The Coronado Unified School District welcomed new employees across the district for the start of a new academic year.
During a return to regular board meetings on Aug. 24, following a summer break, district staff announced that new educators joined each of the four school sites from the elementary to high school level.
Coronado schools this year gained 19 new teachers and more than 10 classified staff members since June, records show.
During a report by the Association of Coronado Teachers President Jennifer Landry, she shared that 22 members left in the spring.
“Half of our new members are housed in the special education department,” said Landry.
Equity audit
District Senior Director of Learning Megan Battle presented an equity and excellence audit of Coronado Unified conducted by The National Center for Urban School Transformation (NCUST), in partnership with San Diego State University.
According to Battle, the results of that equity and excellence audit highlight areas of success and areas for improvement within the district.
The mission for NCUST is “to help urban school districts and their partners transform urban schools into places where all students achieve academic proficiency, evidence a love of learning, and graduate well prepared to succeed in post-secondary education, the workplace, and their communities.”
Battle said educators visited each school site to observe and gather data related to teaching and learning, culture, systems, and leadership themes with a methodology of data collection including internal observation, classroom visits, focus group interviews, and data analysis.
“They saw there was an emphasis at all of our sites on student talk, getting students into collaborative academic discussions,” said Battle.
Following this audit, Battle said leaders at each site would work on goals, aligned to NCUST quality indicators.
Concern over audit
During public comment, two community members expressed concern about the focus from NCUST on urban low-performing school districts, which is not a characteristic of Coronado Unified.
“I would just urge caution about adopting equity focused education in Coronado schools,” said Jon Mosier. “It may have the effect of holding students back who would otherwise be able to go much further in secondary education and be much better prepared for their college careers.”
Trustee Scot Youngblood said he considers any division unfruitful following questions posed about the concept of equity and an audit related to it.
“As a district, we should continue to focus on each child where they are and focus on bringing them all up as much as possible…not reversing that for anyone else,” added Youngblood.
Meanwhile, no action was taken on two items discussed in the executive session relating to personnel matters, including a performance evaluation of the Superintendent.
A roundup of other issues
In other matters, the board:
- Approved the 2023-24 Consolidated Application (ConApp), a federal funding application expected to bring in additional Title I, II, and IV funding for the district with final allocations by the state in September, according to Battle.
- Approved a continuing temporary increase of the daily rate for certificated substitutes in the 2023-2024 school year.
- Approved a continuing temporary increase of the daily rate for classified substitutes for the 2023-2024 school year, including the positions of Instructional Assistant, Instruction Assistant Behavior Health Care, and Custodian.
- Approved extending the 2022-2023 school year temporary increase of daily rates for classified substitutes through July 31, 2023.
