For this week’s school highlight, I’d like to introduce one of our newer Los Angeles partner schools: Alliance Milt & Debbie Valera Middle Academy (or “Valera” for short)! Valera is one of twenty-five schools in the Alliance College-Ready Public Schools network here in LA. Opened in 2015, Valera operates alongside Alliance Joni & Jeff Marine High School to create Alliance’s Marine-Innovation & Technology Complex in beautiful Sun Valley, CA. Valera serves 510 6th-8th grade students with a mission to “support low-income communities with historically underperforming schools to annually demonstrate student academic achievement growth, and graduate students READY for success in college and career.”

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We are in the second year of our partnership with Alliance Valera, which is spearheaded by the amazing work of our Unconditional Education Coach, Devonte McClain (a.k.a. “D” to those who know him best!). D is a tireless advocate for equity and a champion of Valera’s students, families, and staff who has built incredibly strong relationships across the school’s community in service of his coaching work. Just a few of the many partnership highlights from D’s work include:

• Achieving official Recognition from the California PBIS Coalition for formal implementation of Positive Behavioral Interventions and Supports (PBIS) at the Tier 1 level.
• Designing student lessons on “understanding anti-Blackness” to combat the prevalence of hate speech among students on campus.
• Developing and facilitating Valera’s Coordination of Services Team (COST) to proactively identify students needing support and develop collaborative, individualized intervention plans.
• Coaching staff to provide a robust system of Tier 2 behavioral and social-emotional supports, including Check-In/Check-Out (CICO), and social skills groups.
• Launching Valera’s Events Team to help foster a positive school culture of joy, traditions, and appreciation that improves students’ sense of belonging.
• Providing valuable direct support for several high-need students and classrooms.

We are so proud of the shared accomplishments of this partnership work so far, and are actively seeking pathways through the support of California’s Children & Youth Behavioral Health Initiative to support a third year of partnership at Valera!