SEP 2 6 2005 Filed Napa Superior Cour Napa Valley Unified School District*

R1

Both NPD and NVUSD must restore full-time SRO staffing for every secondary school. ACTION: The recommendation will not be implemented because it is not warranted and is not reasonable. While the Board is in agreement with the grand jury that full-time SRO's would be positive, it is our belief that the current SRO staffing is cost effective and adequate to meet the needs of the program which is to ensure a presence on the school campuses, to support the schools in emergencies, and to engage in preventative community policing. The SRO presence can be augmented at any time that is needed by a call to 911. The district is very committed to the safety of our students, but we do not agree that with our current financial constraints, additional district resources should be allocated to police officers. We do not have the funding to provide such service at this time, without making severe cuts into other programs. The current cost of one (1) SRO is approximately $135,000. For 2005-2006 we are paying the City of Napa Police Department $201,000 for roughly half the cost of three (3) SROs. Our portion is coming from state Safe Schools carryover funds. The cost for one (1) SRO at each secondary school, excluding Napa Valley Alternative School and Napa Valley Adult School, would be for seven (7) SROs at approximately $945,000 (our cost would be approximately one-half at $472,500 per year). We will continue to search for potential funding sources. The SRO in American Canyon is funded for three years (2005-2007) by the Napa County Office of Education grant for Safe Schools and Healthy Students. The grant did not allow for funding any existing SROs in the City of Napa. Officials in the City of American Canyon have expressed hope that they will be able to support a full-time SRO into the future, anticipating that officer will support all the schools in the city, including the new high school once it is opened. It should also be noted that the Board of Education met in January of 2003, holding a budget study session to discuss the fiscal year potential for mid-year cuts and to be proactive in looking at the 2003- 04 budget year. The result of the meeting was the formation of a Budget Action Team (BAT). The BAT membership included bargaining units, staff and administration from all levels, community and Board. The BAT began meeting in March 2003 with the goal of establishing and prioritizing a list of cost cutting ideas to present back to the Board of Education. Several of the interests generated by the BAT participants were fiscal solvency, long term solutions, employee involvement, avoid layoffs where possible, maintain safe schools and community, and others. The BAT submitted its recommendation based on four levels that represent programs on a continuum, ranging from those closely affecting classrooms to those perceived as furthest from the classroom. The recommendation entailed the reduction to one SRO being shared at the high schools, and to maintain the SRO being grant funded at the middle schools. 3 Grand Jury

R2

NPD and NVUSD must make obtaining adequate funding for a full-time SRO in every middle and high school a top priority. ACTION: The recommendation will not be implemented because it is not warranted and is not reasonable. We agree that funding to support the SROs is in jeopardy, and that the district and city must continue to look for grant funding to support the program into the future, as we did this year when we sought and obtained funding for the SRO position in American Canyon. Neither the school district nor the City of Napa has adequate general funds to pay for this staffing with diminished revenues and deficit budgets. It should also be noted there is a shortage of trained sworn police officers to fill positions. 2. Campus Staffing Grand Jury: The one high school without an SRO is also without a campus supervisor. Just a few years ago, for a student body of about 1,200 students, two deans of students supported campus supervision. Clarification: During the last twelve years there has been only one (1) Dean of Students responsible for student discipline on Napa and Vintage High Schools respectively. Both schools have had three (3) campus supervisors to assist the Deans with keeping safe campuses. Grand Jury: Next year deans may be required to spend a quarter of their time teaching further limiting their availability to oversee an increased number of students. Clarification: This change in assignment reflects a tighter budget and a greater focus on the district's core mission, which is delivering powerful teaching and learning. The Deans will not be teaching, but may be responsible for supervising and evaluating some classroom teachers. Each school is planning for how the discipline and related safety functions will be addressed. Grand Jury: "NVUSD statistics show that both student suspensions and expulsions have increased. In two schools suspensions have doubled, increasing from 273 to 469 and from 251 to 514." Grand Jury

