At the CAAASA summit in March of this year, former CAAASA President, Dr. Michele Bowers hosted a panel where participants had a conversation concerning the incredible opportunities provided by ELO-P funding. If you missed it, that’s okay! Here is the video link to the entire talk. The panel consisted of: Dr. Dawnyell Goolsby Executive Director of Federal & State Programs at Inglewood USD, Mrs. Karen Johnson ELO-P Director at Moreno Valley USD, Superintendent Joseph Clevenger of Bonsall USD, and Dr. Helen Wang CEO and Co-founder of 6crickets. Together this group of education advocates discussed at length what ELO-P can look like in your district and schools and what it means for our kids and communities.

What is ELO-P?
“Expanded learning” means before school, after school, summer, or intersession learning programs that focus on developing the academic, social, emotional, and physical needs and interests of pupils through hands-on, engaging learning experiences. In 2021 the state of California enacted the Expanded Learning Opportunities-Programs legislation that funded enrichment programming in schools.
As stated in last month’s newsletter, with great funding comes great responsibility–and even greater work. We covered Dr. Wang and Jeff Hohne’s presentation extensively in previous months, so feel free to read about it using this link.

(Panel: Karen Johnson, Joseph Clevenger, Dr. Michele Bowers. Speaker: Dr. Helen Wang)
Tackle Staffing Shortages – Inglewood USD
Tackle Staffing Shortages – Inglewood USD

(Dr. Dawnyell Goolsby of Inglewood USD)
When starting out with their expanded learning program, Dr. Goolsby of Inglewood found herself rich with community partners, but lacking in the staff to make the connections, even saying “There are a lot of community partners but I have one Expanded Learning Director. What made our partnership with 6crickets work really well is having that extra support in managing and crowdsourcing all these people, the students, the parents, and organizing logistically getting all of these opportunities together.” By tapping into community partners Inglewood tackled staffing shortages and gave students access to creative curriculums; a win-win-win for students, districts, and community partners.

Dr. Bowers spoke to the point of access and creativity as well, “so when we think about increasing participation in numbers, and not only to get the kids in there, but to keep them in there and to even get the parents to engage in a real conversation with their child about what they are excited about doing. Marketing matters. Marketing matters, how we present the information tells the community, tells our teachers and our staff the value that we put on this.”

(Dr. Michelle Bowers, former CAAASA President)

What to Outsource – Bonsall USD

(Superintendent Joseph Clevenger of Bonsall USD)
Superintendent Joseph Clevenger of Bonsall USD saw the tremendous opportunities that ELO-P funding presented, especially for unduplicated and underrepresented students. However, Bonsall USD has 2,163 students and 5 schools with one administrator to manage the entire ELO-P program. Outsourcing was needed for the success of the program, but how does one decide what to outsource? Superintendent Clevenger highlighted his biggest concern, “one thing we were really looking to do is not lose control of the product when we realized we needed to outsource and bring in some outside help”. So the logistics could be outsourced, but not the district’s policies and agenda.

“We were able to work with 6crickets and build something that wasn’t their program but was really our program with the assistance and technical assistance that we were lacking”. And the result? Because the district staff at Bonsall USD could focus on programming and students, they were able to develop a program which is currently serving nearly 60% of their entire school district. In the two years that their expanded learning program has been underway, they have nearly tripled enrollment from year one to year two.

Ensure Student Safety and Accountability – Moreno Valley USD

(Karen Johnson, ELO-P Director of Moreno Valley USD)
Mrs. Karen Johnson highlighted her issues of control through a lens of student safety, accountability, and measurable outcomes with live data. She oversees expanded learning at 29 campuses with a staff of two, so outsourcing was integral to success. However, she was struggling with being able to oversee the entire program, “if you don’t have the ability to see [the program] then you’re taking the word of the person you’re outsourcing with,” and that was unacceptable to Ms. Johnson.

Luckily, Karen found her “diamond in the rough” when she partnered with 6crickets, “when I found 6crickets they helped me get control of the program. [They] connected to our student information system…I am able to see what kids are registered, with what program, what vendor, and at what time”. Through the real-time attendance sync, Karen could now see where her students were at every moment of expanded learning time. Dr. Bowers elaborated on the importance of monitoring student data, “the students who are participating in our expanded learning opportunities, what does their attendance look like since they started? What do their grades look like since they started?” Since this data was linked with the student information system, she could also compare attendance data to achievement and improvement amongst students.

ELO-P at Rural Districts – Chowchilla ESD
Are you a rural district that wants to build up your expanded learning but lacks resources in close range? Not a problem! Chowchilla Elementary School District was such a district, yet they were able to introduce choice-driven enrichment clubs, with amazing topics like video game design, website design, and magic. They achieved 917 uniquely enrolled students (out of a total of 2178 students). How did they do it? By partnering with virtual enrichment providers.

Conclusion:
As Superintendent Clevenger said, ELO-P funding gave us, “an opportunity to increase opportunity.” What these opportunities look like in each school district varies based on size, staffing, and location. However, what is consistent across the board is the ability to build something great for students; it just may take some creativity and a little help.

(Panel: Dr. Goolsby, Karen Johnson, Superintendent Clevenger, Dr. Wang. Speaker: Dr. Bowers)

(Dr. Goolsby, Director Johnson, Superintendent Clevenger)
Yours in Education,
6crickets team