The Hemet Unified School District in California operates with a clear commitment to “Embrace, Educate, Empower.” Central to their philosophy under Superintendent Dr. Christi Barrett is the commitment to “Be the best at getting better.” Having been on an active, dedicated improvement trajectory for ten years, the district already possessed strong foundational components. Guided by a vision to provide organizational clarity, the district aligns priorities from District Strategic Goals down to Department, School, Grade Level, and Student Goals.

To elevate this ongoing work, district leadership embraced a collaborative partnership that acted as a catalyst, pairing rigorous organizational and aligned school scorecards with short cycles of improvement to scale capacity, leverage their existing foundations, and ensure long-term sustainability.

Like many districts across the nation, HUSD wanted to improve critical outcomes related to student success, particularly concerning literacy, attendance, student behavior, and site safety. A primary challenge was addressing elevated suspension and chronic absenteeism rates.

The district did not need a “canned program” or to be rescued from organizational failure; rather, they needed a way to work smarter. Executive leaders recognized that simply mandating a reduction in suspensions would not work, and implementing heavy, complex new initiatives would only overwhelm staff. To strengthen inter-departmental collaboration and alignment, the district needed to equip teams with the capability to solve problems collaboratively using tools that required a low cognitive lift. Furthermore, they needed a scalable way to ensure that high-level data was not masking the specific barriers faced by marginalized student populations.

To address these systemic challenges and accelerate their existing progress, HUSD partnered with Studer Education. The district welcomed the partnership because it offered highly adaptable, scalable tools and coaching to support their existing strategy, rather than a rigid, pre-packaged program.

A dedicated Studer coach met Hemet exactly where they were, providing strategic guidance to integrate these tools directly into the district’s ongoing work. The focus was on ensuring that these practices were immediately actionable—proving to staff that this wasn’t “more work,” it is the work. Key strategic actions included:

• Aligned Action Plans: To create cross-divisional and school alignment without heavy administrative burdens, every Principal maintained a targeted action plan focusing on Literacy, Attendance, Suspension, and Chronic Absenteeism or Graduation. Simultaneously, every Director focused on a corresponding organizational priority area for improvement.
• Refining the Culture of Problem-Solving: HUSD already had daily communication structures in place, but Studer’s frameworks helped refine their targeted Daily Huddles. Bringing together level-specific cohorts of Principals, Assistant Principals, Squad Leaders, Relative Directors, and Cabinet members, these huddles became a lighter, more scalable lift for producing quick, sustainable wins and fostering a collaborative culture.
• Actionable Data Logging: To provide real-time, actionable data for these huddles, Principals logged “Physical Aggression” student behavior in a simple Google Sheet by the end of every workday, ensuring immediate visibility with minimal administrative strain.
• Differentiated Scorecard Monitoring: To ensure equity seamlessly, HUSD utilized a “Differentiated Assistance View” on their organizational scorecard. This allowed them to measure what’s important specifically for Special Education (SpEd), Foster youth, and Homeless students alongside general student populations.

By refining these huddles and utilizing short cycles of improvement, Hemet Unified School District effectively moved key metrics from “Exceeding 10% off track” (red) and “Within 10% off track” (yellow) to “On Track” (green). The behavior trend data revealed dramatic improvements:

• Suspension Rates: The district saw a scorecard shift from yellow (5.1% of all students suspended at least one day) to green (3.4%). Overall trend data showed the suspension rate dropping steadily from 6.3 in the 2022-2023 school year to just 3.1 at the end of the 2026-27 school year.
• Expulsion Counts: Expulsions decreased massively, falling from 69 in 2022-2023 down to 25 at the end of the 2026-27 school year.
• Chronic Absenteeism: The chronic absenteeism rate experienced a consistent decline, dropping from 37.4 in 2022-2023 to 25.8 at the end of the 2025-26 school year.