Packed crowd anticipates discussion on Orange Unified Parental Notification Policy on Sept. 8, 2023.
Credit: Mallika Seshadri / EdSource
Organizers seeking the ouster of two conservative members of the Orange Unified school board announced last week they had collected more than enough signatures to put the recall to a vote in the next several months.
The effort seeks the recall of board President Rick Ledesma and board member Madison Klovstad Miner, who was elected last November after defeating 22-year incumbent Kathryn A. Moffat by 0.2% — 221 votes out of 61,845 votes cast. Her election was pivotal in establishing a four-member conservative majority that had run on a uniform platform of parental rights. Ledesma and Miner had the financial backing of pro-conservative political action committees, including the Lincoln Club of Orange County, and the support of Jack Hibbs, an influential politically active pastor of Calvary Chapel Chino Hills, an evangelical megachurch.
The new majority’s first action was to fire Gunn Marie Hansen, the district’s popular superintendent, with one day’s notice during the Christmas break, when Hansen was abroad. During the heated four-hour school board meeting, several angry parents vowed a recall election, but it took several months to organize a campaign. Although Hansen was fired without cause, Ledesma later said that under Hansen, the district was “focusing too much on the social politics of education,” and the board planned to revisit policies related to sex education, student equity and ethnic studies.
The recall campaign is also running on a theme of fiscal responsibility, pointing to the cost of terminating Hansen’s contract, which, with vacation and benefits, was $505,000.
Last month, the conservative majority made Orange Unified the sixth California school district to require school officials to adopt a gender notification policy, requiring school officials to tell parents and guardians if their child engages in activities designed for the opposite sex or changes gender pronouns.
Darshan Smaaladen, recall committee co-chair and chief organizer, said the campaign had submitted more than 18,300 signatures — about 5,000 more than the 13,046 required. Organizers had to collect at least 10% of registered voters in the school district.
Smaaladen, a parent of two graduates and one current Orange Unified student, said she was “elated” by the number of signatures collected and “looks forward to more knowledgeable public voting on the issues in future elections.” She said the signature-gathering was done mainly by volunteers attending festivals, stationing outside schools and going door to door. Three hundred volunteer signature collectors signed a code of ethics, committing to acting in good faith and staying true to the campaign message, she said. Some teachers, many of whom live in the district, were among the canvassers.
“The Orange Unified Education Association is happy to see the petitions to be submitted weeks earlier than the deadline, and we see this as a statement of strength and support by the public for this recall,” said union President Greg Goodlander.
Paid solicitors were hired to ensure meeting a Nov. 8 deadline and collected 2,000 signatures, Smaaladen said.
In a lengthy email responding to EdSource’s request for a comment on the recall, district board member Miner wrote, “It’s essential to note that protecting students is my sole purpose, and the radical recall movement has made it clear that their quest for power over the children is nothing more than a strong political maneuver to influence and shape the children of OUSD. This has nothing to do with protecting or educating children.” (Go here for the full response.)
The Orange County Registrar of Voters must now validate the signatures, initially examining a large random sample, then doing a full certification, if needed. The Orange Unified school board must choose a date for the recall vote. Smaaladen said she hopes the board chooses the March state primary election; tying the recall vote to that election will save the district about $1 million from the cost of holding an election on a separate date, she said.
Located near Disneyland, Orange Unified draws from diverse neighborhoods in five cities plus unincorporated areas of Orange County; half of its 26,000 students are from low-income familes; 57% are Latino and a quarter are white.
According to Ballotpedia, only about 1 in 5 recall campaigns nationally have qualified for the ballot since 2009. Of those, fewer than half have unseated board members.
This effort could gain national attention and draw six-figure contributions on both sides. California Republicans and conservative PACs have targeted school board elections to outflank Democratic majorities in the Legislature, promote school choice, weaken teacher unions and oppose LGBTQ+ education. Democratic donors and the California Teachers Association in turn will weigh whether to encourage this and similar recalls, assuming it qualifies for the ballot, by donating heavily.
“Republicans have been talking about ratcheting up the fight on education policy for a few years. There have been some scattered skirmishes up until now, but this could be the all-out brawl that both sides have been anticipating,” said Dan Schnur, a longtime political observer who teaches political communications at the University of Southern California, UC Berkeley and Pepperdine University.
A similar recall campaign is under way to unseat three politically conservative members in Temecula Valley Unified, including board President Joseph Komrosky, whom Gov. Gavin Newsom condemned for denigrating the assassinated gay activist Harvey Milk as a pedophile. On Wednesday, leaders of the League of United Latin American Citizens de Inland Empire and the local branch of the NAACP civil rights group announced they were joining the effort. They have until Dec. 8 to turn in enough signatures to qualify.
In my junior year of high school, I walked up to the batter’s box at Oracle Park — the same field where I’d watched the San Francisco Giants play countless times. It was the high school city championship game, and we were playing our rivals, George Washington High School. Taking a deep breath and whispering a quick prayer, I stepped in and looked at the pitcher on the mound — my twin sister.
This was our second time facing off in the San Francisco City Championship. After losing to her the year before, I wanted nothing more than to win.
Twins Ramon and Isabella Fong of San Francisco.
My twin sister, Isabella, and I have been competitive for as long as I can remember. As twins, we were always grouped together, which fueled our rivalry. If we were wearing similar clothes, one of us would have to change.
As we entered elementary school, that competitiveness followed us. Although Isabella and I went to the same school, we always had different teachers, assignments and friends. We would compare test scores and how many books we had read in a month.
However, something changed when Isabella started playing on my Little League baseball team. Besides being the older twin, if there was one thing I was comparatively better at, it was baseball. I could hit the ball further than Isabella could, and throw the ball faster, too.
Under normal circumstances, I’d have flaunted that.
But this time, we were more than simply grouped together. We were on the same team. If Isabella got a hit, I was the loudest in the dugout. I’d permit banter from our teammates, but if they talked about her skills because she was a girl, I was the first one to defend her. I loved knowing that after school, we would go through the same things as teammates and share the same stories about teammates and games at dinner.
