The Partnership That Changed How We See Special Education – Jenny Plumb

Episode Description

Jenny Plumb, Assistant Superintendent at Yosemite Valley Charter Schools and Monarch River Academy, reveals how a seven-year partnership with Lighthouse fundamentally transformed how two California charter schools serve their 5,000 students—by dismantling silos between special education and general education, creating a unified five-tier MTSS system where all staff own outcomes for all students. Discover how breaking down traditional barriers and partnering with service providers who think like family unlocks creative solutions that keep students off IEPs and moving toward independence.

Noteable Quotes

• “When I see Lighthouse, I go good, okay, this one’s gotta be fine.” [00:04:52]
• “SPED isn’t an island over there and they’ll figure out how to meet their needs.” [00:16:36]
• “There is a flow-through and a spectrum through all of them, and they’re all our kids.” [00:16:19]
• “Within a week, Lighthouse had picked up the pieces and had the ball rolling.” [00:08:00]
• “We love that mindset because we will always have the next one coming.” [00:02:58]

Full Podcast Transcript

Brighter Together [00:00:00]
Hello everyone and welcome to the Brighter Together podcast. My name is Janet Courtney, and my special guest today is Jenny Plumb. Jenny is the assistant superintendent at Yosemite Valley Charter Schools, which is in Fresno, California. Jenny, welcome to the show.

Jenny Plumb [00:00:18]
Thank you so much. Thank you for having me. Lighthouse is a true partnership, so I’m delighted to be here.

Brighter Together [00:00:20]
I is an absolute I yeah. So yeah, so one of the things that we have in common is we have been Lighthouse it and and Yosemite Valley and Monarch River have been partners together for six, eight, seven years, six or seven years I think now. So yeah, long time. But Ginny, let’s talk up let’s talk about you first. Let’s before we get into Lighthouse, let’s talk about about you and about the schools. I really wanna

Jenny Plumb [00:00:39]
Good partnership.

Brighter Together [00:00:46]
give you an opportunity to tell people a little bit about you. How y how did you become the assistant superintendent? And I know there’s more to Yosemite Valley and and if you could give our listeners a little bit about the whole umbrella and hierarchy, that’d be awesome.

Jenny Plumb [00:01:02]
Sure. So we’re a unique school. We are an independent study charter school, which means that we’re hybrid. So we see our kiddos, but we don’t have a campus. They’re not coming to a campus where they have classes with us. Our classes, if they are going to have classes with us, are online.

But that doesn’t mean we don’t see our kids. So we’re not an online school either. We see our kids often, we meet with them regularly, we check up on them. There’s great support. We see them all the time at parks and events and intramural sports and academic meetings. It just looks a little bit different because it’s independent study. However, between the two schools, we have, we will have almost 5,000 keros.

And six hundred in SFED, so we have quite a gigantic system that we’re working with and supporting kids, full wraparound support.

Brighter Together [00:01:51]
Mm-hmm.

Brighter Together [00:01:55]
Awesome. And you said the other school. So how to explain that part of it. I mean I kind of understand it, but I want our listeners to understand like how you guys are structured and and why why two schools? Why did why is it split like that?

Jenny Plumb [00:02:09]
Or.

So we’re sister schools, and the reason there are two, and they do have separate boards, so they are very two distinct schools. But the reason there’s two is one is out of Fresno County, that’s Yosemite Valley, and one is out of Tulare County. So we are serving different counties and demographics of students. There’s some overlap. If you’re touching a county, you can have students in that county, and these counties are touching, but we have noticed that actually our student groups are different depending on whether they’re in Yosemite Valley.

Or Monarch River and they need slightly different support. However, we share resources together and do MOs to each other just so that we can support more. The two schools together then can float more coordinators, support positions, and different things so that we can have a bigger kind of support system in general.

Brighter Together [00:02:58]
I

Brighter Together [00:03:05]
Impact. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. And Yosemite Valley is bigger than Monarch River Academy. Yeah. Yeah. And that’s why we introduced Yosemite Valley Charter Schools first. Even though you and I both know they’re both Yeah. And we love them as much as we love Yosemite. So if you’re listening to this and you’re Monarch, we love you too. Cause we do, ’cause we absolutely do. We I I love working for you guys. It’s always a pleasure. We we just have such an incredible partnership.

