What I’m Fighting For

Community

Lemon Grove is strong and unique. We have a sense of community here that is unparalleled in any of our surrounding cities. Our neighbors are our friends and lifeline. We come together in times of need.

Education is no different. Educating our children is the responsibility of our entire community. Lemon Grove School District has forgotten that. It is imperative that we bring the community back into district planning. Our success as a community depends upon the success of our youth.

• We must bring parents together.

• We must respect the advice and advocacy of teachers.

• We must listen to our students.

Together we can restore the community’s faith in our district.

Transparency & Accountability

The relationship between the Lemon Grove School District and the community is very damaged to say the least. Decisions that the district has made have repeatedly created distrust among the community. Many folks feel like the district has taken an “us vs. them” or “we know best” approach to educating the students of our community. Important decisions are being made behind closed doors with little explanation as to why a particular decision is being made, and little community involvement.

The Lemon Grove School District needs to be much more transparent in the decisions they are making. School Board meetings need to be recorded and posted publicly for community members to revisit at their leisure.

It is imperative that we, as a community, hold the district administration and the Governing Board accountable for their decisions.

Inclusivity

We must provide inclusive classrooms and curriculum for every child that comes through our doors. All races, genders, sexual orientations, and abilities deserve to feel safe, uplifted, and included in our schools.

• Our district’s English Language Learner population needs more resources and teachers well trained in SDAIE strategies.

• Our LGBTQ+ students need spaces where they feel safe expressing who they are, so that they may truly be their authentic selves.

• Our special education population needs access to Universal Design for Learning curriculum, tactile curriculum, and teachers with an autism authorization on their credential.

• Our foster and homeless youth need the safety and security of consistency.

• All students need access to mental health resources.

• All students need access to curriculum that truthfully and properly represents their race and cultural heritage.

No parent wants their kid(s) to feel excluded among their peers. We need to ensure we are providing spaces in which parents feel safe sending their kids to school and kids feel safe attending school.

Safety

The current COVID-19 crisis is unprecedented and unplanned for. Masks and social distancing are incredibly inconvenient. Not being able to send our kids to school, is a constant test to our own sanity, and a blatant reminder of just how essential schools and teachers are to the everyday functioning of our economy. That doesn’t mean we need to be careless in our decision making.

While considering the needs of the community, we also need to ensure we are keeping kids and their families safe. Distance learning is rough. Unfortunately, it is necessary in our current health crisis. We are all trying to figure out our new normal and worrying whether or not our kids are receiving quality education is not something any of us need.

• We must ensure that we are providing daily rigorous and structured education through a digital classroom setting.

• We must provide digital study groups and digital tutoring groups for students to collaborate with each other.

• We must ensure that we are providing internet access and a computer to students who are unable to afford it. It is unacceptable for financial insecurity to be a barrier to public education.

• We must provide spaces for unhoused children to safely access education.

• We must offer alternative times for meal pickups. We cannot let a single child go hungry because they cannot get to the lunch pickup in the middle of the day.

• Finally, any family who does not feel safe sending their children back into a classroom before the resolution of this pandemic needs to be allowed to continue distance learning. A waiting list is not acceptable.

Growth

The Department of Education typically places a focus on student achievement as a measure of how well a school, district, or state is progressing academically. Achievement measures give a snapshot picture of where a student is at academically at the moment a test or achievement measure is administered. Achievement does have a place in education, but it is not the most important measure we should be focusing on.

If we truly care about individual student success (I absolutely do), we need to switch our primary method of measuring success to focus on growth mindset. Growth mindset is a measure of how much a student progresses over a period of time, usually one academic year.

The demographics of Lemon Grove School District indicate circumstances that are likely to produce low test scores. Teaching kids how to take a test or specific information on a test will do very little to improve scores. Pre COVID, our district indicated that 73% of students were at a socioeconomic disadvantage. There is not a clear picture of where this number is at now that we are deep in the middle of a pandemic, but at last count by the County Office of Education, 43 students were unhoused and 3 of them were completely unsheltered.

So why does this matter when we are discussing student growth and success?

Many of you may currently be in situations where you are working from home and your kids are there too. How does this workout for you? Is it easy? I know it isn’t for me. The second I open my mouth on a video call, my 5 year old jumps in and tries to be the center of attention. It is a struggle many of us are dealing with.

Now put yourself in the shoes of a child trying to do homework when circumstances are uncertain. How easy do you think it is for a school aged child to accomplish anything at home when they are dealing with so many unknowns?

• I wonder if Dad will make enough money to buy groceries tonight?

• When I get home from school, will my parents still be there? Or will they have been detained by ICE?

• Will they be at work when I get home? Will I need to watch my siblings? I hope there is something I can give them for dinner.

These are all uncertainties that families in our community face and there are many more.

Students who are dealing with these home issues, struggle to focus on schoolwork in the classroom and at home. In order to improve district performance overall, we need to switch our focus to uplifting families as a whole and prioritize student growth.

If we do this, test scores will begin to rise naturally because students will be more successful overall.

Below is a video that better explains the difference between Growth and Achievement.

Retaining Teachers

Every district in America will tell you they want good teachers that will stay for their entire careers and build relationships within the community. What they really want is good teachers who will shut their mouth and do what they are told. They want teachers who will just accept what the district has to say even if it is not what is best for the students.

This is not something that is exclusive to the Lemon Grove School District and I don’t entirely blame the districts for this. As a society we have not prioritized funding for education, and school districts are being asked to do a lot with very little. This shouldn’t matter when student need is in question. If a student with Autism needs a one on one aide in order to be successful, then we need to figure out how to provide that. This is not just the right thing to do on a moral level. This is the law.

Teachers who advocate for student needs end up with a target on their back. If they are probationary, they are being non re-elected and asked to resign. If they are permanent, they are often set up for failure, so that they either leave out of frustration, or can be pushed out. These are the exact kind of teachers that we need to be focusing on retaining. These are the best teachers and they do cost us more money. This is because they are making sure that student needs are being met through additional staff and/or services.

In addition to Education funding for school districts, The Supreme Court ruling on Janus v. State, County, and Municipal Employees plays a role in teacher retainment as well. This decision from 2018 allows individuals who are employees of publicly funded agencies, to choose whether or not they want to be a member of the union. This has weakened unions as a whole because various public agencies are choosing not to retain individuals who decide they want union protection.

We must ensure the district is not pushing out good teachers just because they are union members.

Good teachers can change the world for their students. Getting students to “buy-in” to learning is often one of the biggest challenges of teaching. Half of that battle is built on teachers creating community within their classrooms and across school campuses. This is hard to achieve if we are constantly dealing with high teacher turnover rates. Let’s put an end to that.

Restorative Justice

Studies have definitively shown that punitive and zero-tolerance policies activate the fight, flight, or freeze response in our brains. In schools, this also has the effect of shutting down a child’s ability to learn. Restorative practices are an alternative means of accountability and discipline that builds community within the school environment and promotes safety and security.

Ideally, we need a restorative justice coordinator to implement restorative practices district wide as a proactive measure. We will promote a positive, healthy school environment where everyone is able to learn. Students will be taught to practice self-discipline, empathy, and accountability.

Climate Action Plan

Lemon Grove School District still has substantial bond funding that was approved by the voters in 2008 as Measure W. This funding is allocated for building and technology improvements. We need to ensure we are making decisions that will reduce our carbon footprint as we plan for building improvements and upgrades.