Our competitive rivalry was put to the test when we started applying to high schools.
In seventh and eighth grade, getting into Lowell High School in San Francisco was our primary goal. We were awed by its reputation as the only merit-based public high school in the city, which to us was the golden ticket of prestige.
I thought that getting into Lowell would give me gratification, but when I was accepted and Isabella wasn’t, all pride drained out of me as I realized I wasn’t going to be at the same high school as my twin sister.
When I walked in the front doors at Lowell, realizing how big it was and how alone I felt, I cared nothing about winning at that moment. I just wanted to be on the same team as my sister again.
I knew how much Isabella wanted to go to Lowell, and with Lowell’s merit-based admissions, I knew she viewed herself as less capable than I was.
But from what I observed, Isabella never let that stop her.
When she joined the baseball team at Washington as the only girl, all I wanted was to see her succeed. Because of our competitiveness throughout our childhood, I knew how hard she worked, and it was something I wanted to emulate every single day. If she was going to excel, I wanted to do the same.
I realized that the pride from our childhood had been replaced by an instinct to help each other when we were down.
One night, I broke down from the stress of my work and college applications at Lowell. I remember walking down the stairs to go on a walk, crying out of frustration when Isabella walked out of her door and asked me if I was OK.
So, when I stepped into the batter’s box against Isabella, the first girl to be the starting pitcher in a San Francisco Section championship on May 18, 2023, I couldn’t help but be proud of her. And when we talked about the game the next day, it didn’t matter that my team had won. I couldn’t get over the fact that my sister was the coolest person I knew.
Today, Isabella and I go to college on opposite sides of the country.
And every day, I think about how she never gave up when she was rejected, and if she can do it, then why can’t I?
In high school, I thought that going to different schools would mean I would lose my sister, but I know that no matter what we talk about and how different our lives become, it will always feel like we are in the same uniform, watching each other in the batter’s box with smiles on our faces.
The opinions expressed in this commentary represent those of the author. EdSource welcomes commentaries representing diverse points of view. If you would like to submit a commentary, please review our guidelines and contact us.
Justice Spears is a senior at Sacramento Charter High School, who is enrolled in the Panther Pipeline Program.
Credit: Arrows Digital / St. HOPE Public Schools
College enrollment was declining even before the pandemic. According to the National Center for Education Statistics, “the overall college enrollment rate for 18- to 24-year-olds decreased from 41% in 2010 to 38% in 2021.” In 2021, the college enrollment rate for 18- to 24-year-olds was highest for Asian students (60%) compared to 37% for Black students and 33% for Hispanic students.
One important way to increase college attendance is through dual enrollment programs in which high school students take college classes and receive college credit. According to a recent report from the Public Policy Institute of California, participation in dual enrollment programs is associated with higher high school completion, college readiness and higher academic achievement.
While the benefits of dual enrollment are clear, not all students have the bandwidth to take college classes on top of their high school coursework. In order to reduce barriers and increase access to college-level courses, we have taken dual enrollment one step further at St. HOPE Public Schools. Our Panther Pipeline program brings the college experience to our high school campus. Through our partnership with the Los Rios Community College District, college professors come to Sacramento Charter High School and teach our juniors and seniors in person. Scholars enrolled in the Panther Pipeline program take rigorous college courses and receive both high school and college credit.
This program is unique because our scholars do not have to leave our high school campus to take college courses. Two days a week, college professors come to Sac High to teach in person, and the other three days, scholars complete their college work in class with their Sac High instructional aide. By bringing college to our scholars and allowing them to receive both high and college credit we are making dual enrollment more accessible and an option for scholars who may not otherwise be able to take high school and college classes at the same time.
The benefits of bringing college courses to our scholars are far-reaching. Our student population is predominantly low-income minority students, and many of our scholars are the first in their families to go to college. By exposing them to college before they need to apply in fall of their senior year, we hope to spark their interest in pursuing higher education and expand their worldview of what opportunities are available in college. Providing our upperclassmen with multiple college course offerings while they are in high school helps them home in on what major they may want to pursue in college as well as think about what career might be the best fit for them.
Dual enrollment programs provide students with an opportunity to graduate from high school with college credits, which helps them save money on college tuition by reducing the number of college classes they need to graduate. High school juniors enrolled in our dual enrollment program could potentially take four college courses before they graduate from high school, saving them time and money while in college.
Bringing college classes to our high school campus also helps reduce transportation barriers for students who may not be able to travel to a college campus. Many of our scholars have after-school commitments — jobs, sports, and responsibilities at home — that might prevent them from taking courses at a college campus, but when they are part of their high school day, those barriers are removed.
An important part of our dual enrollment program is that it provides students with a multitiered system of support. We have high school teachers who help students navigate and manage their college coursework, and students have access to the Los Rios College campuses, facilities and tutoring resources. This is critical for preparing students for university-level expectations and ensuring they have the study skills to succeed in college.
As we collectively work on increasing access to college and career pathways, I encourage high schools around the state to offer dual enrollment programs that provide students with both high school and college credit. Taking college courses in addition to high school classes can be daunting, but combining college and high school credit is much more doable for many students, especially those we are trying to get into the college pipeline.
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Lisa Ruda is superintendent of St. HOPE Public Schools, a tuition-free, college prep public charter school network in Sacramento.
The opinions expressed in this commentary represent those of the author. EdSource welcomes commentaries representing diverse points of view. If you would like to submit a commentary, please review our guidelines and contact us.
Sandra Figueroa, navigator of Lovonya DeJean Middle School’s newly-launched Parent Center, meets with a student on campus.
Credit: Contra Costa County
Lovonya DeJean Middle School, located in the heart of Richmond, has its share of obstacles. Most of its 400 students struggle with poverty, and the challenges that come with that can affect their attendance, test scores and overall learning outcomes.
But a newly launched community resource center at DeJean will go a long way toward providing additional support to families who struggle to meet basic needs, in hopes of improving student outcomes.