Jenny Plumb [00:03:10]
It is bigger, yes.

Jenny Plumb [00:03:15]
Right. They were around first. Monarch’s the smaller and newer one.

Jenny Plumb [00:03:25]
That’s right, we do.

Brighter Together [00:03:34]
So tell me, and I’m gonna pull up my question, because we talked a little bit about questions before this show. When you look back at what it was like before Lighthouse, what would you say is one of the biggest values that Lighthouse provides to your schools?

Jenny Plumb [00:03:53]
Yeah, so the unique part of our school is that we have actually always had to utilize MPAs in order to do our services. because there’s just so many services for our kiddos. And so Lighthouse has been one of our longest, maybe our longest partner in that. And over time we have developed, I think more than a partnership.

Brighter Together [00:04:07]
Mm-hmm. Right.

Jenny Plumb [00:04:22]
Lighthouse has become a lot like family. I happen to know because I’m in so many IEPs myself as the admin. And over and over again I keep seeing the same MPAs, Lighthouse being one of them, that when I see Lighthouse, I go good, okay, this one’s gotta be fine. They know us, we know them. I see the same providers all the time. They’re lovely. They get school, they have worked with our case managers for a long time, and we just have a good

Brighter Together [00:04:38]
Right. Yeah.

Jenny Plumb [00:04:52]
relationship back and forth if we need to text them real quick on an update, if we need to email, if we need to get a hold of anyone, if we need to find a sub. Lighthouse has been responsive. But I will say

Brighter Together [00:04:54]
Mm-hmm.

Jenny Plumb [00:05:09]
One piece of the puzzle that has that Lighthouse stepped up to that our other MPAs did not, even though they were got the invitation, that Lighthouse did step up to was in our school over the last three, four years, we’ve worked really, really hard at building a MTSS system, so our intervention system, that is collaborative between the Gen Ed side and the SVED side of house, so that they there’s complete bleed through.

All our teachers have buy-in, all of our admin have buy-in.

In many schools like ours, you will not see many of the mid-level admin admitting IEPs. They do in ours, because if you’re going to oversee Gen Ed teachers, then SPED students are Gen Ed students first. You need to know your students, you need to know the resources that you can offer SPED students. And so there’s just great collaboration. In that collaboration and through this MTSS system, we realized that sometimes there were kiddos on the fence. They didn’t quite

Brighter Together [00:06:08]
Mm-hmm.

Jenny Plumb [00:06:16]
Meet SPED edge eligibility, but there was still a need. It wasn’t like, and also SPED doesn’t, SPED gives access that all the SPED kiddos typically need intervention as well. It doesn’t mean that it just gets put over to SPED side of house and now SPED handles it. So, anyways, all that to say.

Brighter Together [00:06:22]
Right.

Brighter Together [00:06:32]
Mm-hmm.

Jenny Plumb [00:06:39]
In all this collaboration, we realized that there was a niche group of kiddos where they needed intervention, such as speech. we have others, but maybe yes, you do. and and actually I had one of those. I was part of that first kiddo that needed OT. OT is not a standalone service, and I thought, what if we get creative? Lighthouse might be able to help. So

Brighter Together [00:06:49]
Mm-hmm. We do O T as well, yeah. Mm-hmm. Right.

Brighter Together [00:07:01]
Right.

Jenny Plumb [00:07:08]
We have too many kiddos for one internal intervention SLP to handle on their own. And then so we started asking our MPAs, is this something you’d be interested in? starting kind of a pilot program, would you help with our intervention as well? And

Brighter Together [00:07:14]
Mm-hmm.

Jenny Plumb [00:07:29]
It was too out of the box for them. Which is fine. It was yeah, it was a little much for some of But for for you guys it was not. It was an immediate yes.

Brighter Together [00:07:31]
Really? W see that breaks my heart, you know? Yeah. Yeah.

Mm-hmm. We did.

Jenny Plumb [00:07:38]
And so, and then we had an additional little kerfuffle, if you will. Our intervention SLP had to leave mid year this year. And so we had students that were in the middle of intervention, needed to start intervention, needed to be assessed to see where they would what specifically their needs were. And within a week, Lighthouse had picked up the pieces and had the ball rolling with all of our kiddos and had met those, had them in in those intervention classes.

classes and it was impressive. And that’s what I mean when you’ve got six, seven, eight years of relationship where I know you, you know me, and you know how our school works, it

Brighter Together [00:08:12]
Thank you.

