– Wesley Smith Executive Director
Ethnic and gender studies plan requires time to implement
How does a district create an ethnic and gender studies curriculum that supports the interest and educational needs of 8,000 students ? For Santa Maria Joint Union High School District , it will take time and planning along with a review of the current graduation requirements .
“ A few years ago the district cut graduation requirements ,” said John Davis , assistant superintendent of instruction . “ Most graduation requirements are decades old and require updating to meet the needs of 21st century learning . In our district , we have had discussions about math requirements , science requirements , and career technical education requirements . We believe that including ethnic and gender studies curriculum in this discussion is appropriate at this time .”
An Ethnic and Gender Studies Working Committee has been formed as part of the Local Control and Accountability Plan to explore the idea of creating courses that have greater appeal to students .
“ The committee will begin to develop courses next year ,’’ said Superintendent Mark Richardson . “ Our committee members will be creating year-long ethnic and gender studies themed courses that mirror our current required courses and meet graduation and college entrance requirements . For example , a student might have the option of taking a standard United States history course or a U . S . History course with an ethnic and gender studies lens .”
An additional consideration related to
Public employee orientation issue moves forward , minus onerous provisions
graduation requirements is the question of choice . How to decide what courses should be required and what courses should not ?
“ This is an interesting question in my view ,’’ Richardson said . “ Some requirements are state driven , some requirements are state assessment driven , and others are more traditional in nature . I tend to lean toward allowing students to chart their own course when it comes to instructional choices . Mandating a course and a graduation requirement eliminates that choice for students and families .’’
Righetti High School senior Gilbert Munoz agreed students having an “ option ” is the best idea .
“ I definitely think it should be optional because there will be many students who aren ’ t interested and will likely mess around in class , and that will create a bad learning environment ,’’ Munoz said . “ The course is such a broad topic in my mind . Maybe something like the origins of cultures , advancements and current impacts ?’’
Ethnic and Gender Studies Working Committee member and Righetti history teacher Alex Jauregui said the committee has developed a well thought out plan of two years for developing and implementing core and elective ethnic and gender studies courses throughout the district .
“ As with any new courses , time and data evaluation will truly prove that these courses academically benefit all students ,’’ Jauregui added .
The State of California recently passed
After more than two years of negotiations requiring public employers to provide a new employee orientation with union participation , the governor and labor groups have reached an agreement . The language is contained in Assembly Bill 119 , as part of the state budget .
The issue had a renewed energy , due to changes with the appointment of a new U . S . Supreme Court Justice and a case , Janus vs . AFSCME , making its way quickly to the U . S . Supreme Court . The Janus case started in Illinois , but covers very similar ground to last year ’ s Friedrichs vs . CTA , that started here in California .
The Friedrichs case challenged the requirement that public employees pay mandatory agency fee dues to the union . The case was heard and appeared to have the vote of a majority of justices to rule against agency fees . But the death of Supreme Court Justice Antonin Scalia resulted in a 4-4 vote , and no change to agency fees . The newly appointed Justice Neil Gorsuch and the new court case led Gov . Brown to determine it was time for an orientation bill to be passed and sent to him for his signature .
Although AB 119 covers different ground than the Friedrichs case did – and the Janus case does – it is attempting to ameliorate the effects should the Supreme Court issue a conservative ruling on unions ’ ability to collect mandatory agency fees . When that has happened in other states , union membership has dropped off . AB 119 would offer unions a way to recruit members to join their ranks without making the agency fees mandatory .
This issue arose last year in Assembly Bill 2835 , which ultimately did not pass the Legislature . ACSA and many other public employer groups raised strong objections to AB 2835 ’ s overly prescriptive formula for providing employee orientations . As ACSA pointed out at the time , school districts were already providing orientations for employees and union representatives , but that bill ’ s requirements were very onerous .
ACSA has stated that while we believe no legislation requiring an orientation is
The law firm of Lozano Smith reports the First District Court of Appeal ordered publication of its 2017 decision in California Taxpayers Action Network v . Taber Construction Inc ., upholding the validity of a lease-leaseback arrangement and serving as citable precedent upon which school districts may now rely .
The Court of Appeal reviewed the validity of a lease-leaseback arrangement that was challenged on the grounds that it did not comply with Education Code section 17406 . Agreeing with 2016 ’ s Second District Court of Appeal publication in McGee v . Balfour Beatty Construction LLC , the Taber court declined to follow the holding of Davis v . Fresno Unified School District ( 2015 ) regarding reading “ genuine lease ” and “ financing ” requirements into the lease-leaseback statute .
Lease-leaseback is a process in which a district will lease a school facility to a construction company for a nominal fee , such as $ 1 per year , and then lease it back for an amount equivalent to the cost of improvements after the company has done work on the facility . Once the lease ends the district assumes ownership of the property .
