HUSD Daily Huddles: Driving Systemwide Change Through Real-Time Collaboration
In Spring 2023, Hemet Unified School District (HUSD) launched an innovative pilot program aimed at improving school safety, reducing student suspensions, and supporting site leadership through daily, structured collaboration. What began as a focused effort at four middle schools—Acacia, Dartmouth, Diamond Valley, and Rancho Viejo—has since transformed into a districtwide practice known as the Daily Huddle.
Held each weekday morning at 7:45 a.m. via Zoom, the Daily Huddle brings together site administrators, directors, and district leadership for a 15-minute, solutions-focused meeting. The agenda is simple but powerful: celebrate bright spots, review real-time data from the Aggression Log, surface immediate site needs, and problem-solve collectively. By creating a consistent space for communication and action, HUSD has significantly improved how it supports students and schools.
The success of the Daily Huddle model is reflected in the data. After two full years of implementation—beginning with the Spring 2023 pilot and continuing through the 2024–2025 school year—HUSD has seen sustained and measurable improvements in student behavior and school safety:
32% decrease in acts of physical aggression
30% decrease in students receiving suspensions
22% decrease in all types of suspensions
7% decrease in suspensions related specifically to physical aggression
In fact, the district’s overall suspension rate declined by 1.2%, a rate of improvement four times greater than the California state average (0.3%).
Beyond the numbers, the Daily Huddle has transformed leadership culture across the district. Principals and assistant principals report that the daily rhythm of connecting with peers and central office staff has created a stronger sense of support, urgency, and alignment. Instead of waiting for monthly leadership meetings to elevate concerns, site leaders now engage in behavior planning and intervention within hours of incidents. This shift has resulted in over 20 times more opportunities to identify patterns, prevent escalation, and provide targeted supports to students.
What began as a pilot to address physical aggression has evolved into a cornerstone of HUSD’s leadership practice—fostering transparency, building collective capacity, and ensuring no school faces challenges in isolation. The Daily Huddle is not just a meeting; it is a strategic driver of equity, responsiveness, and care across the system.
As the district looks to the future, the Daily Huddle continues to serve as a model of innovation—one that other districts can replicate to strengthen school culture, enhance student safety, and empower site leaders through daily connection and shared problem-solving. The success of the program speaks for itself: when systems are designed to respond in real time, students are better supported, staff feel more connected, and schools thrive.