San Bruno school officials examine goals

The discussion is the first of its kind since Espinoza was hired at the end of the last school year, new Trustee Andriana Shea was elected in the fall, and Andrew Mason rotated to serve as board president for 2021.

In setting the stage for the discussion, Espinoza noted the hard feelings among some officials that have hindered district operations in the past, while sharing his hope that those issues can be left in the past.

“This board has lots of history and we will not be able to resolve that today. We can agree that we acknowledge the conflicts and move forward. When we do that, we will be able to focus on the district students, our staff and the community,” he said.

Among the incidents that fractured relationships between officials was a previous iteration of the board voting last year to censure Trustee Jennifer Blanco. Additionally, sharp words have been exchanged publicly among officials and the ongoing dysfunction has been blamed by some for the administrative turnover occurring at the district in recent years.

Yet despite acknowledging some of the issues that have plagued the district in the past, officials worked to reach some consensus on which efforts will be priorities in the coming year.

Among the shared goals are assuring equitable education opportunities for students from all communities in San Bruno, while also attracting and retaining talented teachers and administrators in a district which has seen substantial staff turn over in recent years.

Agreement was not unanimous among officials regarding all priorities though, as Mason suggested he would like to see the district begin to introduce more innovative curriculum such as language immersion programs or maker spaces.

While Trustee Teri Chavez said she concurred the district should move in that direction over time, she said officials should focus their immediate attention on assuring all students and school community members have the resources they need to survive the pandemic.

“I don’t think we can focus on this in 2021,” said Chavez, suggesting introducing new programs could come at the expense of the district’s effort to assure equitable education opportunities exist for disenfranchised communities.

Meanwhile, Blanco said officials need to direct their attention to governance policy and assuring that the board’s protocols are centered around education code, rather than bylaws or lesser regulatory documents.

For her part, Blanco said she is concerned that the district has skirted education code while conducting public meetings and has raised those concerns with members of the state school board association.

Garza said such concerns are common, and said it can be difficult for elected officials to meet the expectations of state and local codes — especially considering the frequent policy updates that occur at each agency.

More specifically, Blanco shared some frustration regarding the difficulty she has encountered in having the items she is interested discussing included on agendas for board meetings. Her colleagues agreed the issue deserves more attention, and that the board’s policy will be examined in coming weeks.

No decisions were made at the meeting, and officials agreed the issues raised should be discussed at greater length at future sessions.

“We are going to have to have follow-up meetings,” said Espinoza.

austin@smdailyjournal.com