The Parent Center, which officially opened on Sept. 21, serves as a regional hub where students and their families can receive assistance in obtaining resources like health insurance, food stamps and cash assistance.
On Oct. 24, the center also started technology assistance sessions — offered in English and Spanish — where parents can learn computer skills. They will receive a free laptop after attending four of these two-hour sessions. Additional sessions are scheduled on Nov. 2, 7 and 14, from 5 to 7 p.m.
According to John Gioia, the county supervisor for Contra Costa County’s District 1, the city of Richmond and West Contra Costa Unified School District have been working together for several years to provide resources like the Parent Center for student families. District spokesperson Liz Sanders said such collaboration is vital to provide resources to school communities.
“We know that in order to meet the needs of the whole child and the whole community, we need resources in partnership beyond our own resources as a school district,” Sanders said.
Sandra Figueroa, the Parent Center’s navigator, is the first to be funded by Measure X, a 20-year half-cent sales tax that was approved by Contra Costa County voters in 2020. The approximately $110 million in annual tax revenue goes toward community services like the county hospital, health centers and early childhood services.
Employed by Contra Costa County’s Employment & Human Services department, Figueroa is one of five Measure X-funded “4 Our Families” navigators who each represent one of the county’s supervisorial districts. Figueroa’s work varies day to day, but she’s always working with families to ensure they have access to and are using available community resources, whether it’s expediting access to Medi-Cal insurance, getting legal help or finding grief assistance for families suffering a loss. She said the Parent Center is “the puzzle piece that was missing” at DeJean.
Figueroa said DeJean’s students struggle with a variety of challenges at home that affect their learning at school. Many are learning English as a second language, and some are undocumented immigrants, with parents who are often scared to apply for benefits out of fear of being deported, or are unaware that they’re eligible for them. Some students, without access to health insurance, have vision or dental problems that can make it difficult for them to focus in school.
“If students are having an attendance or behavioral problem, there’s something probably happening in the home,” Figueroa said.
Figueroa hopes her position as navigator and the new Parent Center will help parents find solutions to issues happening at home, subsequently leading to improved student outcomes. As a local to Richmond and an employee of Contra Costa County for 31 years, she feels like the DeJean Parent Center is where she belongs.
Sanders said the DeJean Parent Center aligns with WCCUSD’s community schools initiative. The school district has employed the community schools strategy since 2007 and received $30 million from the state in May 2022 to support the initiative. The most recent contract between WCCUSD and the teachers union includes, for the first time, language about shared decision-making for community schools.
The Parent Center, Sanders said, “really fits into the broader programming of community schools at West Contra Costa by making sure that we’re serving the whole community while we’re serving the whole child,” Sanders said.
Community schools focus on the “whole child,” and under the strategy, districts and schools collaborate with teachers, students and their families to improve overall student learning and success. According to the California Teachers Association, community schools implementation can lead to lower rates of absenteeism; better work habits, grades and behaviors; higher enrollment in college prep classes; and higher graduation rates.
“When the family is doing better, the children are doing better,” Gioia said. “The idea is to treat the family as a whole unit. If the family has access to better health and social services, the parents and the children are all doing better.”
A student in Oakland’s Skyline High School Education and Community Health Pathway sculpts a clay model of the endocrine system.
Credit: Allison Shelley for American Education
Could collaboration between TK-12 schools, colleges and industries improve educational equity and opportunity for the most high-needs learners? California is betting that the answer is yes and is backing that belief up with a $250 million investment in the Regional K-16 Education Collaboratives Grant Program.
The success of California’s nearly 6 million public school students, 60% of whom are low-income, depends on the ability of educators and employers to provide seamless pathways to degrees and careers. This is no small feat and requires a big investment of time, energy and resources.
In 2020, amid the pandemic, 15 education organizations in the Central Valley, including school districts, community colleges and four-year institutions, joined forces to improve dual enrollment and skill-building opportunities and create more equitable pathways to college. The Fresno-Madera K-16 Collaborative has already launched thousands of learners on a path to and through college. Building on the initial success of this effort, the California Department of General Services has invested $250 million in the Regional K-16 Education Collaboratives Grant Program to fund career-oriented pathways and Recovery with Equity recommendations. Nine regional collaboratives received four-year funding in June 2022, and a second-round application to fund additional collaborative regions just closed on Oct. 3.
Too often, innovations in education and workforce development occur in silos, with little support to build a community of practice or align strategy. The goal of the K-16 grant program is to break down these silos and get regional entities working together to advance educational equity and workforce resilience. However, because such regional efforts are relatively new, little research and few resources exist to support them.
From our work supporting educational and workforce partners, here are a few lessons learned:
Focus on learners and equity. Partners in a regional collaborative are drawn together for one common goal: to advance equity of opportunity for learners. As such, keep learners at the center of all discussions. One suggested principle to guide the collaborative: Consider each student, no matter their age, location, or pathway as our collective responsibility, and use this orientation as a north star in decision-making.
Ensure balance. The composition of an educational collaborative matters. Representation and equity are essential in making high-stakes decisions — especially regarding dissemination of funding. To ensure the buy-in of partners, consider educational segments, geography and distribution of partners across education and industry. While postsecondary partners often have larger support structures, resources and student populations, the participation of TK-12 districts and county offices of education is crucial to the success of K-16 collaboratives. Thus, TK-12 partners may need additional financial backing to ensure equitable representation and influence.
Build deep and authentic employer engagement. Strong industry partnerships will drive pathway development in high-needs areas and enhance career education and work-based learning for students. Accomplishing this in a collaborative setting can be challenging. Because the worlds of public education and private industry have historically been separate, businesses/employers must be active participants in meetings and discussions. Talent pipeline management, an approach to workforce development, which positions employers as end customers of education supply chains, may be useful in such collaborations.
Dedicate staffing. A collaborative must have its own staffing to be effective and sustainable. Initiating a collaborative staffed only by volunteers presents challenges, as members, usually employed full-time, have limited availability. Dedicated staff can maintain momentum and handle daily operations, securing the collaborative’s success. Acknowledging members’ limited availability is essential. Providing support and, if feasible, incentives for participation can enhance engagement.
