Board highlights student achievements, robotics success and instructional leadership work

At its April 30 meeting, the Redondo Beach Unified School District Board of Education celebrated a string of student and staff accomplishments and received a detailed report on Instructional Leadership Teams (ILTs).

Beach Cities Robotics (Team 294) was recognized after winning a regional championship and finishing second at the world championship in Houston; adviser Sarah Keys described the team’s work, mentors from aerospace and defense industries and the students’ outreach role. Washington Elementary’s Battle of the Books team was presented as district champions, and several principals introduced and congratulated student awardees.

Marvin Brown, principal of Lincoln Elementary, presented the ILT model used across RBUSD: teams of teacher leaders, school-site principals and external partner Innovate Ed. Brown described four drivers of school improvement — clarity of focus, shared leadership, continuous improvement and collective expertise — and showed how Lincoln set a K–5 growth target (minimum 5% by 2024). Teachers Michelle Kelly and Courtney Horta spoke about learning rounds and cross-grade observations that the ILT used to surface effective practices and scale them across classrooms.

Trustees praised the programs and suggested cross-school sharing of best practices to expand the observed fourth-grade gains to other grade levels.