R3

NVUSD must commit to an appropriate ratio of Campus Supervisors to student population at all secondary schools. The Dean of Students position must not be compromised by requiring added teaching duties. ACTION: The recommendation requires further analysis. We currently staff with one (1) eight hour Campus Supervisor for approximately 800 students (one hour/100 students) at the secondary level. We will study the campus supervisor staffing during the 2005-2006 school year. If analysis determines additional supervisors are warranted, they will be provided. Having Deans supervise and evaluate teachers has been done in the past and should not detract significantly from the discipline on campus. This instructional supervision role also provides an important opportunity for Deans to participate in the academic functions of the school. It is our expectation that there will be more stability in staff members serving in this position and that there will consequently be a positive impact both on instruction and student behavior. It should also be noted that we purchased and installed six security cameras and monitors at Vintage High School ($17,000) and two cameras and monitors at Napa Valley Adult School ($8,000) in 2004- 2005. Security cameras and monitors will be considered for purchase and installation at Napa High School, New Technology High and Valley Oak High School when the imaging and resolution are improved. These cameras tape 24 hours and 7 days a week to assist with keeping the campuses safe and deterring vandalism after school hours. 3. Fire Safety Grand Jury - After repeated requests for an explanation by the Grand Jury, staff indicated that insufficient NVUSD budget was the reason for the lack of appropriate fire protective equipment and clothing. Clarification: The district does not deny purchases of an essential item that is safety related for budgetary reasons. The general rule is that purchases and work orders that are essential safety items are given highest priority. We need to do a better job communicating this to the schools who may be holding back on requests in deference to budget limitations, because all schools and departments have experienced cuts in budgets for materials and supplies. Grand Jury

R4

NVUSD staff must both immediately request fire inspections be conducted and develop a tracking procedure to ensure they are completed annually. Equally, the Napa Fire Department must conduct annual school fire inspections, and work with the NVUSD to ensure they are completed each year. - ACTION: Portions of the recommendation have been implemented, and the others will be implemented throughout the coming school year. After receiving the Grand Jury report the General Services and Facilities Office conducted a review of in-house records and found that the schools identified by the Grand Jury had not been inspected A meeting was scheduled with the Napa City Fire Department who had jurisdiction over the schools and a plan was put in place to inspect the schools by September 1, 2005. Additionally, Napa Valley Unified School District put in place a procedure and record-keeping process that will ensure annual inspections are brought to the attention of both the District and the Fire Department with jurisdiction prior to the expiration of an annual inspection. The District's new procedure will apply to the three fire agencies (City of Napa, City of American Canyon, Napa County Fire Department) that have responsibility for the schools within Napa Valley Unified School District. The District has asked the three fire jurisdiction agencies to review their inspection reports in the hopes of developing a report that would be similar in terms of its requirements throughout Napa Valley Unified School District. Napa City Fire Department has taken the lead and the Chief has indicated that he has had favorable response from American Canyon Fire Department and Napa County Fire Department in developing a report that would be consistent with all three agencies and our schools. While the responsibility for this process lies with other jurisdictions, it is our hope that this process will be completed during the 2005-2006 school year. It is also our expectation that various fire agencies will also be monitoring our classrooms for safety deficiencies which will be addressed immediately when identified. All these procedures will be written into our safety plans and accountability will be monitored by the Director of General Services and Facilities and the Director of Student Services. Grand Jury