Brighter Together [00:08:17]
Mm-hmm.

Jenny Plumb [00:08:22]
It was just impressive how you quickly became you were just part of the family, like, sure, we can handle that need for you and we put it together and off we went and all of those kiddos got great service. Some of them, you know, exited already. They don’t need any more intervention. Some need another round or two, but and that’s totally fine. Also, some of those kiddos, you get into it and you’re like, I think you might need more and off to sped they might go to give you just a little more assessment. So, you know, all the things.

Brighter Together [00:08:39]
Yeah, yeah.

Brighter Together [00:08:46]
Yeah.

Yeah. And that’s okay too, right? Yeah. Mm-hmm.

Jenny Plumb [00:08:52]
But we were just super, super pleased with how quickly Lighthouse picked up this ball and ran with it when we had this need and didn’t we didn’t drop anything. We didn’t have kids left hanging. So that was really impressive to us and why we’ll continue to be a partner with Lighthouse.

Brighter Together [00:09:06]
Mm-hmm.

Brighter Together [00:09:13]
Awesome. But you know, when you because I’m the CEO and founder, you know this about me. Our mission is always to be a therapy company run by therapists, for therapists, but the pot the part of it that runs it all is for the betterment of students. and so when you come to me, because it was me initially and said, you know, do you guys think you can do this? Well, yeah, we can do it. Absolutely. Let’s help you figure it out, set it up.

Jenny Plumb [00:09:28]
Right.

Brighter Together [00:09:40]
You know, if there’s a way that kids can get services and k let’s keep them off of an IEP, right? We want them off of not ever have to go that road, you know, and and absolute and I and it gives me chills because I love what you guys do because it’s working. It’s working. We’re you guys are being so successful and and the fact that we can help and we have an amazing recruiting and and HR and and and clinical and all three of those pieces are so critical to

Jenny Plumb [00:09:45]
Right. Sometimes they don’t need all that.

Jenny Plumb [00:09:54]
It is working.

Jenny Plumb [00:10:06]
Mm-hmm.

Brighter Together [00:10:09]
you know, what we do for you guys and finding the right therapists and making sure and taking responsibility when we make mistakes. You know, all of those things. I think that’s and and I I think that it’s a it’s a two way street. We we know that we can always come to you guys if there’s a problem. We know that you’re gonna come to us and if there’s a problem and and we’re gonna fix it and we’re gonna move forward. And most of the time we don’t have that happen even. So and it’s just been yeah, yeah. It’s it’s it’s a pleasure. We actually this year not now I I you can

Jenny Plumb [00:10:32]
Too much, no.

Brighter Together [00:10:39]
mess around with statistics all you want. But I love this statistic that we have this year. I’m tootin’ my own horn a lot on this show. I don’t really do that always, but we have a ninety per ninety-eight percent retention rate this year. Now there are people that we did not invite back and we don’t include them into that because there’s a reason that they’re not coming back. But of the ones that we invited back to work with us again next year, 98% of them said yes. And what does that tell you? You know, it’s like we we really try very hard to take care

Jenny Plumb [00:10:46]
I love a good statistic. Yeah.

Brighter Together [00:11:07]
Of the people that work for us because it matters.

Jenny Plumb [00:11:10]
It does matter. I think it allows you to be a better partner. They’re happy. So then they come and they are able to be present with the kids happy. And at IEP means happy. It matters what for good care for students and parents.

Brighter Together [00:11:13]
Yeah.

Brighter Together [00:11:19]
Right. Yeah, it does. Mm-hmm. Right. And for those of you that are not in California, I we we like our alphabet soup in education. So I just wanted to be clear, an NPA is a non public agency. and that is a certification as a company and that wants to work in California. You have to go through the process to get an NPA certification so that you can work with the schools. And that is something that

I found out he almost day two of getting started. It’s like, we need to get this. So, and so it’s something that we, you know, it it gets us on lists, but it also gets us the opportunity to to know that you’ve got somebody who’s gone through the process that the the Department of Education in California has vetted for you and made sure because it is it’s not my daughter, she’s so funny. She’s the one that does the application every year. And it usually comes out in July, and it’s June 10th today.

