SCHOOL HIGHLIGHT: Alliance Piera Barbaglia Shaheen Health Services Academy

​For this week’s blog post, I’d like to introduce our newest partnership here in Los Angeles: Alliance Piera Barbaglia Shaheen Health Services Academy (or “HSA” for short). HSA is one of twenty-five schools in the Alliance College Ready Public Schools network here in LA. Opened in 2009, HSA employs the theme of health care to provide high school students with rigorous college-preparatory instruction and application-based curriculum. The school’s mission is to equip students in South Los Angeles with the tools necessary to excel in high school, to prepare them to enter and succeed in college, and to motivate them to select health care-related majors and careers—areas where students of color like those in HSA’s community are grossly underrepresented.
 
Through the support of a grant from Los Angeles Unified School District, we’ve partnered with HSA to implement the Unconditional Education model beginning this school year through the support of a full-time Unconditional Education coach. HSA’s Coach, Risha Buntyn, hit the ground running this fall and has since lifted a number of new school-wide initiatives with the support of several HSA teams. Some highlights of this work include:

• Monthly Culture Committee meetings to provide staff a formal way to share decision-making and collaborate on school-wide systems-building
• Implementing school-wide PBIS strategies and Alternatives to Suspension model through HSA’s School Culture Team
• Developing systems to collect and use observation/walkthrough data to reinforce positive behavior and school culture expectations
• Adapting and implementing Seneca’s coordination of services team model through HSA’s collaborative “MTSS Team” processes
• Redesigning a scholar support room for students to de-escalate and facilitate mediations for peer conflicts
• Lifting scholar voice, decision-making, and sense of belonging through the Advisory Student Board, Black Student Union, weekly lunchtime scholar focus groups, and events like Latinx Heritage and Black History Month assemblies
• Designing and implementing systems to promote staff voice and appreciation, including a weekly “Wolf Den” huddle to celebrate staff successes and to announce “Wolf of the Week” (staff), as well as monthly on- and off-site staff events

HSA’s leadership, staff, and scholars have been incredible and encouraging hosts and we feel incredibly aligned in our shared work. We are thankful for their support and are hopeful for continued partnership in the years ahead!

---

Blog Post Written By: Sean Murphy, Director of School Partnerships