This coming week the corrupt San Diego Unified School District (SDUSD) senior leadership, with the help of their hand picked Superintendent “selection committee” flunky sycophants, will unveil two placeholder duds and the preselected Superintendent candidate of Trustee Richard “Tricky Dick” Barrera.  SDUSD Stakeholders will then be subjected to a useless community forum to meet the two duds and the illegitimate Tricky Dick Superintendent candidate.

In other words, as usual, a disgusting sham and a complete waste of time for ALL SDUSD Stakeholders.

Today Sunday Reads features an article from K – 12 Dive that announces their national “District of the Year”.  The selected school district from South Carolina provides a stark contrast to the ongoing total operational, technical, and financial dysfunction in the SDUSD.

We have featured the complete K – 12 Dive article but we strongly urge our readers to click on the title (in red) and read the full dispatch for themselves.

District of the Year: Richland School District Two

By Roger Riddell – Editor

A South Carolina district focuses on innovation and school improvement initiatives to create equity and opportunity for all students.

If asked to name where one of the most innovative school districts in the U.S. is located, most people probably wouldn’t immediately respond with South Carolina. Yet the state, ranked No. 44 in the nation for education by U.S. News & World Report, is home to just that type of district in suburban Columbia’s Richland School District Two.

“I’ve mentioned to people before, sometimes South Carolina gets a national general bad rep for what people believe is the education system in the state,” Shambi Broome, a Richland Two parent originally from California, told K-12 Dive. “And I’ve always provided, ‘Well, that’s never been our experience. I’ve always been impressed.’”

The nearly 28,000-student district has received recognition for rethinking grading policies with equity at the forefront, focusing on magnet programs for specialized education experiences, and offering innovative hands-on learning opportunities via the Richland Two Institute of Innovation (R2i2) incubator program.

Since stepping into the superintendency in 2017, Baron Davis, a homegrown educator, has prioritized the recruitment and retention of male teachers of color via his Premier 100 initiative. He has also engaged the community in passing bond referendums, including one for $468 million in 2018, to support school facilities improvements.

Of particular importance over the past 20 months, the district’s foresight on 1:1 device programs also placed it on relatively solid ground when learning had to pivot online in March 2020 due to the COVID-19 pandemic.

Not only was the district a step ahead in being able to deploy devices and hotspots to students while using state assistance to close some remaining gaps, but also on training educators and having network protection in place, said Nathan O’Neill, Richland Two innovation program designer.

Director of Instructional Technology Chuck Holland “has a couple of tech integration specialists at the whole district level, and their job is to coach district staff leadership,” said O’Neill. “And then also there’s a person at every school called a TLC, which is a tech learning coach.”

Those coaches, he said, are focused on helping teachers make sure their lessons are in line with the SAMR model of substitution, augmentation, modification and redefinition to ensure education is really being transformed with the tech.

“We were in a much better spot maybe than other folks would have been, because we just had people who can be there to answer all those questions about how this device works or how this could be used in a [certain] way now that we’re all virtual or hybrid or whatever,” said O’Neill.

Foresight and the power of communication

Prior to the pandemic, Richland Two built a lot of social capital within the community — thanks in part to engagement and transparency from Davis and his team. 

“Whenever there is an issue of concern, we deal with it as a family. We talk about our successes. We talk about areas that only improve as a family,” said Jeff Temoney, principal at Spring Valley High School. 

During the recent state of the district address, Temoney said, Davis talked about how far Richland Two has come, as well as the vision for the future and what still needs to be improved to make more opportunities for students, 56.2% of whom live in poverty.

“We shouldn’t be the same — and we’re not — coming out of COVID, because this experience has taught us so much,” Temoney said. “But talking with us, he doesn’t say ‘stakeholders’ anymore. That’s a word we don’t use as much. We say ‘partners.’ We’re community partners.”

Attention to subtle details like that and a strong vision of what the school district of the future should look like have been essential to gaining buy-in and selling taxpayers on improvement efforts.

“At the last board meeting, there was discussion on rezoning, which is always a tough thing,” Temoney said. “But they had several sessions. They had surveys for parents, and they explained at the board meeting why they made the decision. Even if a parent doesn’t agree, you see, ‘Wow, we have to move in this direction, because if we don’t, it’s going to be detrimental to kids in two years or three years. We put it out there. We’re being as transparent as possible.”

In one of the clearest examples of the district’s forward thinking, the R2i2 program gives students an opportunity to engage in hands-on learning to solve local and global community problems, sometimes collaborating with peers in schools around the world, while strengthening skills in creative thought, leadership, collaboration and entrepreneurship.

The program has received funding from partners including the Samsung Solve for Tomorrow competition, South Carolina Department of Health and Environmental Control Champions of the Environment grant, Sparkleberry Fair Teacher Grant, U.S. Department of State Global Teacher Grant, and the Richland County Soil and Water Conservation District.