Jenny Plumb [00:12:06]
Right.

Brighter Together [00:12:17]
on this recording. And so we get it in July and she goes, because it’s a lot of work to do to do that report. Every year we have I mean, there’s stuff that we pull in and you know, from year to year, but still it’s like, my goodness. So but that’s good. It’s a good thing. Yeah. Yeah.

Jenny Plumb [00:12:22]
yeah.

Jenny Plumb [00:12:31]
It’s a lot. But then we know it’s vetted, it’s top notch. It gives us a sense of confidence that we know that we’re working with a company that would theirs are vetted as well as we would bet our own teachers and providers so we don’t have to worry. And so we definitely use vetted MPAs.

Brighter Together [00:12:42]
Mm-hmm.

Brighter Together [00:12:47]
Yeah.

Brighter Together [00:12:50]
Awesome. Yeah. So tell tell me a little bit more about like the history. How did because you know, I we could talk about I can talk about Lighthouse all day, but I really want to talk about some of the amazing things besides Lighthouse and what we’re doing with you guys that are happening because it’s a y you’re not a small school and and it is something that how how did it be how did it come about? How did you gu how did you guys I know there was there was

there was some shakeup at one point and we don’t have to go into all of that, but you guys came out shining and have taken done a really good job of serving. So I’d love to hear a little bit more of that and and give the give the schools a plug. Hey, if you’re looking and you’re in that area, let’s tell them about why it’s so great to go to Yosemite and Monarch.

Jenny Plumb [00:13:38]
It’s been bit of a haul. It was a conglomeration of several schools across California that split. And so two of us stuck together, the Central Valley in the Central Valley, and create our own boards and did a bit of an overhaul. We did an overhaul of finances, an overhaul of audits, an overhaul of our programs, an overhaul of our dashboard. There was no stone left unturned.

Brighter Together [00:13:39]
Mm-hmm.

Brighter Together [00:14:01]
Mm-hmm. And that was about five years ago. Is it five years now? I think yeah. Okay. Uhhuh.

Jenny Plumb [00:14:02]
Which in charter schools. Yeah, about that. Five, six years ago. No stone is ever I mean, you you always are turned over stones. The only thing constant in charter school is changed. So, you know, you have to know that first. But there were three of us, our superintendent Steph Johnson. There was an the four because there was at that time another superintendent who has since since retired. She was actually the the

Brighter Together [00:14:09]
Yeah.

Brighter Together [00:14:14]
Right. Yeah, for sure.

Jenny Plumb [00:14:29]
A leader of our pack, Dr. Lori Goodman. And then Maria and I, we were the assistants. And it was just an overhaul of what are we doing to really support kids? And what are it’s it used to be more of whatever the parents want to do, that’s what we’re going with.

Brighter Together [00:14:32]
She’s amazing.

Jenny Plumb [00:14:50]
And now we’re threading the needle of individualized education, so the parents are a huge partner in that process, but at the same time, huge accountability systems and support systems, which are baked in. But it was an overhaul. We had to get every single system in place, leader in place, and we’re still working on it. So for the beginning, I was actually in charge of curriculum, which led into intervention. So I created different

Brighter Together [00:15:00]
Mm.

Brighter Together [00:15:11]
Mm-hmm.

Jenny Plumb [00:15:20]
curriculums that really taught the standards well that did a rigor of learning.

Different pathways kiddos could take that honored their individualistic learning style, but also were rigorous with high accountability systems. We worked on assessments, not just the state and the school once and once actually twice a year, beginning and end, but all the ones in between. So, what are our screeners, our math, our ELA, our writing, what are our rubrics? How do we know what we know?

Brighter Together [00:15:34]
Mm-hmm.

Brighter Together [00:15:45]
Mm-hmm.

Jenny Plumb [00:15:54]
Our dashboard has come up astronomically. We’ve moved that needle so far just by doing this. And so we know it’s working. We have more graduates, A to G graduates, we have more CTE pathways and completers. And we know it’s working because we hear through the grapevind that other schools are sending their kids to us when they no longer know how to serve them.

Brighter Together [00:16:02]
Mm-hmm.

