On Monday Mar. 17, 2025 the Lewis Center for Educational Research Board (LCERB) met for its monthly meeting to discuss updates regarding the accreditation review by Western Association of Schools and Colleges (WASC) and submission of Norton’s Academic Improvement Plan (AIP) required after the approval of Norton’s charter renewal petition by the San Bernardino County Board of Education (SBCBOE) on Monday, Mar. 10.
WASC Update
Norton Principal Erika Agosto expressed optimism in regards to Norton’s self-study and accreditation review conducted by WASC. WASC’s purpose is to provide a non-governmental review of a school’s efficiency and excellence in culture, curriculum, instruction, and academic support.
“We don’t have official word yet, but I am confident that we’re going to get a six year [WASC] accreditation,” Agosto said. “The team didn’t have anything to say except for good things about our school and how proud we should be of both of our elementary and our secondary… Of the 19 factors that they rate us on, we earned five highly effective, 13 effective and one somewhat effective.”
AIP Update
Lewis Center for Educational Research President/CEO Dr. Lisa Lamb also shared that Norton made changes to their AIP and resubmitted to the SBCBOE following the approval of Norton’s charter renewal petition. The process for submitting, editing, and meeting goals outlined in the AIP is mandated by California Assembly Bill 1505 (AB 1505). Recent changes made to the AIP include Norton adding more information about their dual immersion program, providing more examples of STEM connections throughout the school, citing additional research backing dual immersion programs, detailing names and backgrounds of board members, and including the academic calendar for the school year.
“[The changes to the AIP] were… really small. Some things like, I didn’t include the school calendar and instructional minutes calculation, because those are things that are on our website,” Dr. Lamb explained. “[We also added] more description about our dual immersion shifts and changes in English early literacy instruction. We added the board members’ names… I also added to one of the appendices the skills chart that we use to select our board members just because [the board members] thought that was interesting. That would be good for them to know that not only are we looking at diverse perspectives, diverse demographics, but we also look for diverse professional backgrounds and skill sets… It took maybe 30 minutes to make all of those changes. And so I just really want to go on record at our board meeting that there weren’t significant changes that were requested. And I think that we submitted a very solid petition.”
Schedule Updates for 2026-27 School Year
Dr. Lamb added that changes are being finalized for next school year’s bell schedule. One of the key changes that will be finalized at the April Lewis Center board meeting is the elimination of block schedules on Thursdays and Fridays. Instead, the bell schedule will include regular Monday, Tuesday, Thursday, and Friday class periods; Wednesday will remain a minimum day.
“We have some big changes… We’ve been looking at the effectiveness [of block schedule]. We’ve been looking at discipline issues… And so we are going to move away from block periods, so we’ll have a traditional schedule–Monday, Tuesday, Thursday, Friday, periods one through six,” Dr. Lamb explained. “Wednesday will also be one through six, but it’s our early release day, and we’re just finalizing the minutes for that… that should be all ready for you next time.”
Possible Future STEM Partnerships
Norton is also looking to expand student’s STEM opportunities in and around San Bernardino, rather than the High Desert.
“We are looking at different math opportunities for our teachers to partner with… When we were in Washington D.C. in December… [we ran into] the astronomy professor and the director for Cal State’s observatory… And we started talking… and looking at ways to partner with G.A.V.R.T. [Goldstone Apple Valley Radio Telescope],” Dr. Lamb said. “We [want to] bring [more STEM] opportunities to both of our schools and both of our student populations.”
Continued Focus on English Learners’ Education
At the LCERB meeting on Monday, Jan. 27, 2025 Norton Principal Erika Agosto also noted that Norton will continue to focus on improving education for English Learners (ELs), and that this will be a significant part of Norton’s improvement over the next two years.
“Our English learner progress… dropped from yellow to red [this year]. And we found that it wasn’t that our kids aren’t doing well; it’s that we reclassified our kids too early, so as soon as they passed that test, we reclassified them. But unfortunately, the state doesn’t count that; It only counts the kids that stayed as [ELs],” Agosto explained. “[To boost those scores] we have designated homeroom classes to target our English learners. Here on our campus, too, is [Dr. Morris], our wonderful EL coach with a lot of experience… and she’s going and coaching not only our English teachers, but… math [and] science… making sure that the teachers know how to differentiate their instruction to really target our [ELs] and make sure that their scores are coming up as well… [We’re] making sure that we’re doing everything that we can to get those scores up.”
Next Meeting?
The next LCERB is scheduled for April 21, 2025 at 4:30 p.m.
