'Tortillagate'
California's public education system for grade pre-K to 12 ranks 40th out of the 50 states according to U.S. New and World Report. Testing during the 2020-2021 school year revealed only 49% of California public education students met or exceeded the standard in English Language Arts, while only 34% met or exceeded the Math standard.
Coronado Unified School District students fared slightly better, with 72% of 6th graders meeting the ELA standard, and only 46% of 6th graders meeting the Math standard. This is unacceptable.
CUSD needs to refocus on academics. Politics has encroached on our schools, occupying bandwidth that belongs to our children. As a Board Trustee, I will work to remove politics from our children's classrooms and focus on measures that will improve academic performance for all of our students.
4X4 Bell Scheduling
After the student themselves, parents are the primary stakeholders in their children's education.
The role of primary and secondary education is to focus on academics, with the goal to prepare the student for a career or future education beyond high school. Parents, who are citizens and taxpayers alike, have become concerned at the rise of distracting political agendas infiltrating their children's public education. Many of these issues are extremely sensitive, and are best left to the purview of the student's parents.
I pledge as a School Board Trustee to place parental interests foremost among those considered when developing policy for the School District.
Local
Control
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4X4 Bell Scheduling:
The Decision
Much can be said about the transition to block scheduling (also known as '4X4'). Essentially, block scheduling is semester based, where a student takes the entire course in half the school year with four periods of 90 minutes each in the day. The next semester, their courses are entirely different. Books have been written in the educational sciences regarding the pros and cons of block scheduling.
Perhaps the worst part about the transition in the case of CUSD was the manner in which it was decided. It was approved by the Board in May 2020 at the height of the pandemic, without significant public knowledge or advertisement. Months later, the community eventually became aware of the impending change. The Coronado High School teachers were 'nearly unanimous' in their opposition (see letters to the editor below). The overwhelming majority of the public also expressed their opposition. Without obtaining buy-in from the three major stakeholders: teachers, parents, and students, the Board approved the change regardless.
This episode is a perfect example of the dysfunction of the current Board: little transparency, completely unresponsive to stakeholder input, and no effort to build consensus or compromise. I pledge to do the opposite.
4X4 Bell Scheduling:
The Educational Impact
As a parent who has two CHS students who experienced the curriculum both before and after 4X4, I have my concerns about the new curriculum (see clip below). However, no decision is predetermined. I remain committed to engage all the major stakeholders to improve the current system if possible. We must not repeat the mistakes of the past. If there is