Jenny Plumb [00:16:19]
And so, right or wrong, doesn’t matter, we’re happy to have them. Because there are nuances. We don’t keep things in boxes. Like SPED is a department over here, and GenEd is a department over there. There is a flow-through and a spectrum through all of them, and they’re all our kids. And everybody has bought into these are our kids. So if I’m Gen Ed, SPED isn’t an island over there and they’ll figure out how to meet their needs. We actually are meeting their needs and they’re helping them, they’re helping us get that access.

Brighter Together [00:16:23]
Mm-hmm.

Brighter Together [00:16:36]
Mm-hmm.

Jenny Plumb [00:16:50]
And so that overhaul was huge, it was long, but if you ask any, even down to our paras, all the way down, so teacher, para, support staff, coordinator, director, everybody’s on board with that system. It’s actually a five-tier system, not three, because we have an additional piece in the middle there for students in crisis.

Brighter Together [00:16:50]
Yeah.

Jenny Plumb [00:17:17]
they go to 504 sped. So it’s a really robust but it’s working. And we are gonna keep going because it’s working and being creative with it.

Brighter Together [00:17:23]
Mm-hmm.

Brighter Together [00:17:27]
Yeah. Yeah. Right. Yeah. And that’s that’s super exciting and makes it it’s a place where kids can come and be comfortable and be successful. And at all ages. You guys are is it pre K do you start pre K or is it K? It’s K kindergarten through twelfth grade, right? Yeah. Yeah. And so, you know, you’ve got kids

Jenny Plumb [00:17:44]
DK, DK twelve. Yeah. Mm-hmm. Yep.

Brighter Together [00:17:52]
in all all walks of life, all all activities, all levels of it education, intelligence. Yeah. Yeah. It it’s and it and it is and we provide and Lighthouse we’ve we started out doing special education services for them. and then this S it’s SIP now. It was SST but we’ve and I ooh I don’t know the acronym. I should know the acronym. What’s SIP?

Jenny Plumb [00:17:56]
yes. Even an adult transition program up to twenty two. So we we’ve got all.

Jenny Plumb [00:18:14]
Mm-hmm.

Brighter Together [00:18:21]
So Lighthouse started out with you guys doing special education services and then this program started and the early intervention the intervention cycles and doing all of that and that’s become successful. And we have just every time you guys have had a need now bec and a lot is because of Yosemite and Monarch, we now have special education teachers that we provide. We have APE services, adaptive physical education. We have

deaf and hard of hearing certified teachers as well. And this year, because of Yoseminian Monarch, we’re stepping into nursing, which is a new area for us. So, you know, I talk about a partnership. Yeah.

Jenny Plumb [00:19:01]
That’s true. I do love that. We had a gap in nursing. One of the nurses we had utilized for a while retired and went, What MPA do we know that could help us with this? Well, let’s try our oldies but goodies. And lo and behold, here we are. So

Brighter Together [00:19:10]
Yeah.

Brighter Together [00:19:18]
Yeah. Yeah. And here we are. Because you know, it’s it’s like anything else. If we can if we can if we can we if we’re gonna do it, we do it, we try to do it well. We wanna do it well. but we also know that w working with you guys and having the partnership that we have, if something isn’t exactly the way it needs to be, I know that you guys can help us get there because we cause we obviously want to give you what you need and do it well. So if we’re if something isn’t going well, we can talk about it and go,

Jenny Plumb [00:19:28]
Mm-hmm.

Brighter Together [00:19:47]
Okay, well we’ll just shift gears and make sure that the the therapist or the in this case the nurse knows what they need to do because, you know, I’m I’m sorry, this is we’re we’re almost out of my wheelhouse right here. ‘Cause I’m a th

Jenny Plumb [00:19:58]
This is a little bit of an innovative collaboration at times between the two of us where there’s a need, how do we meet it creatively and figure it out on behalf of students? Because if you stick it stay to your box or your lane, sometimes the students are just outside that.

Brighter Together [00:20:01]
Yeah.

Brighter Together [00:20:09]
Mm-hmm.

Brighter Together [00:20:12]
Yeah.

Jenny Plumb [00:20:16]
And then you don’t quite meet them where they’re at and what they need. And I know that we’re not giving kiddos everything they ask for. That’s not what I’m saying either. But there’s a true need in the room, a true one. And how do we meet it? And do we meet it at the highest level or can we, you know, step that down, like we said earlier with intervention or for a time? And so, you know, lighthouse has been a partner. Yeah. No.