Design the funding model to be both equitable and sustainable. How the collaborative divvies up funds is a momentous decision that influences its ability to advance its priorities. Consider where funds will have the greatest impact. For example, while most rural high schools have far smaller head counts than urban high schools, they face greater challenges competing for grant funds and building career programs because of their geographic isolation and limited resources.
Wherever possible, leveraging existing funding toward a common purpose can remove silos and maximize sustained collaborative impact. For example the Community Economic Resilience Fund is a $600 million state grant program designed to promote sustainable, climate-friendly economic development and equitable pandemic recovery. Funds support regional communities in developing coordinated road maps for economic development, with an emphasis on the creation of high-quality jobs in sustainable industries. The CERF regions and timeline intentionally align with those of the K-16 Collaboratives grant program, and the two regional efforts should complement and support one another.
Finally, the K-16 Collaboratives Educational Grant Program expires in 2026, so designing the funding model to be sustainable is critical. In determining how to direct funds, think not only about what pilot initiatives will be sustainable but can provide proof of concept for replication and scalability through future investments.
An adage says, “If you want to go fast, go alone. If you want to go far, go together.”
In a recent panel on diversifying the health care workforce, Freeman Hrabowski, a former educational adviser to President Barack Obama, argued that the single most important policy change he would make would be, “more incentives to have people at different levels of education understanding both the strengths of other levels and the challenges they face. … We need policies that will have more substantive collaboration across levels.”
At every TK-16 school in California, there are bright spots of innovation and individual educators working tirelessly to make sure their students don’t fall through the cracks. Regional collaboration can harness and scale the impact of these individuals to advance systems change.
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Annie Sterling is a program manager at Capitol Impact, a Sacramento-based social impact consulting firm, and previously served for more than a decade as an English language arts and social studies teacher in California public schools. Natalie Lenhart, Lex Carlsson and Alex Taghavian of Capitol Impact contributed to this op-ed.
The opinions expressed in this commentary represent those of the author. EdSource welcomes commentaries representing diverse points of view. If you would like to submit a commentary, please review our guidelines and contact us.
Rapper D Smoke at a hip-hop jam in Los Angeles, part of the launch event for the School Gig app.
Credit: Chase Stevens
Elmo Lovano fell for the drums at the age of 10. He was touring as a musician by 15, performing with the likes of Miley Cyrus and Juliette Lewis. His affinity for music eventually led him to found Jammcard: The Music Professionals Network, which has been described as a sort of LinkedIn for the music industry, connecting musicians to jobs.
“Art and music led me to become the entrepreneur that I am today,” Lovano said. “It taught me how to communicate with others and how to lead. Drumming gave me a feeling of passion that fueled my drive.”
Lovano used his unique blend of tech know-how and musical instincts to develop School Gig, a job platform that connects schools with artists of all kinds, from musicians and dancers to actors and visual artists. The new app, which was recently launched at a hip-hop jam featuring R&B singer/songwriter Omarion and Daniel “D Smoke” Farris in Inglewood, is a tool to help schools tap into the expertise of their local arts communities in the wake of Proposition 28.
“To me, teaching young students arts and music is one of the most important things they could learn,” said Lovano. “I love bringing people opportunities, and School Gig allows us to provide artists with new opportunities while educating kids and assisting schools. It’s a win-win-win.”
The app is part of an ongoing effort to bang the drum for Proposition 28, to help recruit the thousands of arts educators who will be needed as California schools begin to ramp up their plans for the state’s 2022 historic initiative to bring arts education back into schools after many decades of budget cuts. The mandate ensures roughly $1 billion in annual funding, administered by the California Department of Education, to teach a wide range of disciplines as diverse as hip-hop riffs and marching band, dance and drama, folk art and high-tech animation.
“Prop. 28 is the largest investment in arts and music in our nation’s history,” said Austin Beutner, the former superintendent of LAUSD who spearheaded Proposition 28, “It will provide all 6 million kids in California public schools the opportunity to participate in arts and music at school.”
That money is on its way to schools. A schedule of allocations for Proposition 28 funds will be posted on the Department of Education website in November, officials say, and the first installment is set to land in February. The guidelines state that at least 80% of the money is earmarked for arts education staff, and the rest can go toward other costs, such as training, supplies, materials and partnership programs.
One main challenge now is how to recruit legions of new educators, given that the arts teacher pipeline has shriveled over time. There are so few newly minted arts educators in California that some schools are having to recruit out-of-state teachers. The existing teacher shortage also means that filling all the anticipated arts ed positions will be no mean feat.
“It’s a significant number of teachers that we’re looking at being hired in California,” said Mike Stone, coordinator of the visual and performing arts with the Bakersfield City School District. “The problem that we will face with Prop. 28 is filling the ranks of teachers, certificated teachers in the classroom, because there simply is going to be a shortage in the pipeline for the next several years.”
Some say tapping working artists, who can either work alongside classroom teachers or pursue a credential, is a way to grow the ranks until the supply can meet the demand. That’s where School Gig comes in.
“We know how to hit artists where they live,” Lovano said. “This is exciting for us, it’s powerful to bring artists to the schools. You can still do you, you can have your art, but also you have an opportunity to connect with the schools.”
“Prop. 28 is the largest investment in arts and music in our nation’s history.”
Former LAUSD Superintendent Austin Beutner
Many are hopeful the app can play a role in helping schools overcome the state’s ongoing teacher shortage, which has deepened during the pandemic, by enticing prospective teaching artists.
“The School Gig app seems like it has got some legs,” said Merryl Goldberg, a professor of music and arts integration at California State University San Marcos. “The biggest challenge will be outreach to get schools to market their positions.”
For the record, there are already sites where schools post open jobs, such as EdJoin. A recent search for “music teacher” resulted in 216 postings representing 363 job vacancies.
Stone recently hired 13 new arts teachers, with specialties ranging from stringed instruments and rock music to theater, to help build out the already robust Bakersfield arts ed program. He says it was a highly competitive process that will only get harder as more schools get in on the act.
