San Bruno school officials set goals

Trustees had previously identified four main goals to focus on between 2021 to 2023, including student achievement, fiscal solvency, communications and public relations, and attracting, retaining and developing high quality staff. 

But Mason noted the district is in need of developing “subgoals” that outline how officials will reach the four already identified. Pursuing a parcel tax measure has been suggested as a solution for the district’s financial troubles, including pressure to increase staff wages, but formal plans have yet to be adopted. 

Interested in further understanding how these goals will be measured and achieved, Trustee Jennifer Blanco requested the board consider and quickly adopt a goals framework, noting district progress is used when evaluating the district superintendent.  

The board would have been receiving its first quarterly update in September in alignment with the first televised meeting, had the district already implemented its process in place, Blanco said. She suggested the board formally adopt fleshed out goals at an upcoming meeting, as has been done in the past. 

For his vision, Superintendent Jose Espinoza said he’d like to host community meetings on school campuses to encourage parent participation in crafting the goals. The district has previously used surveys to gather feedback but Espinoza said that was largely due to COVID-related safety restrictions. 

Highlighting the time demands of a robust community process, Blanco suggested the district engage in that process for long-term goals while using a more expedited process for short-term goals, doubling down on the importance of the framework for superintendent evaluations. 

“We need the goals that we agreed on defined and then have the superintendent report to the board on a quarterly basis,” Blanco said. “We need to start the process because the timer has already started for the board to evaluate the superintendent.” 

Espinoza noted the board had formally adopted goals during its governance training on Saturday, Jan. 16, with intentions of conducting community outreach to further craft detailed aims. 

“We got caught up in a different direction but whenever the board is ready let me know,” Espinoza said. 

Mirroring Blanco’s urgency to finalize the district’s goal plans, trustees agreed to agendize a special meeting dedicated to the discussion. Before so, Mason and Espinoza will develop a schedule that may include additional community outreach. 

While in agreement more work is necessary to develop goals, trustees disagreed on how progress toward reaching goals should be conveyed to the board. Some suggested Espinoza provide quarterly updates while others suggested one or two updates a year would suffice. 

Echoing public comments, Trustee Teri Chavez said the district needed measurable goals with “measurable results obtained.” Trustee Henry Sanchez stressed the importance of expanding the board’s vision past the short term by also identifying long-term goals. 

On how that information should be formatted and provided to the board, Vice President Andriana Shea said that should ultimately be up to Espinoza, sharing confidence in the district in making progress. 

“I think we’ve made progress on some of these goals and will continue to make progress so letting the community know, making sure we’re all aligned on how we’re tracking is a great idea,” Shea said. 

sierra@smdailyjournal.com 

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