[audio logo]

Speaker: OTAN, Outreach and Technical Assistance Network.

Elena Gomez-lecarao: Well, we're going to be presenting today, and I just want to really focus on our project title, which is the crafting of hybrid programs with online and on-site flexibility, because that's what it is we're going to be showing today, displaying our journey and, at the same time, everything that we had, the journey included. So let me-- yeah, I'll just--

Peter Mancillas: All right.

Elena Gomez-lecarao: OK. So here we have-- let me introduce you to our teammates, our team members. We have Peter Mancillas. He is the TOSA. He is the on-site TOSA. And I know some of you have asked what is TOSA. And it is--

Peter Mancillas: Teacher On Special Assignment, and we're kind of fish nor fowl. We do administrative tasks, but we get paid as teachers. So it's the best of both worlds. And if you want to add the maximum responsibility and minimum control. That's what I do. I love it, though.

Elena Gomez-lecarao: So he is on-site TOSA. And then we have Twyla, and she just joined us, Twyla Eva. And she is the transitional navigator, which she's always been part--

Audience: [ INAUDIBLE ]

Elena Gomez-lecarao: I'm sorry?

Audience: Can we welcome her?

Elena Gomez-lecarao: No, which I was going to say.

[applause, cheering]

She's always been part of us, and now she officially made it through. And then, of course, my name is Elena Gomez. I am the TOSA, but this is online, 100% remote. And I'm also an ESL teacher. And our principal, Mark Beshirs, he's not with us, but he has 100% been always very supportive of this journey.

Peter Mancillas: OK. Go ahead. OK. Jefferson High School, Union High School District-- we are in Daly City. Daly City is just to the south of San Francisco. And the district is about 5,000 students, and we serve about 600 a year. And we've got all the programs as listed. We're kind of comparable to pretty much everything that you guys are already doing in terms of what we try to offer. Go ahead.

It's a bedroom community. Very, very diverse. Its most famous son is John Madden. He made it through. He's the only real famous guy there, and it's one of the foggiest cities. Those of you who are in the Valley and it's hot, come enjoy the fog. So--

Audience: We get that, too.

Peter Mancillas: Yeah, it's different. Ours is a higher-quality fog. It's because-- yeah, it's San Mateo County. I'm sorry. Just yeah.

Elena Gomez-lecarao: OK.

Peter Mancillas: OK. Like everyone else here who's been doing this for five years, we went online during COVID, and we stayed there. Our teachers had a two-hour in-service one afternoon in February of 2020. And there we went. And we emerged out of COVID slowly. But our anecdotal information-- we weren't really collecting hard numbers. We had a group of learners that really wanted to remain online.

So we tried it. We tried it with multiple-level ESL classes, and it didn't work that well. It was teachers who knew how to teach online, but the learners had to come in and pick up hard copies. They had to drop them off. So it really wasn't a completely online experience. And in all fairness to the teachers, it's very hard to differentiate in an online setting.

So the principal and I decided, well, this didn't work. So let's just double down, and double down we did. And so we decided to create an online school and have running from low beginning through advanced a teacher for each class. Go ahead.

Elena Gomez-lecarao: Can we go back to the-- go back to the-- I do want to talk about this picture because I think it truly represents when you're launching yourself to something that you're not aware of what are the challenges. But yet you have faith that you will make it. And so this is the picture that I think really represents where we started. I mean, we're still flying this airplane, and we're still building it, but it is where the journey began.

Peter Mancillas: Our recruitment-- this is something-- I think it was up in an earlier presentation. How do you find good teachers? We went on EDJOIN, and we had incredible luck. We had highly qualified teachers. You guys have been in situations where you have five applicants come in for an interview. You can only hire one, and you really are looking. Can't we just create another class for that person and all of that?

And because San Mateo County is relatively affluent, OK, we were able to offer an hourly wage that was very competitive in the Valley, in parts of rural California. So we got real good people, and these weren't folks who just knew how to operate online. They specialized in online instruction, and they had certifications and capabilities that were-- the principal and I, Mark Beshirs-- it was humbling to see these folks want to come and teach for us. And Elena was one of them.

And Elena was so, so good and competent at what she was doing that we just said, let's make her a TOSA, too, so she could have all that administrative responsibility and with just teacher pay. And it's worked out really well.