R5

NVSUD must ensure that all outdated extinguishers are recharged now and annually, and that they are maintained in their designated locations. NVUSD must obtain classroom-specific safety equipment and enforce policies requiring the use of protective equipment by students. ACTION: The recommendation has been implemented. All Head Custodians have now been asked to identify on school site maps the locations of each extinguisher to reduce the possibility that extinguishers are missed during annual inspections. Additionally, after meeting with the Napa City Fire Department, Head Custodians were directed by the District to inspect monthly each fire extinguisher and indicate the inspection by dating and signing the back of the inspection tag on each extinguisher. After talking with the Napa Fire Department, it was determined that there is no recommended fire extinguisher that can be used to spray an individual who is on fire. A 5-pound ABC fire extinguisher, which is a standard fire extinguisher, is in place at all of the schools of Napa Valley Unified School District. The extinguisher has the ability to put out all types of fires at the source of the ignition. The Napa City Fire Department recommended that an individual on fire be laid on the ground and a fire blanket or other material be used to smother the flames. Shops that have more likelihood of a fire such as a metal shop or welding shop have had fire blankets installed and the Napa City Fire Department will be providing training in the use of the fire blankets. The installation of a fire blanket is not a required regulation but it was agreed that it provides improved safety in the event of fire. The District will work with the individual shops to ensure that proper protective clothing is made available for all who work in these shops. These procedures will be implemented during the 2005-06 school year. Grand Jury

R6

NVUSD must immediately repair or replace non-functioning fire alarms. ACTION: The recommendation will be implemented wherever appropriate. Please see the above analysis. #2 EMERGENCY/DISASTER SAFETY PLANS Grand Jury

R7

With highest priority, NVUSD must work with Napa Fire Department Prevention Bureau to implement SEMS in every school and the district's safety plan within the 2005-2006 school year. ACTION: Implementation of the recommendation has begun, and will be completed during the recommended time frame. The General Services & Facilities and Student Services Departments held meetings with the City of Napa Fire Department on August 5th, 8th and 9th of 2005. Implementation of SEMS emergency plans and training were discussed, in addition to establishing regular school fire safety inspection schedules and monitoring of fire extinguishers. A SEMS-based Crisis Management Plan template was shared and three-hour training sessions for each school site were discussed. Response to the Grand Jury - September 2005 4 The Student Services Department will request that all school sites revise their current crisis management plans to be compliant with the SEMS template by the end of October 2005, and arrange for three hours of staff SEMS training by the City of Napa Fire Department, to be completed no later than June 2006. While the Napa Fire Department currently has only one trainer available, there have been discussions about creating a "training-of-trainers" model to ensure that every school gets the information needed by the end of the school year. Grand Jury

R8

NVUSD must establish identical alarm and code signals in all schools. ACTION: The recommendation will not be implemented because it is not warranted and is not reasonable. Please see above explanation. The General Services and Facilities Department has put in place a procedure and system to ensure that monthly drills are performed. Those records will be available at the school and the Office of General Services and Facilities for inspection upon request. Grand Jury

R9

NVUSD must change classroom door hardware to allow for safe lockdown in case of emergency. ACTION: Portions of the recommendation have been implemented, and the others will be implemented throughout the coming school year. The District identified in Measure M the desire to provide door hardware that would allow a teacher or staff person to lock the door from the inside. Schools that have been modernized since the Columbine incident have had hardware installed that has this inside locking capacity. A survey was conducted that identified those doors and the hardware that would be necessary to provide them with inside locking capacity. It was planned as a Phase 2 project within Measure M and the work will begin in the fall of 2005. Completion is expected prior to the end of the 2005-06 school year. It is estimated that it will cost approximately $250,000 to convert the identified doors. Response to the Grand Jury - September 2005 #3 FOOD SAFETY Clarification: Napa Valley Unified School District strives to provide its students with food that is both healthy and nutritious. In doing so, it faces many challenges. Several of these challenges were already being addressed at the time of the Grand Jury Report. One of the challenges the district faced this past year was to provide service to a high school that was growing in size. As a small high school situated on a previous elementary site, the facility was stretched to provide all the necessary services within the confines of the space. Previous kitchen facilities had been renovated to accommodate the numerous activities on the site. With the addition of 100 students, there was a need to provide a more diverse menu. As the program grew, the items offered required more on-site preparation. County regulations require stainless steel counters, additional prep sinks, and separate hand washing sinks for food handling. Because these items were not available, the County Environmental Health Inspector felt it was necessary to shut down the kitchen until these issues could be addressed. Administrators have since met with the County Health officials and are in the process of installing all the necessary items to permit the program to function on that campus in the new school year. On another high school campus, collaboration between two instructional programs provided the students with an opportunity to experience the end results of their labor. Site personnel had been in contact with the Health Department and were under the impression that all regulations had been met. The District has since met with the County Health Department and is in the process of determining the cost of renovating the area to make the changes necessary to continue the program. Every site has food service personnel who have been trained and are "serve safe" certified. The temperature of the food is taken when it is delivered and again when it is served to make sure that it is safe. Grand Jury

