aPODERar Symposium - Building on Culture, Community, & Resilience

Are you new to CALSA or considering joining our familia? This session is designed just for you! 
Meet CALSA leaders, learn about our mission, guiding principles, and the many opportunities available to support your growth and leadership journey. Open to all new and prospective members, this is your chance to connect, ask questions, and discover how CALSA can empower you.

Start your day with a warm welcome and inspiring program! Enjoy a light breakfast accompanied by a moving student performance.

Following this, hear from Dr. Karling Aguilera-Fort, Senior Associate Superintendent of Educational Services and School Operations at SFUSD, as he delivers a Welcome Address to set the tone for the day.

We continue our morning with a special Keynote Address by Dr. Juana Bordas, offering insights and inspiration for educational leadership and community impact.

This session will also introduce attendees to the CALSA X-periencia, led by Coach Al, and featuring a powerful talk from Dr. Roxane Fuentes.

This session will delve into our district’s groundbreaking partnership with Telehealth Docs, illustrating how this collaboration is reshaping healthcare access and fostering equity within our schools. By prioritizing equitable healthcare, we’re tackling systemic disparities and ensuring that every student, regardless of socioeconomic status, has access to essential services. However, this initiative goes beyond healthcare—it’s about building sustainable community partnerships that address the root causes of chronic absenteeism. We know that when students face barriers like untreated health conditions or mental health challenges, they’re more likely to miss school, impacting their long-term academic outcomes. By embedding telehealth into our district, we’re developing a holistic support network that brings together families, healthcare providers, and educators. These partnerships aren’t just about solving immediate issues but about fostering ongoing collaboration to create lasting change in student attendance and success. Through this approach, we’re seeing how strengthened community connections can reduce absenteeism, support student wellness, and ultimately improve academic performance. This session will highlight the critical role of these partnerships in sustaining positive outcomes for all students. Discover how Lamont Elementary School District's groundbreaking healthcare partnerships are poised to transform school-based medicine, setting a new standard for equitable access and reshaping the future of student success.

Culturally and Linguistically Responsive Educación: Building Cultural Pride, Empowerment, and Unity in Our Schools is a dynamic initiative designed to empower students by fostering cultural pride, self-esteem, and unity among students, particularly within Latinx communities, while addressing issues such as anti-Blackness and hateful language in schools. By building on key concepts of identity, intellect, and inclusivity, the initiative promotes student empowerment through a culturally relevant Study Trip followed by creative projects, and community involvement. It also emphasizes the importance of collective responsibility in eliminating harmful language and creating a safe and inclusive school environment. As part of this work, we engage students, staff, and families in conversations about racial pride and respect, including a follow-up DELAC presentation focused on addressing the n-word and hateful language in our schools. This project supports improved student engagement and outcomes by celebrating diversity, fostering critical reflection, and promoting unity across school communities.

This presentation will detail strategies to improve academic outcomes for English Leaner students in to order to promote their reclassification while ensuring that they also succeed in English Language Arts.  We will detail how CNUSD has become one of the top achieving districts for EL's in Riverside County.

This session outlines the San Mateo-Foster City School District’s strategic approach to leadership in promoting equity, excellence, and student success through the implementation of restorative justice practices. Moving away from punitive discipline policies that historically removed students from learning environments, this initiative emphasizes proactive, restorative solutions that empower students with tools to repair harm and build relationships. Aligned with our Wellness and Equity goals, this commitment supports the development of a nurturing school culture by providing elementary and middle school staff with comprehensive training in restorative practices, particularly community circles. These circles create essential spaces for students, staff, parents, and the community to foster empathy, address conflicts collaboratively, and cultivate a sense of belonging. By advancing these practices, we strengthen our mission to ensure each student's growth, resilience, and well-being within an inclusive school environment.

Using an operational framework consisting of Simon Sinek’s Golden Circle, Michael Fullan’s Coherence, the CA MTSS Framework, Malsowe’s Hierarchy of Needs and the CA EL Roadmap, the Delhi USD team refined the Local Control Accountability Plan to facilitate a comprehensive approach to improvement science. Delhi USD uses board transparency and accessibility, multiple tiers of community engagement, and regular collection and analysis of qualitative and quantitative data to ensure that their district priorities and LCAP address the needs of their community.
Participants will learn how the Delhi USD leadership and governance team leveraged an integrated approach to create a strong core instructional program that uses the principles of improvement science to establish true community schools that monitor progress through transparency and inclusive decision-making.

This session aims to empower educators to strengthen Tier 1 instruction for English Learner (EL) students by integrating culturally responsive and equitable practices within a proactive Multi-Tiered System of Support (MTSS) framework. Participants will learn how to structure an MTSS system that supports Tier 1 to be proactive rather than merely reactionary, enabling them to effectively anticipate and address EL students' diverse needs. The session will delve into assessment and monitoring components tailored for EL learners, equipping teachers with tools to track progress and make informed instructional decisions. By building the capacity of teachers and reinforcing the difference they can make, an inclusive classroom environment is fostered where all students achieve.

Research shows a strong connection between educator beliefs and student outcomes. In this session, presenters will explore how coaches can effectively identify and address biased statements and beliefs that may negatively impact student learning.
Participants will:
-Identify Deficit Mindsets
-Learn to recognize limiting beliefs about students and their potential
-Use Practical Tools: Implement tools immediately to foster limitless thinking about academic and behavioral challenges, using the Ladder of Inference to understand how beliefs influence behaviors
-Engage in Role-Playing: Practice with a proprietary and innovative coaching conversation model that focuses on sustaining dialogues that lead to breakthroughs and new perspectives

In the ever-evolving education landscape, educators face numerous challenges that demand resilience, adaptability, and a warrior's spirit. " The Warrior in You: The Resilient Educator” is a keynote designed to inspire, empower, and equip educators with the mindset and tools they need to thrive in today's dynamic educational environment.

Dive into a unique opportunity to align strategic solutions with the real-world goals of educational leaders. During this interactive lunch, our #CALSAFamilia will engage in focused discussions centered on selected "power practices" that address district priorities. In addition to these valuable conversations, attendees will have the chance to listen to additional CALSA X-periencia speakers, further enriching the session with insights into innovative practices and leadership strategies. This dynamic environment fosters collaboration, actionable feedback, and meaningful connections, driving progress for the 2024-25 organizational objectives.

This session will explore the implementation of a case management and mentorship model within Santa Ana Unified’s Coordination of Services Team (COST). Through partnerships with Communities in Schools and Healthy Tomorrows, we’ve built an all-hands-on-deck approach where school staff, interns, and community partners work together to support students both in and outside the classroom. By providing comprehensive student needs assessments and progress-monitored support plans, this model centers on student success, transparency, and collaborative efforts, all aligned with the district’s Framework for the Future and Graduate Profile. Participants will learn strategies for replicating this model to address chronic absenteeism and improve student outcomes through strong community partnerships.

This interactive session will provide you with opportunities to use a framework for linguistically responsive leadership to reflect upon, analyze, and guide decision-making for multilingual learner education. We will unpack three orientations central to linguistically responsive leadership: orientation to multilingual learners, orientation to language learning, and orientation to leadership. Then we will apply these to a set of examples from the classroom, school, and district levels to practice analyzing and coaching others and then reflecting upon our own opportunities to promote linguistically responsive leadership.