“It’s difficult right now, and it’s going to be more difficult this coming hiring cycle because everyone will have the dollars in their bank account and be hiring,” said Stone, a veteran music teacher who started out playing a baritone horn in the fourth grade. “We’re going to see more of a crisis this coming summer.”
Making deeper connections within local school communities, tapping into homegrown talent, could be part of the solution, some say.
Austin Beutner, author of Prop 28, at a launch event for the School Gig app.
“That’s the beauty of something like School Gig,” said Stone who is also the president of the National Association for Music Education, Western Division. “Maybe there is a hip hop dancer in Oakland who wants to work in a school, and maybe there’s a way to connect them to the school district to see if there’s a job that would be of interest.”
Several districts have already signed on to participate with the app, including Inglewood and Fresno.
“I am excited to start using the platform to find and recruit arts teachers,” said Heather Kuyper-McKeithen, arts education department manager for Fresno Unified. “We have a plan to hire 60 teachers over the next few years for TK-12th grade instruction in dance, theater, art, and music.”
Some arts educators, however, are concerned the app may favor putting teaching artists in schools at the expense of credentialed arts teachers. As one arts education expert put it, “teaching is not a gig.”
Despite the complications of launching a program this ambitious, including differing opinions about what kind of genres to teach, who should teach them and whether the CDE is providing enough guidance on the rollout, Stone remains steadfast in his enthusiasm.
“It’s important that the Department of Education put out accurate information as soon as possible,” said Stone. “In fairness to the Department of Ed, they’re trying to figure it out as well. This is such a huge endeavor to operationalize. The point is that we have to be patient.”
Like many in the arts education world, Stone is still pinching himself that there is finally funding earmarked for the arts. After 35 years in the field, this is a watershed moment he never thought he’d see happen.
“There’s finally discrete funding for arts education. We have never had that in California,” said Stone. “It’s a paradigm shift forever. We are leading the way here. It’s an arts education renaissance.”
Students working to distribute the February 2022 edition of the Lowell high school paper.
Credit: Courtesy Rae Wymer
My career in journalism has been a serendipitous path, which began because of a sabbatical.
The architecture teacher in my high school had taken the year off, and I was left with a gaping hole in my course register at 10 a.m. Demoralized and hoping for a reprieve from algebra and biology, I sought out the advice of my counselor, who recommended an introductory journalism course as a possible mitigation. I had never reported before or considered a career in the news industry.
I took her advice and enrolled, taking to the work of the news industry almost instantly. A year later I was interning for KQED in San Francisco, the local NPR affiliate, and four years later I would graduate as editor-in-chief of a publication I stumbled my way into joining. If it wasn’t for my high school’s publication, I probably would never have found my love of reporting as soon as I did.
I may have never even pursued journalism.
As college publications have stepped into the limelight in recent years, the news industry has begun singing the praises of college reporters; but it is impossible to celebrate the work of local journalists without recognizing the importance of high school publications to provide the foundation for many college reporters.
College publications do professional work, reminding us that the main difference between student journalists and their professional counterparts is that students are balancing school and reporting. Some key examples of stellar work include Michigan State’s The State News exposing abuse by Larry Nasser and North by Northwestern’scoverage of racist allegations against Northwestern’s football coach. It is this work and the daily coverage by publications that builds a foundation of solid reporting, teaching many students the tools necessary for future employment.
For schools, the importance of journalism is only growing. Journalism is an important part of education, especially when controversy arises on a local level, as seen in Temecula Valley Unified. When covering controversies, student journalists have unfettered access to the thoughts, opinions and fears of high school students. Students may be more willing to discuss the realities of what goes on behind school doors from 7 a.m. to 4 p.m. with someone they have physics with than an adult reporter.
San Francisco, my hometown, has around 17 public high schools — yet when the city hosted the JEA/NSPA National High School Journalism Convention in April, not a single public school attended. Only two public high schools in San Francisco have newspapers, and another two have smaller programs. This is sadly not an anomaly for urban public schools because producing a paper is expensive and requires an adviser with journalism experience.
Personally, Lowell High School, my alma mater, provided no funding for the newspaper. Our publication was funded entirely by grants, alumni donations, advertisements and extensive bake sales. Beyond school site support, the district provides no funds for establishing these programs. There are no established incentives for school districts to support the creation of high school publications.
High school papers, especially in low-income or urban districts, are in short supply. A lack of student publications can exacerbate potential news deserts in smaller districts where schools and communities rely on a dwindling number of local newsrooms for coverage; it places the burden of reporting on larger circulation papers.
It is local high school publications that are the unsung heroes of the journalism industry — they help teach future generations of reporters. Many of my fellow college journalists got their start in high school with a newspaper or yearbook. It is not just the job of colleges to maintain their newspapers; there is also an onus on high schools to provide the opportunity for their students to try their hand at journalism.
There is something special about the work done by high school publications. In many ways, it is a commitment and an enduring love for their school that produces this work. I am still proud of the work my friends and I did for our high school paper, and I wish more students had this type of opportunity.
Good high school journalism can change lives. I know it changed mine.
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Rae Wymer is a second-year urban studies major at UC Berkeley, minoring in journalism and a member of EdSource’s California Student Journalism Corps.
The opinions in this commentary are those of the author. If you would like to submit a commentary, please review our guidelines and contact us.
Since the pandemic, reports and articles in publications across the state and country have bemoaned the rise in chronic absenteeism (missing at least 10% of school days a year).
While theories and solutions abound from educational experts and practitioners, I think they mostly miss the point.
I would argue that chronic absenteeism is merely a symptom of a larger problem that has been building for years, perhaps decades — that too many students don’t find school to be interesting, engaging or relevant for their futures.
This is particularly true for kids of color and other marginalized student populations. Despite the dramatic changes in our society, our education system continues to rely on legacy ideas and historically taught content, rather than preparing our students to navigate an increasingly complex world.