R10

All NVUSD schools must comply with all food safety standards. District staff responsible for food operations, and staff responsible for completion of annual inspections, must develop policies and tracking systems to ensure legal compliance. School administrators and staff must be trained in basic food safety standards to recognize and ensure compliance on campuses. ACTION: Most elements of the recommendation have been implemented and the balance should be implemented by the end of the 2005-2006 school year. We are in agreement that we must comply with, or exceed, all food safety standards. The District takes food safety seriously and works hard to comply with all safety standards. Food Service personnel are trained in food handling. There are certified personnel on every campus to ensure all requirements are being met. The District and the Food Service Director work with the County Environmental Health Department to make sure that every site is in compliance. The District will work with the County Environmental Health Department to develop a tracking system to ensure that all regulations are being met. It will also make sure that all school administrators are aware of food safety regulations so that instructional projects involving food preparation are in compliance with such regulations. #4 STUDENT HEALTH 1. Staffing for Student Health Services Clarification: The secondary schools are serviced by three of five credentialed nurses employed by the District. The other two nurses support elementary schools. The credentialed nurses visit at least one school a day and sometimes two. The monthly schedules for servicing assigned schools are maintained in the Student Services Department. With the increased enrollment at New Technology High School (they will have approximately 400 students in four grade levels in 2005-2006; previously 200 students in two grade levels), one LVN will be assigned as of Fall 2005, and will also serve Valley Oak High School. With the launch of the Children's Health Initiative (CHI), all students enrolled in NVUSD will have some form of health insurance within two years funded by various grants. The process of enrolling non-insured students will begin in January 2006. As part of the CHI program, NVUSD Bilingual Community Liaisons will be trained to assist families with the acquisition of health insurance for their children. Grand Jury

R11

Implement SEMS, which requires that FA and CPR certificated staff be available on campus when students are present. ACTION: The recommendation has not been implemented, but will be implemented in the future, as discussed below. The Student Services Department will arrange with the Napa Valley Adult School to provide First Aid and CPR training for staff certification. School sites will have an appropriate selection of staff members trained and certified by the end of May, 2006. Records of FA and CPR certification will be maintained by the Student Services and Human Resources Departments. 2. Medications Grand Jury