Elena Gomez-lecarao: I actually applied to be just a three-hour ESL teacher, and I waited. I was just looking. I've been teaching online for almost 20 years. And so when I apply, I'm like, oh, I could do this for three hours. And then after a while, I didn't hear from them. I'm like, OK, that's fine. And then I get a call, and they say, well, you know what? We have something else for you. I'm like, oh, really? And there I am. Here I am now for that.

Peter Mancillas: All right. OK. Our online students-- a lot of them have a lack of transportation, a lot of family issues, some cultural barriers that we found where the families felt it was best for their learner to remain at home. And in other cases, they had an unstable work schedule. So they just really didn't have time to get their EL classes in and handle everything else. Go ahead.

Elena Gomez-lecarao: So when they hired me, I come from a background-- just to let you know, I've been teaching at the community college and using Canvas for a very long time. And so I already had that experience of Canvas and teaching at the community college. I teach critical thinking. And so when they approached me and they offered this TOSA, my brain right away went to three big parts, which are the student learning needs, curriculum, and then the online platform.

So how am I going to bring all these three things online? And so I decided to focus on and break this down into these categories, which are the program goals, the curriculum, the professional development, the integration of technology, networking, and most importantly-- that's why we joined DLAC-- was the alignment of our aligned program with our on-site.

I will tell you this 100%. We could not function as an online program without aligning with our on-site program, because they are the ones who our students see when they come and enrolled. That's the first phase they see, and they represent our online program. So this is the focus that right away came into my head. And I'm like, OK, let's see how this is going to play out.

Peter Mancillas: OK. So since I've never created an online program before and I helped the principal run the other ones, we just looked at an online program. It's like, OK, it's a school, but everyone's online. And we really didn't know what we were getting into, and not in a careless way. But a lot of the-- an online program requires just as much administrative support, if not more, than an on-site program, because everything you do online with teachers who are hundreds of miles away, you have to have very direct, explicit communication. Whereas if you got folks in your building, they can drop in on you, you can talk to them, go down the hall, get a bag of chips. You can't do that with online learners. I mean online staff.

Go ahead. And so there we are. We have our five sites, and the adult online program was just one of them. Go ahead.

Elena Gomez-lecarao: Let me also share that this is what we started from. This is what it looked like. This is a diagram of what we started working with. And so the challenges, again, were communication. We have to be very strong in communication, streamlining procedures. Everything that the on-site is doing, we need to be able to align with that. Also, the resources, the resources that are being used in online-- how do we tap into it for the on-site and the on-site to online?

And then the remote collaboration-- I mean, Peter and I see each other three times, four times, Zoom, and most every day. That communication is extremely important. So this is what it looked when we started. This is a diagram of where we were three years ago, because now we're going into our third year.

Peter Mancillas: Three years ago.

Elena Gomez-lecarao: Mhm. OK. And so here are the areas of growth that through that journey we have happened to really look at. One of them is team-building. Of course, we had to have weekly Zoom meetings. We had to put everything in Google Docs. We have to have the Google Calendar. We texted each other, encouraging emails, and I say encouraging emails because there have been times where there's so many emails coming through that you have to smile at some point.

Inspirational words, encouraging. I mean, we had to encourage each other. We are a very, very small school. And so we really had to build a relationship here with Peter.

Peter Mancillas: Yeah. What I've been hearing all day is just we're a small school, and we're just stretched very thin. And we're trying to be all things to our community. We're no different. But in terms of the encouraging emails, it's important for us when everything is done online. When an email goes out, it's hot, meaning you got to watch every word. You got to soften what you're saying and realize that this person-- what state of mind are they in? Like, your staff member, where their head is at when they're reading an email.

So you have to be very, very encouraging and positive without expressing frustration. And no, I didn't learn it the hard way. Elena and I were pretty compatible. Yeah.

Elena Gomez-lecarao: And so the handling of conflicts, again, clear communication-- we definitely have talked about many things that we see through different perspectives. Again, I'm 100% remote. And so I don't know what's going on on site. I don't know what the dynamics are. And up to this point, February of this year was my first time I actually visited the site.