In recent projects, R2i2’s Next Energy engineering students have tackled climate justice, sustainable food and energy solutions, an inline flood advisory system and more.

“Having the diversity of thought and students coming from different perspectives, different experiences, really strengthens not just the prototypes and solutions they build, but their ability to work internationally with other schools and people,” said Kirstin Bullington, Next Energy engineering instructor at R2i2.

Expanding opportunities for male teachers of color

Perhaps Davis’ signature initiative in Richland Two, Premier 100 is the result of an examination of data on the impact men of color have in classrooms, “particularly African American men as relates to African American children and the impact it had on those students’ graduation rates and the students’ perceptions of themselves,” Davis told K-12 Dive in June.

The district also wanted to make sure students were exposed to diverse learning experiences from teachers with a variety of backgrounds and perspectives. The district’s student population is 61% African American.

“The vast majority of your teachers in any given school district in this country are women,” said Davis. “We had a decent representation of Black women in our classrooms, but we wanted to put some emphasis on having Black males in our schools. The national average is about 2%.”

Through the program, the district has established structures for mentoring and networked with local historically Black colleges and universities for recruitment. It also collaborates with Clemson University’s Call Me MISTER program to bring prospective teachers to the district, give them an opportunity to see what being a teacher in Richland Two schools is like, and connect them with mentors who are men of color already in the district. 

“If they’re not given an opportunity to become these intellectual giants they’re capable of being — people who shape and influence curriculum, people who are given certain leadership opportunities particularly if we’re talking about the focus on curriculum and instruction — they’re sometimes relegated to these roles of disciplinarians or being seen as ‘Black boy whisperers’ to deal with all the discipline problems that may occur within a school or the classroom,” said Davis.

“Recruitment and retention of men of color in our school district continues to move forward,” said Davis. “We’ve done a great job of recruiting and retaining men of color in the classroom during a global pandemic. We haven’t even been able to do it outside of the pandemic yet, and yet we’re doing well.”

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DISTRICT DEEDS SYNOPSIS

District Deeds was excited to read about this phenomenal South Carolina school district that effectively used all of it’s human, community and financial assets to deliver a phenomenal learning experience for all Students, especially Students of color.

In other words, the complete opposite of the incompetent, corrupt, and politically self- serving SDUSD.

Let’s compare Richland School District Two (RSD2) with the SDUSD:

“rethinking grading policies with equity at the forefront”

RSD2: 

According to the K-12 Dive article cited “How a South Carolina district is reexamining grading policies for equity“:

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• The pandemic’s academic and emotional impact on students caused some school systems and educators to adjust grading approaches to ensure anti-bias practices while minimizing grade inflation and maximizing content mastery. Some districts are now considering formalizing those approaches.
• Richland School District Two in Columbia, South Carolina, for example, has formed grading task forces for both the elementary and secondary school levels that are studying several grading procedures such as day-to-day and report card-level grading practices; grading scales; consistency in grading; and grading of homework assignments, according to district leaders.
• While taking steps to make sure grading approaches better communicate student learning and are equitable, changing long-standing routines takes communication and collaboration with various stakeholders like parents, teachers, students and community members, Richland administrators said.

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To summarize, RSD2 methodically “formed grading task forces” to IDENTIFY best practices in “grading procedures” and then took steps to “communicate and collaborate” with “parents, teachers, students and community members”. 

SDUSD:

In the “adjust grading approaches” highlighted article above, the ridiculous SDUSD grading plan is to “do no harm“…to themselves!:

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• The San Diego Unified School District recently changed its grading policy in an attempt to more equitably assess student achievement. The revised system requires teachers to assign letter grades for students based on “mastery of content” and allow for “reflection, revision and reassessment” in order to reach mastery levels. Separate citizenship grades will be issued to students based on behaviors, such as being prepared for class and participating in discussions. 

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The SDUSD approach IS “do no harm“… by eliminating any and all accountablility by the corrupt SDUSD leadership and their SDEA (Teachers Union) leadership political cronies

Meanwhile the exclusion of REAL communication and collaboration with “parents, teachers, students and community members” is doing GREAT harm to the education of Students who receive a murky, non-equitable “standards based” curriculum that ensures ZERO District or Teacher consistency or accountability.

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“foresight on 1:1 device programs”

RSD2: 

Planning ahead with expert staff put RSD2 in a perfect position in March, 2020 when Covid 19 hit:

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Of particular importance over the past 20 months, the district’s foresight on 1:1 device programs also placed it on relatively solid ground when learning had to pivot online in March 2020 due to the COVID-19 pandemic.

Not only was the district a step ahead in being able to deploy devices and hotspots to students while using state assistance to close some remaining gaps, but also on training educators and having network protection in place, said Nathan O’Neill, Richland Two innovation program designer.