The Taber court did agree with both Davis and McGee that allegations that a lease-leaseback contractor acted as an officer or employee of the school district when performing pre-construction services was sufficient to allow a conflict of interest cause of action under Government Code section 1090 to proceed to trial . For further discussion of the Taber decision , access Client News Brief No . 23 at https :// goo . gl / 9qaC1U .
While the Taber decision represents the second appellate court ruling that specifically repudiates the holding of Davis , it does not overrule that case , as one Court of Appeal cannot overturn another . legislation recommending that ethnic and gender studies be adopted at high schools throughout the state . The state framework for this curriculum is set to be adopted by the State Board of Education in the fall of 2019 .
Board Member Diana Perez stressed patience because it ’ s not a simple process . “ We have to evaluate all the impacts because this is a district-wide project ,” she said . “ I hope that those who are impatient realize we are not saying no . Rather , we are working on it and look forward to letting the community know about our progress .”
El Rancho Unified School District , a committee visit site , adopted an ethnic studies graduation requirement for the class of 2019 . In that district , the decision was made to eliminate a one-semester geography course and replace that course with an ethnic studies course .
“ I believe our committee understands the financial challenges of adding additional courses to the master schedule , and while they haven ’ t ruled this out , their primary focus initially will be converting existing courses ,” Richardson said . Regardless , the work will continue . “ We all agree that this work is too important to not have a well thought out plan for implementation ,’’ Richardson said . “ The governance team and district staff are committed to seeing this effort though in a pragmatic way , so that at the end of the journey we have something that is of high quality and sustainable .”
necessary , the language in SB 104 is less prescriptive and onerous than proposals previously considered . Due to ACSA member involvement , many of the orientation provisions that districts found objectionable have been eliminated .
AB 119 requires a new employee orientation to be collectively bargained with the exclusive representative . All of the prior orientation restrictions regarding time during the work day , at the work site , have been removed . The bill further requires binding arbitration if an agreement cannot be reached .
ACSA has asked the law firm of Lozano Smith to develop bargaining strategies and solutions for our members , should this bill pass into law .
ACSA also issued a joint ACSA / CSBA statement to members of the Legislature outlining our concerns . Please contact Legislative Advocate Laura Preston at lpreston @ acsa . org should you have any questions .
Court ruling on second lease-leaseback case upholds such arrangements
In the event a lease-leaseback challenge is brought in state court , a trial court has the option of applying McGee , Taber or Davis . A trial court , however , will ordinarily follow an appellate opinion from its own district , even though it is not bound to do so . That means trial courts in the First and Second Appellate Districts – generally , the greater San Francisco and Los Angeles areas – may be more inclined to follow Taber and McGee , respectively , while trial courts in the Fifth Appellate District in the Central Valley may be more inclined to follow Davis .
Until and unless the California Supreme Court weighs in , uncertainty may remain .
Questions about the legality of leaseleaseback and which appellate court decision may apply to your project , or about other project delivery methods , may be directed to Lozano Smith . Visit www . lozanosmith . com .
FROM THE
Executive
Director
July 3 , 2017 EDCAL 3
The State Board of Education has a lot of work ahead as the deadline to adopt an ESSA state plan approaches .
While there are differences between California ’ s LCFF and the federal ESSA laws – primarily that LCFF focuses on providing support to local educational agencies , whereas ESSA focuses on identifying schools needing additional support – the Board is standing by its commitment to develop a single accountability system embracing California ’ s direction of using multiple measures . That means a whole new bucket of considerations for our education leaders .
There are two components I believe are crucial to how business is done under the ESSA plan : what is the methodology for determining the lowest 5 percent of schools , and how do we provide resources to support the capacity building of the schools falling into that lowest 5 percent . Then what can we do to build the capacity of teachers and administrators who are responsible for providing support to our students .
The state ’ s thoughts on capacity building are close to our ongoing discussion about continuous improvement . I ’ ve long promoted continuous improvement as a means of supporting students , not a compliance or punitive system . We want a system that empowers all student advocates , and ACSA has done an incredible job in pushing this message across all fronts .
The 2017-18 California budget will bring LCFF implementation to 97 percent of the funding targets . As we judge the successes and challenges of that system , we have to embrace that the new accountability and continuous improvement system will likely follow the same , fluid process . As the state continues to refine the various aspects of this system as a result of feedback from the field , that means what we see now may not exist in September , and what we see in September may not exist 12 months from now .
Education leaders are confronted with a number of questions right now , including : What does support and capacity building look like ? What role does equity play ? How should we effectively link resources and support ?
But when we focus on students , we have to determine how to ensure the right resources get into the hands of those who can impact students , and can we make it happen at the right time . This focus is not solely on teachers and it ’ s important that administrators and education stakeholders understand that aspect .
Here is my ask to all of you : get involved . ACSA Legislative Advocate Martha Alvarez wants your feedback on ESSA and other aspects of this new system . Our members will testify before the SBE next week . This will be the last discussion before CDE staff brings back the proposed final ESSA State Plan at their Sept . 14 meeting . Contact her at malvarez @ acsa . org .
– Wesley Smith Executive Director