Our Dolphin Pride

Redwood City School District’s Expanded Learning Opportunities Program (ELOP) has been recognized with a Kent Award and an Exemplary Program distinction for its whole-child approach to supporting students beyond the school day. Serving more than 2,200 students daily, the program provides academic support, enrichment, mentorship, and wellness opportunities designed to help students feel connected, supported, and engaged.

This award recognizes RCSD’s trauma-informed, student-centered approach that helps students feel safe, supported, and ready to learn. Counseling Services play an important role in meeting RCSD’s LCAP Goal One to Strengthen Social Emotional Support and School Climate by working to ensure that every student feels supported, safe, and connected at school.

Clifford School is among a small list of Kent Award winners this spring for its implementation of and partnership with the National Urban Alliance for Effective Education (NUA). The annual Kent Award highlights innovative, inspiring, and outstanding programs in San Mateo County Schools.

During the recent School Board meeting held Wednesday, April 19, Dr. Stefanie Baker, Executive Director of the National Urban Alliance for Effective Education (NUA), an RCSD partner, thanked the Board of Trustees for their support of “thoughtful dialogue around equity and pedagogy” in RCSD. The NUA’s “Pedagogy of Confidence” involves three phases in understanding and learning: Developing, Deepening, and Demonstrating. This aligns with RCSD’s core belief that children learn and succeed when we act on the principle that every child can and will learn.

The Collaborative, initiated in 2020, has proved to be highly successful in expanding school mental health support and delivery. With the implementation of this partnership, at least 75 percent of Redwood City School District (RCSD) students indicate they now feel comfortable speaking with a counselor, recognize their school counselor, and know where to go to access counseling on campus. Accomplishments of this strategic alliance most recently earned a 2023 Stanford Community Partnership Award.

San Mateo County Superintendent of Schools Nancy Magee recently visited Clifford School to observe the strength-based strategies RCSD teachers are using in classrooms to close opportunity gaps. Clifford School, a National Urban Alliance for Effective Education (NUA) lab school, has become a model for approaches that identify and activate student strengths.