R12

NVUSD must provide new written policies and procedures to be implemented immediately: 1) Credentialed School Nurse or Licensed Nurse must: annually train the health clerks and designated staff to store and dispense student medication safely. oversee the health clerks and designated staff to ensure policies and procedures are followed. train the health clerk and designated staff to assist students as needed with any individual specific monitoring, testing, or medical treatment. Documentation of all required training will be maintained in both district records and in individual emplovee files. Response to the Grand Jury - September 2005 ACTION: The recommendation has not been implemented, but will be implemented in the future, as discussed below. A credentialed/licensed school nurse will provide annual training for health clerks and any designated staff on the proper storage and dispensing of medication. (Board Policy 5141.21, Administering Medication). The training will be completed by the end of November, 2005. Our health clerks are organized in teams with a credentialed nurse as the supervisor of each team. We currently have five teams that are assigned to schools. One credentialed nurse is also the lead nurse who assists the Director of Student Services with health issues and assignments. District Board Policies and Administrative Regulations are discussed and reviewed at monthly meetings with credentialed nurses and health clerks. Our credentialed nurses currently train health clerks and designated staff with any specific monitoring, testing, or providing medical treatment for students. Documentation of all required training will be maintained in the Student Services Department and the employee's personnel file located in the Human Resources Department. # 5 ADMINISTRATIVE MANAGEMENT 1. Napa Valley Unified School District Clarification: The goal of a multi-tiered and collaborative approach to our organizational structure, as opposed to one of a purely hierarchical design, is to encourage individual initiative and ownership by school staff of instructional improvement strategies to ensure that capacity is being built throughout the organization to improve and sustain student learning over time. NVUSD's current management structure is also intended to foster an inclusive approach for all of our employees and to provide better communication, easier access to district level administrators, a more efficient and timely flow of knowledge both to and from school sites, direct support, and oversight of management. All employees of the district have a certain level of autonomy; however, coupled with that is the need and expectation for strict adherence to district policies and procedures. Every principal reports directly to the superintendent for the purpose of evaluation and accountability. Each site administrator also has a formal and structured relationship with a "learning support partner" and direct access to administrators at the District Office who have differing areas of expertise. Support and supervision are based on the individual needs of site administrators; and, school administrators report to either their "learning support partner" or appropriate district level administrator. The structure is research based and designed to deliver excellent educational results. Current data are suggesting that it is working well in supporting our educational mission. The district has no evidence of the assertions of the Grand Jury that administrators are working "in almost total isolation from one another, devoid of effective oversight, communication, and management." The entire management team has frequently debriefed our team structure and while problems are continually identified and addressed, this is the first time that this concern has been raised. The Grand Jury committee also had two opportunities to interview the Superintendent, and to his recollection committee members did not seek to clarify how the administrative structure operates or how district and school site administrators communicate. Response to the Grand Jury - September 2005 The District does acknowledge that it may be necessary and appropriate to exercise more centralized control on health and safety issues, and we are scrutinizing all of our management systems to ensure that our structure maximizes accountability on all issues, including health and safety. Regarding the financial management issues, the district has at this point collected $250,000 of the $700,000 in debts mentioned in the Grand Jury Report. $100,000 of this total came in from the state of California on a past due grant the very same day the district received the Grand Jury Report. When our auditors identified the systemic nature of this problem, steps were immediately taken to improve financial control mechanisms, including more frequent notices to our accounts payable, and follow-up of uncollected debt. Grand Jury

R13

NVUSD management must thoroughly examine their organization on all levels to review, update, develop and implement policies and procedures. Following this, district administrators must establish and maintain clear, concrete mechanisms of accountability for improving communication, oversight, and management and for implementing these ideas. Both NCOE and NVUSD must supervise and hold all staff accountable for their assigned responsibilities. ACTION: The recommendation will be implemented on an on-going basis. Annually, the management team of Napa Valley Unified School District takes the opportunity to reflect on the past year in order to plan for systemic improvements. The Grand Jury report provided a document that has served as an impetus for discussions. Although we may not be in agreement in some areas, certainly there is room for improvement within any organization, and most every participant acknowledged that we can strengthen our administrative organization as it relates to safety. Statements throughout the report, either directly or through implication, suggest that the current organizational structure is ineffective as it relates to accessibility, accountability, safety and support. We intend to address those specific areas to ensure that we are maximizing our effectiveness in addressing both our safety and our instructional concerns. We do not believe that these are incompatible, nor that our current organizational structure needs to be overhauled in order to ensure the desired accountability. We concur with

R14

The NVUSD must adopt an unbending "Safety First Policy" that would demand first priority for funds, staffing, and implementation of programs and policies to ensure student safety. ACTION: The recommendation has and will continue to be implemented as described below. Board and staff members are in agreement with the concept of a "safety first policy." We cannot fulfill our educational mission if students are at risk or in harm's way. As we are learning on a national scale, it may not be possible to guarantee that our students, staff, and parents are 100% safe when they are on a school campus, but we must ensure that our planning and resource allocations are as efficient and effective as possible in providing these safeguards. While we always wish that we had more resources to spend on all our programs, the Board of Education believes that it has effectively balanced priorities in allocating our very limited resources. STUDENT SAFETY ADDENDUM: CITIZENS' COMPLAINTS Grand Jury