saw a 177% increase in its Clean Truck and Bus Voucher Incentive Project from 2023 to 2024. The program is funded primarily with proceeds from the cap-and-trade program and provides point-of-sale discounts to make zero-emission trucks and buses more accessible for fleets and businesses. In February alone more than 200 HVIP-funded zero-emission trucks and buses were deployed with $31 million in incentives, the state said.
Yahoo
20-03-2025
- Politics
- Yahoo
Lodi Unified board says policy for performance evaluations needs work
Mar. 20—A Lodi Unified School District policy regarding teacher performance evaluations has gone back to the drawing board after employees and parents raised concerns about its language. The district's board of education was presented with a revised policy during its Tuesday meeting with language that Superintendent Neil Young said was recommended by the California School Board Association. Young said the language would align the district's existing policy on teacher evaluations with state law. One of the revisions to the district's policy states that the superintendent or designee will assess the performance of certificated instructional staff as it reasonably relates to "students' progress toward meeting district standards of expected achievement for their grade level in each area of study and, if applicable, towards the state-adopted content standards as measured by state-adopted criterion-referenced assessments." Teachers and parents who spoke during public comment said the language made it seem like the district would be using standardized test scores to evaluate an employee's performance. Christopher Anderson, a resident in Lodi Unified's District 5 and a teacher with the Stockton Unified School District, said the revised policy was "wholly misguided" and not supported by research, adding its implementation would have unintended consequences. "While student assessments can provide valuable data, relying on them for teacher evaluations is problematic, potentially unfair, and student outcomes are influenced by numerous factors beyond a teacher's control." Anderson and Chris Munger — an English teacher in Tracy who also lives in Lodi — said those factors include socio-economic background, family support and access to resources. Munger said he understood the importance of tracking student progress and adapting to instructional changes, but tying test scores to teachers' evaluations was not an effective way to improve student achievement. He said that when the No Child Left Behind Act was implemented two decades ago, teachers ended up teaching to the tests instead of curriculum, and some districts were caught manipulating student scores so they wouldn't be penalized when test scores were low. Signed into law in 2002, the NCLB aimed to improve public education by increasing accountability for schools and states, mandating standardized testing and ensuring all students, including those from disadvantaged backgrounds, met academic standards. "If (the district's) policy is enacted, the result would be very similar," Munger said. "I think it's important for the district to bargain with the (Lodi Education Association) to create a policy that is both beneficial for students and is effective in bringing test scores up." Rob Reynolds is a parent of a neuro-divergent student, and said how his child performs on a test depends on a number of factors, from including what color pants they wear, or if they don't have waffles for breakfast. "My kids hate state testing," he said. "They hate going to school, sitting in front of a computer and doing something just because they were told that they have to. Children — I know they do their best at school — but during these two weeks (of testing), they are just phoning it in, and to put that on teachers is extremely unfair." Teacher Michelle Orgon said district staff and teachers spent years working to develop a pilot evaluation model in the past, but it was ultimately scrapped without an official vote from the board. She admonished staff for not discussing Tuesday's revised policy language with the LEA, which she said was required by state law. "We know our current evaluation system is archaic in its model," she said. "But to put this in a policy, knowing that you threw something out and did not continue it with evaluation, with any kind of feedback, or coming to the table as a sunshine item, and bringing it through the back door seems deceptive." Young said district staff is always available if the community is concerned that tests are being used to evaluate a teacher's performance. "There is no intention that we are tying in the outcome of a (state test) and using that to evaluate a teacher," he said. "The evaluation process is completed long before we receive the outcome of the (state tests). In fact, we don't get the complete information until teachers are on summer break. I just wish people had come to us before the meeting." Other policy revisions included assessing performance based on the instructional techniques and strategies used by the employee; the employee's adherence to curricular objectives; and the establishment and maintenance of a suitable learning environment within the scope of the employee's responsibilities. Board member Courtney Porter said assessing a teacher based on techniques and strategies was vague language, and questioned what staff meant by curricular objectives and a suitable learning environment. He added that in his nearly four decades as a teacher, he had never once seen a list of district standards that employees are supposed to meet as described in the first topic discussed. "This whole thing is written very poorly," he said. "You're asking people to do evaluations, yet we have nothing about how they're being trained or what they're doing. My biggest concern is that we have never established assessments for all teachers, for teachers in certain subjects, to be used by an assessment board." The rest of the board agreed that the proposed policy should be rewritten and brought back to a future meeting, and that staff discuss the changes with district teachers. "I feel this shouldn't be brought forward until we really have a chance to go through it with a committee where we can fine-tune this," trustee Sherry Alexander said. "I don't like this being thrown out here and having people upset. Because if I were a teacher, I'd be upset too."