Director of Instructional Technology Chuck Holland “has a couple of tech integration specialists at the whole district level, and their job is to coach district staff leadership,” said O’Neill. “And then also there’s a person at every school called a TLC, which is a tech learning coach.”

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RSD2 was already pursuing technological equity before Covid hit and, in turn, was able to equitably deliver education through technology down to the individual school level.

SDUSD:

The SDUSD was totally unprepared and had no clue what to do when Covid hit.

With a $1.4 billion budget and over 12,000 employees, Marten, Barrera and their incompetent, dysfunctional organization blundered through months to just partially develop and deploy technoogy distribution and use.  Instead of a uniform, centralized 1:1 device distribution plan, the SDUSD left it up to the individual school to distribute the needed technology on their own.  This gross mismanagement and poor planning has resulted in an even WIDER educational equity gap between the economically priviledged Students and the economically disadvantaged Students.

“Foresight and the power of communication”

The key to the RSD2 success is honesty and transparenty:

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Prior to the pandemic, Richland Two built a lot of social capital within the community — thanks in part to engagement and transparency from Davis and his team. 

“Whenever there is an issue of concern, we deal with it as a family. We talk about our successes. We talk about areas that only improve as a family,” said Jeff Temoney, principal at Spring Valley High School. 

During the recent state of the district address, Temoney said, Davis talked about how far Richland Two has come, as well as the vision for the future and what still needs to be improved to make more opportunities for students, 56.2% of whom live in poverty.

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Amazing how REAL engagement by ethical leadership with the community and other stakeholders can and should work in a high poverty school district.

In the current SDUSD, “honestly and transparency” has been a myth over the last 8 years and reduced to a catch phrase spewed by the SDUSD Propaganda department and regurgitated over and over by the complicit local San Diego press corps.

The SDUSD has even WON AWARDS for its lack of honesty and transparency:

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“Expanding opportunities for male teachers of color”

RSD2:

Outstanding RSD2 operational structure and organization have produced outstanding results:

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Perhaps Davis’ signature initiative in Richland Two, Premier 100 is the result of an examination of data on the impact men of color have in classrooms, “particularly African American men as relates to African American children and the impact it had on those students’ graduation rates and the students’ perceptions of themselves,” Davis told K-12 Dive in June.

The district also wanted to make sure students were exposed to diverse learning experiences from teachers with a variety of backgrounds and perspectives. The district’s student population is 61% African American.

“The vast majority of your teachers in any given school district in this country are women,” said Davis. “We had a decent representation of Black women in our classrooms, but we wanted to put some emphasis on having Black males in our schools. The national average is about 2%.”

Through the program, the district has established structures for mentoring and networked with local historically Black colleges and universities for recruitment. It also collaborates with Clemson University’s Call Me MISTER program to bring prospective teachers to the district, give them an opportunity to see what being a teacher in Richland Two schools is like, and connect them with mentors who are men of color already in the district. 

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Horribly racist SDUSD leadership, operational structure and organization have produced horrible results.

As we posted on September 19, 2021 in Sunday Reads titled “Superintendent Evaluations Just More Lies from Corrupt SDUSD Leadership!“:

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The preferential “white” hiring practices by the SDUSD at the expense of the Latinx community is obvious.

47% Latinx Students and families

17% Latinx Teachers

23% White Students

64% White Teachers

It is almost as bad for African American Teachers seeking to be hired by the SDUSD:

8.4% Black or African American Students

5%  Black or African American Teachers

23% White Students

64% White Teachers

Obviously this is not the fault of the Teachers being hired, either the White teachers who are hired or the Latinx or Black/African American Teachers who are denied employment by the racist SDUSD.

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Again, with a $1.4 billion budget there is absolutely no excuse, except racism, for the total lack of men and women of color Teachers and senior Staff in the SDUSD.

But the motivation of Tricky Dick and his cronies runs even deeper.

And the RSD2 Superintendent innately proved it though his collaboration with the  Call Me MISTER program.

It is also almost impossible to educationally victimize Students of color and avoid accountability when they have MANY Teachers and Administrators of color as their engaged and committed advocates.

It’s really amazing how much RSD2 Superintendent Baron Davis, a “homegrown educator” has been able to accomplish in 3 years and what “Tricky Dick” Barrera, a “homegrown” Trustee and “No Mercy” Marten, a “homegrown” Superintendent were unable and/or unwilling to do in the SDUSD over the last 8 years.

And it really exposes the true difference between ethical school district leadership (Mr. Davis) that is dedicated to honesty, transparency and accountability and self serving political hacks (Barrera/Marten) dedicated to their own craven political and career desires on the backs of the most at risk communities.

Hey Barrera’s handpicked Superintendent candidate…welcome to the dystopian SDUSD!

With Tricky Dick support we are sure you will fit right in!!!

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