When schools and districts take the time to ask students, families, employers, and community and civic leaders what young people need for future success, it results in a set of skills, competencies and mindsets — often captured in a “graduate profile” or “learner portrait” — vastly different from that for which the state currently holds schools accountable.
An analysis of dozens of these graduate profiles paints a clear picture: Young people need to communicate and collaborate effectively, think critically and creatively to solve problems, be self-directed lifelong learners and culturally competent and contributing citizens, be kind and compassionate, be technically and financially literate, maintain a healthy mind and body, and have a sense of purpose and sense of self. While often implicit, rarely are these skills, competencies and mindsets the explicit goals of our education system.
If and when we organize schools around these competencies, students would see greater value in attending school.
Let me illustrate further by talking about my 13- and 16-year-old sons, who are pretty typical kids.
My older son (a 10th grader) is intellectually curious and prefers learning independently. As such, he thrived during the pandemic by grabbing his teachers’ instructions and materials from his school’s online learning management system, Canvas, getting help when needed, accessing online tools, and completing his school work at a time and in a manner convenient to him and his needs. This last quarter, he was home recovering after a car accident.
While he stayed up late on the phone with friends and slept in, with focused effort of about two hours per day he was able to complete his school work from the comfort of his own bedroom or dining room table. In doing so, he earned all A’s except for one B. He’s now healing, getting around on crutches, but he doesn’t see much reason to return to school except to see friends. He has been chronically absent, but he’s finding success.
My younger son (a seventh grader) cares little about learning but thrives on social interactions with friends. He’s a pleaser, so he does his schoolwork to appease his parents and teachers. Most days, when I inquire about his day, he simply says “it was boring.” His classes rarely spark his interest or inspire him to be curious, explore and deepen his learning. He simply doesn’t see it as relevant; nothing impels him to go to school.
So, how can we shift teaching and learning to engage students in a way that brings them back to school and/or makes them want to be there? First, put students at the center of their own learning. Give them a voice in what they learn. Give them a choice in how they learn and demonstrate their knowledge and skills. Most importantly, give them the agency to take ownership of their learning journey. Enable students to center their own identities, cultures and languages so that they find value, purpose and relevance in their schooling.
Doing this requires teachers and administrators to cede control and become co-creators and co-facilitators of powerful student-centered learning experiences. This can only happen when teachers form trusting relationships with students, know their names and stories, listen to them and create safe learning environments where they feel a sense of belonging.
Of course, none of this is easy, but we have the answers at our disposal. We need administrators to create the conditions that enable teachers to experiment. The state can help by shifting away from an outdated system of accountability that binds compliance-focused educational leaders to a status quo that we can all agree isn’t working.
My wife and I have long been fans of functional medicine — a field of health care that resists the Western medicine tendency to treat every symptom with a pill, and instead seeks to find and treat the root cause of illness. Our education system could benefit from this approach. Instead of treating chronic absenteeism as the problem, let’s see it as one of many symptoms of an outdated education system.
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Roman Stearns is the executive director of Scaling Student Success, a California partnership dedicated to educating the whole child, leveraging the power and potential of a community-developed “graduate profile” or “learner portrait” as a driver for transformational change.
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Inside the IT Engine Room: What School Districts Must Fix Before the Bell Rings
Scott Rupp
By Scott Rupp, editor, Education IT Reporter.
There’s a myth that school buildings go quiet during summer. Walk the halls in July, and you’ll hear the click of keyboards, the hum of laptops updating en masse, and the buzz of tech teams scrambling to patch systems, reset devices, and prepare for the digital demands of another school year.
For school district IT leaders, summer is less a break and more a deadline. It’s the one narrow window to assess, upgrade, secure, and strategize before the onslaught of helpdesk tickets, classroom rollouts, and surprise crises hit like a storm on the first day of school.
As we look toward the 2025–2026 academic year, here’s what’s top of mind for these unsung heroes and why the work they do now may define how smoothly (or chaotically) the year ahead unfolds.
The Cybersecurity Time Bomb
In recent years, K–12 schools have become ransomware ground zero. Attackers aren’t guessing anymore—they know schools often run aging infrastructure, have limited security staff, and store goldmines of sensitive student data. And they’re exploiting that knowledge.
Overworked IT directors are spending their summers asking hard questions: Have we patched every exposed system? Can we trust our third-party vendors? What happens if our SIS goes down the first week of school?
Some districts are making real progress adopting Zero Trust models, running phishing simulations, building incident response plans—but for many, it still feels like putting duct tape on a submarine. Funding is thin, awareness is spotty, and the stakes have never been higher.
The Chromebook Cliff
Remember the great rush to 1:1 device programs during the pandemic? Well, those devices—millions of them—are aging out. Batteries are failing. Screens are cracked. Charging carts are breaking down.
Summer is when IT departments try to get ahead of it all. They’re running diagnostics, triaging broken units, and scrambling to figure out how to replace entire fleets when budgets are stretched thin.
For many, it’s a sobering realization: the quick fixes of 2020 are now long-term operational burdens. And unless they make smart decisions now standardizing device types, implementing MDM tools, tracking asset lifecycle—they’ll be trapped in a repair-and-replace cycle for years to come.
The EdTech Hangover
If you ever thought your school was using too many apps, you’re probably right. On average, districts use more than 1,400 digital tools each year. Many of them do the same things. Few of them talk to each other.
Educators are overwhelmed. Students are confused. And IT departments? They’re spending hours troubleshooting login issues and fielding support calls for tools no one really needed in the first place.
This summer, more districts are taking stock. They’re auditing usage, sunsetting underperforming tools, and trying to simplify the learning experience. It’s less about cutting costs (though that helps) and more about cutting the noise. Because when every tool claims to be “the future of learning,” it’s hard to know what’s actually helping.
Wi-Fi Woes and Connectivity Gaps
For most schools, Wi-Fi has become as critical as plumbing. And yet, network infrastructure often goes untouched for years, only getting attention when something breaks.
Summer gives IT teams the chance to breathe and look at the bigger picture: Are access points where they need to be? Can the network handle a hallway full of AI-enabled learning apps? What about those students at home who still can’t get online?