So here I am calling the front office staff, talking to them, emailing them, but they've never seen me. They've never met me, not until February, where they flew me in and they were able to see a face. And I brought in a lot of candy, and baggies, and saying, I'm so sorry for being that person who's sending you all these emails and calling you all this time, and giving them a hug, and spending time with them. My goal that day was that I needed to build a really good relationship.

Peter Mancillas: Five minutes. Yeah, time flies.

Elena Gomez-lecarao: OK. Yeah.

Peter Mancillas: OK. Here's our layout now, organizational chart. And we're just putting it up not for you to read everything on it but just saying it's gone from something very simple to highly, highly complex. It's actually has more moving parts than some of our on-site functions are. Go ahead.

Elena Gomez-lecarao: So here we're going to talk about some of the achievements. We have done a lot. And it's been a very good learning experience. Before, again, we wanted to do Canvas, and we started with that mindset. But before we could do Canvas, we had to build our home page so the students could go ahead and sign in onto Canvas. So we went and started our home page.

We had to do that and get it ready. And then we borrowed this from Long Beach. I remember coming up to you for the intake for the students. So we use that intake again for students who are coming in and wanting to go into the online classes. And the staff was giving them this. And then right away we developed a hyperlinked document with six different languages so that when students come in, they were able to get an orientation, which is what Twyla is part of.

Twyla Eva: I'm going to be--

Peter Mancillas: Go ahead.

Twyla Eva: I'm going to be quick with the online orientation. Because of our alignment with the on-site and the online team, we were able to do a online orientation for our new students. This gave them the opportunity to be tech-ready for their online class but also know that we have resources on site for them that they can access.

Peter Mancillas: Go ahead.

Elena Gomez-lecarao: And this is one of the most greatest accomplishments, our a-ha moment. That a-ha moment came because remember when I said they flew me in on February? When my online students realized that I was coming in, they drove two hours to come and meet me. And they wanted to see their classmates. So they took me to the mall, and they took me to any place I wanted to go. They were just so wonderful.

But out of that a-ha moment, that moment, came about, OK, we're struggling for online students to come in and test, come in and get them tested. So what did we decided to do? We did a meet and greet. And we had these students online come and meet and greet your classmates. They came down. And what did we do when they came down? We went ahead and gave them a place to take a picture, had snacks, and then right after that get them tested.

And they all got tested. And we did this group testing, and it was very successful. And so out of that was a great a-ha moment for us.

Peter Mancillas: And because we've been so big on testing and-- there's a lot of ways to measure success at a school. But because we've been on it, our payment points have doubled in the past two years. But they were not that high. We could have made them higher two years ago, but we're doing well.

Elena Gomez-lecarao: And then we-- can you go back, please? And what we really had with IDEAL that we joined was that-- thank you, Susan. Where are you? There you are. Thank you so much for everything, the collaboration, the research. We have that document that we're reading that has links. I don't know if you click on those links. I click on those links and download those links with the Canvas course. A lot of research there.

And so thank you so much for all this networking. We wanted to network. That was one of the greatest need for our program.

Peter Mancillas: Go ahead. So just like everyone else, we've been doing outreach. We have a hybrid CTE program, which is we're going to do paraprofessional training for the elementary school district. And our flyer that we have has-- we've just changed the tone completely. The earlier one had happy young adults with backpacks and smiling learn online. This reflects the political climate that we're in right now.

And this I've distributed in several languages to the middle schools in the area. So we're getting a lot of response with that.

Elena Gomez-lecarao: And so we keep on flying the plane.

Peter Mancillas: We're done.

Elena Gomez-lecarao: And so can you go just to the next one, please? And so our challenge is right now we need grants. Hopefully we can get some more information on that partnerships and the educational funding to bring in for our program.

Peter Mancillas: Good. Now I can drop it.

Elena Gomez-lecarao: And then you guys brainstorming. And so thank you so much. And the Q&A? And there we go. Thank you.

Peter Mancillas: Thank you.

Nada Anasseri: Thank you, Jefferson Adult School. Great job. All right. So we have a couple of questions. We'll start off with Sarah here.

Sarah: So your student population that's online only-- you mentioned that some of them drove two hours to meet you. So is it not limited to around the Daly City area, San Mateo County, or is it outside of that county as well that students can enroll?

