Surveys of Parents, Students, and Staff Highlight Disconnect
New Instructional Materials Approved
Ethnic Studies Class to be Developed
Torrey Pines Pool Aquatic Center Construction Bids to be Reviewed at Next Board Meeting
The San Dieguito Union High School District held a regularly scheduled Board Meeting on May 16, 2024. Although the meeting (including closed sessions) lasted over six hours, it was pretty much a routine business meeting.
Surveys of Parents, Students, and Staff Highlight Disconnect in School Performance
District staff summarized the results of three surveys: the California Healthy Kids Survey, the California School Staff Survey, and the California School Parent Survey.
The results generally show that between 80% and 90% of parents and staff feel that our schools provide caring relationships for students, encourage students to try hard on schoolwork, provide students with interesting activities, and provide a safe environment with well-maintained facilities. However, only 35% - 70% of students agree with these same statements. There is clearly a disconnect between how well adults and students think the District is performing. One of our student board members opined on the student perspective on why there may be differences. She thought that perhaps students feel more pressure than the adults realize, or may consider the surveys simply a safe place to vent.
The presentation can be viewed here:
https://go.boarddocs.com/.../CHKS%20Board%20of%20Trustees...
New Instructional Materials Approved
Associate Superintendent for Education Bryan Marcus presented staff recommendations for new textbooks for Psychology, Statistics, Chemistry, and Physics, and the Board voted unanimously to adopt these textbooks.
What seems like a relatively mundane decision was actually significant. This was the first time in my Board tenure that district staff presented parent and community input on new textbooks. Going forward I will continue to advocate for parent and Board input when selecting new course materials. This will become more important when the District considers other courses that can be more controversial, such as Ethnic Studies.
Ethnic Studies Class to be Developed
California law requires a semester-long class in Ethnic Studies to graduate from High School beginning with the 2030 graduating class, and that an initial Ethnic Studies class be offered in the 2025-26 school year.
District staff presented an overview of the new graduation requirement and some initial thoughts on how the class will be developed and taught. Staff proposed that the Ethnic Studies requirements be integrated into 9th Grade English class, as opposed to, for example, having a stand-alone Ethnic Studies class.
This item was not placed on the agenda for possible action by the Board, so the Board was not asked to approve (or disapprove) this decision.
In the meantime, staff will continue to develop the Ethnic Studies curriculum, and I do not expect to hear another update before school starts in August. I believe it’s important to have these periodic updates, with input from the Board and the public, as there is a lot of interest and strongly held opinions around the development of Ethnic Studies. As I’ve said in a previous Board meeting, our district should not be afraid of difficult conversations, and we can respectfully listen to differing viewpoints, but the more openness we can bring to this process along the way, the more likely it is that we will find common ground.
You can review the presentation provided to the Board here:
https://go.boarddocs.com/.../Understanding%20Ethnic...
Torrey Pines Pool Aquatic Center Construction Bids to be Reviewed at Next Board Meeting
Finally, district staff reported that bids to build the Torrey Pines swimming pool have been received by the general contractor, but they are not yet prepared to provide a final “not to exceed” cost estimate.
Staff reported that they will bring the final proposed contract to the Board at the June Board meeting for Board approval, along with a proposed plan to finance the aquatic center. I expect we could sign and approve the final construction contract before the end of June and start planning for construction immediately thereafter.
Our next Board meeting is June 13th at 6:00 pm.