Brighter Together [00:20:26]
Mm-hmm.

Brighter Together [00:20:36]
Yeah.

And we never want them to stay. We never want them to stay in special education. That’s the other thing I’ve seen with some companies, and I don’t want to bash anybody at all. But I’ve seen and and there’s a there’s a tendency as an independent contractor, well, if I give this kid up, am I gonna get another one? Am I get another student? I don’t care about that. If this child no longer needs services, I’ve always told my therapist, you do what’s clinically appropriate for that child. You don’t keep them on, I don’t dictate minutes, I don’t tell people how many minutes they should see because

Jenny Plumb [00:21:02]
Mm-hmm.

Brighter Together [00:21:08]
If I’m hiring them and bring presenting them to you, then I they’re representing us and you in front of that family. So again, it’s it’s really important that, you know, you do the best that you can and when that child doesn’t need services anymore, we dismiss. So yeah.

Jenny Plumb [00:21:14]
Mm-hmm.

Jenny Plumb [00:21:24]
We love that mindset because that we did run into that with a couple of other MPAs and I’m like, well, don’t you worry, we will always have an the next one coming. So there will always be a funnel system for you. So if the goal is for that kiddo.

Brighter Together [00:21:35]
Yeah.

Brighter Together [00:21:39]
Right. Right.

Jenny Plumb [00:21:43]
We we’re gonna serve we’re gonna get what they need, we’re gonna get up to speed. We’re gonna move out. They’re gonna be successful and they’re on their way. And don’t you worry, because the next group is coming up behind And and they do. So there is not a scarcity here of kids that need help. Quite the opposite. We’re seeing especially since COVID, that the need has grown astronomically. That seems to be a school trend. And so

Brighter Together [00:21:50]
Mm-hmm. Yeah.

Mm. And they do. And they do. Yeah. No.

Brighter Together [00:22:07]
Mm.

Jenny Plumb [00:22:12]
the better we can meet the needs of students in a creative fashion that truly listens to the parents. That’s key too. What they’re saying they need and the support they need.

Brighter Together [00:22:19]
Mm-hmm.

Jenny Plumb [00:22:24]
And not circle the drain with them over and over in IEPs, but what do you need? Okay, well, maybe we can meet that. Let’s think about how we can meet that. And so that’s what we truly do. And get them on their way and moving. And the the it kind of solved. Like can you get those tools now in your life so that you no longer need them anymore? That’s the goal.

Brighter Together [00:22:39]
Mm-hmm.

Brighter Together [00:22:49]
Mm-hmm. Yeah. Yeah, for sure. For sure. And it’s just, it’s just such a pleasure to have that opportunity to partner with you and do that. So, so w where, Jenny, now that we’ve we’ve talked up Lighthouse and we’ve talked up Yosemite and Monarch, where do people go if they want to learn more about Yosemite and Monarch? Because, you know, we need people to to know where to find you guys.

Jenny Plumb [00:23:16]
The best place is gonna be our websites. If you just Google Yosemite Valley Charter or Monarch River Academy, they pop right up. And we are not shy about our resources. We put them all on there so we don’t hide anything. So it’s a wealth of resources. Even if you don’t want to join our school, you can find our list of curriculums and vendors and all the pieces on our websites for TK all the way through high school, simply because we also believe

believe that if our school is not right for you, maybe there’s a resource that will help you. And we again, we don’t have a scarcity mindset. We’re here for the community. If the community needs us, we’re here for you. And they seem to keep coming. So our website is open.

Brighter Together [00:24:00]
Yeah.

Awesome. Awesome. Jenny, yeah, you know, I I’m I it has been such a pleasure. You know, I I love the collaboration. I love what we’re doing together. You know, ’cause like the podcast says, we’re brighter together, right?

Jenny Plumb [00:24:15]
Mm-hmm. That’s right. Truly.

Brighter Together [00:24:17]
Thank you so much. Yeah. Have a and enjoy the summer. Take some time off. Get your get your toes in the sand and enjoy the summer a little bit if you can. So thank you.

Jenny Plumb [00:24:20]
You too.

Jenny Plumb [00:24:26]
Thank you. That sounds delightful. Thank you for having me.

Brighter Together [00:24:29]
Mm-hmm.