Peter Mancillas: We're focusing on serving our attendance area in Northern San Mateo County. But there's nothing to prevent them from the Bay area, Daly City, high rent. And if you join us in Daly City, you come to our school and you're online. Moving to the Central Valley is an option, and we welcome our learners. Everything is digital. They don't have to come in. And those are folks who we test who we do-- who we test remotely instead of doing a meet and greet.

Elena Gomez-lecarao: And some of these students-- one of the students moved to Sacramento but started with their school and continue. So we're having many of these students moving and for a period of time being somewhere else. And they might come back. But this student did the CTE, they came in, they come in for testing in person, and they will drop out. So I think it's that commitment that they see that they also commit to coming back.

Peter Mancillas: Don't we have a student from Myanmar?

Elena Gomez-lecarao: Yeah. And we have a lot of students from Myanmar. And they're also who temporarily got stuck over there, and they're still continuing their education. One of the things that I forgot to mention is the flexibility of our programs that we didn't see coming. We're having students coming from the online, going to the on-site, and then from the on-site going to the online. And then we're having these students also do-- we have a CT course, or we have a-- where they're coming in for hybrid.

And our online students are-- the higher level are joining the CTE courses. And so it's that flexibility, that mobility. It's happening without us really putting it out there. It's just a natural, organic thing that's happening.

Nada Anasseri: OK. We have a question over here.

Johanna Gleason: I'm Johanna from San Diego College of Continuing Education. What you guys are doing sounds absolutely amazing. And congratulations on your accomplishments so far. I was wondering, just because this is a big issue at our institution. It's great that you're translating the hyperlinked document into all those different languages. But do you have any students who have literacy issues in their own language? And I also wondered what languages you are dealing with.

Elena Gomez-lecarao: So what we did was-- it was not just a translation. We also had-- I recruited my own students from my online program to be the translators. And so they're the ones who translated and recorded. We recorded videos of them. So these are the students. So I asked my students, anyone could help me with Arabic? And I know I could have done Google as translator, but I realized that these students need to be part of this journey with me. And so I went ahead, and they were the ones translating.

So some students do have the basic, basic needs. And I'm going to let Peter talk.

Peter Mancillas: Yeah. We can't offer them online learning if they're basic, because they may have other literacy issues. And so we start them at-- we start them at low beginning, and we have quite a few basic classes on site.

Nada Anasseri: Great. Valerie, it's going to take me a minute to get over there. Sorry. OK. Well, then this is going to be our last question.

Paul Porter: While you're walking, you forgot one alumni. I went to Westmoor High School. Is it still there?

Peter Mancillas: You're darn right it is.

Paul Porter: Yes!

Twyla Eva: All right, and a shout-out. Shout out.

Peter Mancillas: You're a Ram.

Paul Porter: I'm a Ram!

Peter Mancillas: That's their mascot.

Paul Porter: Damn Ram.

[laughter]

Valerie Craig: Valerie Craig from Porterville Adult School. So, have you had any students that have been totally online that they did remote testing, pre- and post-testing, and they just have totally been online? Haven't come into the school site to do testing or anything at all?

Peter Mancillas: They do come on site to register. We don't have that. We don't have that happening yet, but they come and register. And while they're there, if they're coming in the summer, we get them in to do a pre-test. And the remote testing, because of the costs involved, if you got one proctor with one testing one person, that's about an hour and a half. But just like everyone else, we can do 25 to 40 with a proctor if it's done on site.

Twyla Eva: So we do have some students who have disabilities, physical disabilities. And we do make an exception for them to be completely remote.

Elena Gomez-lecarao: And the other thing talking about our initial goal also for joining the DLAC was to get more support with Canvas. And I knew Canvas as a designer part of it because that's when you learn to create the pages. You create the modules and all that, but I did not know Canvas as administrator part of it when I went into the training.

And so now our online teachers are going to implement completely Canvas in the fall. But yet I want to be the one managing the enrollment and everything else because you need a key person who understands how to do that and be able to import from ASAP onto Canvas. And so that's been also a win-win for us.

Nada Anasseri: Fantastic. I'd love to-- we hear flexibility in their presentation right from learners joining from anywhere, teachers teaching from anywhere. So congratulations. Thank you so much, Jefferson. And then, Twyla, we haven't celebrated her. She is a member of the team, but she's also the classified employee of the year for her district. So congratulations, and welcome. Thank you. Thank you.