Upgrades to Wi-Fi 6, bandwidth increases, and expanded mesh networks are top of the to-do list. So is partnering with local ISPs to keep students connected off campus. Because in 2025, learning doesn’t stop at the school gate and neither should connectivity.
Student Data, Privacy, and the Compliance Tightrope
With each new app, platform, or analytics dashboard comes a fresh load of student data. Grades, attendance, behavior, even biometrics in some cases. And districts are under more pressure than ever to safeguard it all.
IT leaders are spending these weeks re-reading vendor contracts, updating privacy policies, and working with legal teams to stay compliant with laws like FERPA and COPPA. They’re building guardrails—who can access what data, for how long, and under what conditions.
It’s tedious work. But with parents increasingly tuned in to digital privacy—and regulators watching closely; it’s no longer optional. If schools want trust, they have to earn it, and transparency about data practices is where that starts.
The AI Question No One Has Answered Yet
Every superintendent is asking about AI. Should we use it in classrooms? Can it reduce administrative burden? How do we prevent cheating? What about bias? What about the data?
Some districts are experimenting with mixed results. Others are standing back, watching carefully. What’s clear is that IT leaders need to be part of these conversations, not pulled in after the fact to clean up the mess.
This summer, a few are drafting AI use policies, conducting risk assessments, and exploring partnerships with ethical AI vendors. It’s early days, but one thing’s certain: AI is coming to education whether we’re ready or not.
The Human Challenge: Burnout and Brain Drain
Technology isn’t the only thing under strain. The people managing it are, too.
Districts are struggling to recruit and retain qualified IT staff. The work is hard, the pay often lags behind the private sector, and the burnout is real. One person managing thousands of devices, users, and tickets? It’s not sustainable.
Forward-thinking districts are investing in automation, cross-training, and shared service models across regions. They’re advocating for better staffing ratios. Because even the best systems crumble without the people to maintain them.
A Narrow Window for Real Change
The clock is ticking. In a few short weeks, teachers will return. Students will log in. And any cracks in the system will widen under pressure.
Summer isn’t just a time to fix what’s broken—it’s a chance to reset. To rethink what’s necessary, what’s working, and what no longer fits. For school district IT leaders, it’s not just about avoiding disaster. It’s about building infrastructure that supports every learner, teacher, and admin not just for this year, but for years to come.
Because education is changing. And the technology behind it has to keep up.
Former Temecula Valley Unified Superintendent Jodi McClay mouths “thank you” to the supporting crowd at Temecula Valley High School on June 13, the night she was fired.
Credit: Anjali Sharif-Paul/MediaNews Group/The Sun via Getty Images
The number of California school superintendents leaving their jobs is climbing, despite increased salaries and benefits. Some have reached retirement age or are moving to less stressful jobs. Some are being pushed out by newly elected school board majorities. A new crop of less experienced district leaders is taking their place.
Superintendent turnover in California grew from 11.7% after the 2019-20 school year, to 20.9% after the 2020-21 school year. Just over 18% left after the 2021-22 school year, said Rachel S. White, an assistant professor at the University of Tennessee, Knoxville, who runs a research lab that collects data about school superintendents.
Turnover is particularly high this year because many superintendents who stuck it out during pandemic school closures, and the tumultuous years since, have had enough, White said.
“This year, before the 2023 school year, I think people finally broke,” she said.
Chris Evans, 52, decided to step down as superintendent of Natomas Unified in Sacramento at the end of last school year. He stayed on to help the new superintendent transition.
“The job was always hard to begin with, and it’s become infinitely harder,” said Evans, who led the district for 11 years.
“There are a number of folks in their 50s and 60s who are saying they are done,” he said.
Pandemic made top job more difficult
Superintendents’ jobs changed dramatically after the pandemic closed schools in March 2020. Instead of focusing on academics, strategic planning, school finances and community relations, superintendents were charged with navigating pandemic mandates and negotiating these changes with district unions. Superintendents also were tasked with ensuring there were enough computers and connectivity for students and staff to support virtual learning, all while dealing with parents who were angry their children were not in school.
The reopening of schools did little to turn down the heat at school board meetings, which were politicized over issues such as the teaching of critical race theory and its tenets of systemic racism, and LGBTQ+ topics. School superintendents often found themselves the focus of community and parental ire — so much that some school districts paid for security for their superintendent.
I can’t ever remember hearing of a superintendent that had gotten a death threat before. Now, I know personally four or five.
Gregory Franklin
Gregory Franklin, the former superintendent of Tustin Unified School District in Orange County, said he has never been threatened, but he knows other superintendents who have.
“I can’t ever remember hearing of a superintendent that had gotten a death threat before,” said Franklin, who left Tustin Unified at the end of 2021 for another job. “Now, I know personally four or five. It’s just kind of shocking. So, I think, all of that being said, that when other possibilities present themselves, people are taking them.”
Job turnover is a national problem
The superintendent turnover problem is not California’s alone, according to the Superintendent Research Project. Nearly half of the country’s 500 largest school districts have changed leadership or are undergoing leadership changes since the pandemic began in March 2020. The study compared the two years before the pandemic to the first two years of the pandemic and found a 46% increase in superintendent turnover nationally.
“What we are seeing is that the challenges are greater than ever before and the political environment is creating great instability in the institution, which is resulting in shorter tenure for superintendents,” said Dennis Smith, managing search partner for Leadership Associates, a recruitment agency that does many of the superintendent searches in California.
Superintendents needed: many openings
California school districts searching for superintendents include Sacramento City Unified, Eureka City Schools, Palm Springs Unified, Eastside Union, Pasadena Unified, Pajaro Valley Unified, Pacific Grove Unified, Culver City Unified, Newman-Crows Landing Unified, Solana Beach School District, Culver City Unified, Dixon Unified, Millbrae Elementary, Woodlake Unified, Hillsborough City, Merced City, Black Oak Mine Unified, North Monterey Unified and Dos Palos-Oro Loma Joint Unified.
The California School Boards Association projected a superintendent shortage five years ago, said Susan Heredia, CSBA past president. It began as baby boomers started to retire, she said.
In the 15 months since Brett McFadden began work as a deputy superintendent at the Monterey County Office of Education, a quarter of the county’s 24 school districts have changed superintendents, he said. McFadden was the Nevada Joint Union High School District superintendent until last school year.
“If you look at the last 100 superintendents that had to leave their positions or their districts, you would be very hard-pressed to find any one of them that left because of test scores or left because of educational issues,” McFadden said. “They leave because of local politics, board relations, labor relations, a facility bond matter or a budget thing.”
McFadden calls the Covid-19 pandemic the kindling that ignited the rise in single-issue adult-driven disputes, like those around masking and vaccinations, at school board meetings.
Demand is so high for superintendents that McFadden is already getting calls from search firms hoping to entice him to apply for jobs.
“You know the paint on the door isn’t even dry yet with my name on it,” he said. “These search firms are now just aggressively looking for candidates.”
Of the 30 candidates that apply for each candidate search, maybe eight to 10 meet the district’s qualifications, Evans said. Of those, there are only maybe three or four that could potentially be hired for the job, he said.
The high demand is driving up salaries and benefits packages, with total compensation surpassing the $500,000 mark in some cases.
Firings making applicants wary
Another factor pushing superintendents out the door is board members elected with the promise of firing the incumbent. The election of school board members who are determined to make significant changes in school districts has resulted in the firing of an unprecedented number of superintendents since the pandemic began in 2020, Smith said.
The school board meetings, broadcast live, have been watched throughout the state — especially by other superintendents.
“You’d expect this in a Spanish novella or something, but you don’t expect it in your neighboring district,” he said.
School boards can waive state credential requirement
School boards largely determine the qualifications required for a superintendent in their district. Although the state of California requires school district superintendents to have both a teaching credential and an administrative credential, the school board can waive the credential requirement.
At least six California school district superintendents did not have both a teaching and administrative credential in the 2022-23 school year, according to data reported to the state. The districts that waived the requirement that year included Visalia Unified, Los Angeles Unified, Mountain View Whisman Unified, Sacramento City Unified, Kingsburg Joint Union High School District and San Marino Unified, according to the California Commission on Teacher Credentialing.
Since there is no mandate to report this information in CALPADS, the state data system, there could be more superintendents without both credentials, said Anita Fitzhugh, California teaching credential commission spokesperson.
Superintendents are watching these meetings and paying more attention than ever to whether they fit well with the community of the district before they apply for a job, said White, of the University of Tennessee.
“I think it’s just a heightened awareness right now,” White said. “Especially if I’m going to pick up and move my entire family and start a position in a new place. I don’t want to be fired in two years.”
Temecula Valley Unified has been a hotbed of controversy since a trio of conservative trustees took control of the board a year ago. The board fired Superintendent Jodi McClay in June and banned the teaching of critical race theory, passed a parental policy requiring staff to notify parents if students are transgender and removed social studies material because it included a section on LGBTQ+ rights activist Harvey Milk.
Although the search for a candidate ended on Nov. 13 with the hiring of Gary Woods, a former Beverly Hills Unified superintendent, the search firm indicated to one board member that there were fewer candidates than in the past. Quite a few candidates did not meet the requirements outlined by the district in a job description and some weren’t even from the education field, board member Allison Barclay told EdSource in early November.
“I would assume that if you’re looking for a position anywhere, any company, any school district, you’re really going to look at what the situation is you’re walking into financially, culture-wise, all of those things,” Barclay said. “And so, having a school district that is making national news is probably not appealing to as many people as might be attracted to it when it wasn’t making national news and was just simply known as an award-winning school district. So, I can’t imagine that that’s been helpful.”
State legislators responded to the spate of firings by passing a bill creating a cooling-off period, prohibiting school boards from firing a superintendent or assistant superintendent within 30 days of new board members being seated or recalled.
The law also prevents school boards from firing school leaders at special or emergency board meetings, which require only 24 hours’ notice, instead of at a regular meeting, which requires the public to be informed of a meeting at least 72 hours in advance. The bill was signed by the governor in October.
“People are recognizing it’s just not healthy for an organization to go through these flip-flops where you might have a 3-2 majority that keeps a school or a superintendent, then have an election where the 3-2 flips and then the superintendent is looking for a job,” Franklin said.
Less experienced leaders hired
Assistant or deputy superintendents in larger districts are moving into the lead role in smaller districts, or superintendents in smaller districts are taking the opportunity to move to more lucrative jobs in larger districts. Newer, younger superintendents are becoming more common, Smith said.
To meet their administrative needs, many districts are also grooming their own talent, said Molly Schwarzhoff of Ray and Associates, a national education search firm.
‘I’m seeing different, perhaps less-seasoned individuals coming into the roles,” McFadden said. “That doesn’t mean they are less talented or more talented.”
To help new superintendents prepare for their new role, the Association of California School Administrators offers a new superintendents seminar series, a superintendents academy and a new superintendents workshop before its annual Superintendents Symposium.
The 2023 Voice of the Superintendent Survey, conducted by education consulting firm EAB, recommends that school boards find ways to help superintendents feel successful in their role and allow them time to connect with students and collaborate with peers to staunch turnover. Superintendents surveyed for the report overwhelmingly said they need help navigating challenging conversations with the community.
Superintendents report directly to the school board, something first-time superintendents have never done before, said James Finkelstein, professor emeritus of public policy at George Mason University in Virginia. The new superintendent now has multiple bosses, often with divergent interests. They also have to deal directly with parents and external interest groups.
“No amount of academic training or a certificate can prepare someone for this trial by fire,” Finkelstein said. “The bottom line is that there is no substitute for experience. But the catch-22 is that the only way to get the experience is by doing the job. Every school district would like an experienced superintendent who has demonstrated success in their previous position. But finding those individuals is increasingly difficult, especially given the dramatic turnover since Covid.”
