LWVSD EDUCATION COMMITTEE MEETING NOTES, 10/22/25
Beryl Flom
Speakers: Keashonna Christopher, Mary Ann Hawke, Sarah Kieffer, Dan Nyamangah, Lesina Parker, and Janis Tan.
Introductions:
- Penny mentors quite a few students. One got the Quest Bridge Scholarship for a full ride to college; it is very hard to win.
- Sue was a school board member for 12 years many years ago. She said the LA Times did a big series on childcare recently. In the past, she was a social worker in child guidance and on the gifted committee.
- Lesina is the past chair of DAC Compensatory Education.
- Lindsay is a LWV member and assistant principal at West Hills HS in Santee.
- Sarah is with the Citizens Advisory Committee/CAC for Special Education in SDUSD.
- Dan works for the District with students who are learning English as a second language and have recently come to the U.S. He helps their families as well.
- Beryl chairs the Immigration & Deportation Committee for LWVSD and has been on League education committees for many years. She takes the notes for this meeting.
- Janice works with TK (I couldn't hear her clearly).
- Keashonna is now the newly elected chair of the District Advisory Committee/DAC. She has four children and started working in the District as an aide for ece and moved up to counselor and now DAC. She's in the Lincoln cluster.
- Khadijah is a parent and teacher at Poway Unified. She's involved with the Palomar Council PTA in Poway, School Site Council, and Just Collective. Now she and Albera are starting a group called Supportive Parents Advocating for Respect and Kindness/SPARK in Poway Unified which will help with religious bias, etc.
- Crystal is the former chair of the DAC. She has 3 children and has been on many committees including the School Site Council.
- Jill is a special ed teacher and works with Sarah. She's also on the School Site Council.
- Albera is the co-founder of SPARK and also is in Poway Unified with two children.
- Krissi is the parent of two in SDUSD district. She worked in ece for 19 years in the Del Mar school district. She also work for SDUSD as an occupational therapy assistant. She is the Sherman elementary PTA Secretary
- Sarina heads up the Education Enrichment Systems which has 1,000 children 0-5. Her mission is to build relationships with school districts to ease transition and help parents figure out special ed services, if needed.
- Gabriela has 4 children and is on several committees in the District. She is a LWVSD member and sits on the San Diego High School Foundation Board and the Latino Advisory Committee to SDUSD.
- Mary Ann Hawke chairs the GATE District Advisory Committee for SDUSD. She has sat on School Site Council/SSC and other committees for quite a few years.
Presentation on SDUSD's District Advisory Council/DAC - Presenter Mary Ann Hawke
California schools are under local control which means each school has a SSC that determines how funds should be spent based on their priorities. Money is being spent from the bottom up rather than top down for schools and districts. School districts are required to communicate with parents. Parents can get involved at the school site, the district or the state; they can be members of the SSC. There are three plans that need to be put together: Site Plan for Student Achievement/SPSA, Local Control and Accountability Plan/LCAP which is done by the School Board with parent input, and Student Outcomes Focused Governance/SOFG. The SSC's take the LCAP with its funding and decide how to use the money at their school. The SOFG is new and takes the approach that the students' needs come first.
There are only 2 committees that are mandated: compensatory education and special ed. SDUSD has more committees, but communication needs to be improved. The new Superintendent is working with these committees and helping them and the public find information. She said, "We need to have uncomfortable talks" which is very inspirational and hopeful.
GATE District Advisory Committee-GATE DAC - Mary Anne Hawke
The GATE District Advisory Committee advocates for Gifted and Choice Exceptional Students. There were 100,418 students in SDUSD, 16,000 need special ed services and 11,549 students have tested gifted. (These numbers are out of date.) The gifted break down to 3,097 seminar students and 661 gifted. They learn differently. The committee's motto is "Every child deserves a year's worth of growth." Sometimes gifted students are underperforming and sometimes they are both gifted and spotlight students (15% of the poorest achieving students). All second graders are tested for giftedness. It is repeated in 5th grade for new students or those who felt they did not do well. The Los Angeles Unified School District does a lot with GATE.
Discussion
- Seminar students aren't getting any special services or classes. answ.: The website lists classes at some schools for Seminar students, but there is nothing for GATE students now even though they have social/emotional needs.
Community Advisory Committee/CAC for Special Education - Presenter Sarah Kieffer
In November, we put on a resource fair for the community. We also have parent workshops, an awards ceremony and we advocate for children with disabilities and their parents. We focus on community building, restorative justice policy, transition services, social media and graduation pathways. There are several subcommittees. Special ed students can stay in school till age 22. Special ed touches all other groups.
Discussion
- Is Special Ed losing money now? answ.: The District gets 13% of the money we are supposed to get. There will be no change for this year but it could be an issue by February.
- Is there a lack of case managers for this department? Are students getting all the services they are entitled to? answ.: It's a national problem. The District is working hard to hire people even from overseas, but there aren't enough of them. There is a push and pull when there are not enough teachers. There are a lot of lawsuits over this nationwide. Pay is low and people are burned out. Some aides get hurt by students, according to an orthopedic dr. If the District switches people into special ed, that leaves a vacancy somewhere else.
- Early Childhood Centers have to give parents of special ed 4-year olds a choice - either switch to TK and get services but be in school for a shorter time during the day, or stay in the private ece school without services provided by the District for a full day. The District does work with 0-3 year olds, but then drops them when they are 4 unless they go to public school.
- The Special Ed Chair, Shana Coddington, cannot come to meetings after hours because she has young children to care for.
District Advisory Council for Compensatory Education - DAC - Presenter Lesina Parker and Keashonna Christopher
The DAC follows Title I and advises the Board on it. It is parent-led. They train parents to be leaders at their school site, empower parents, and support leadership. Keashonna is the new chair and is emphasizing transparency. They have an executive committee including one student. Each school site has one parent on the DAC and they hold monthly meetings. They work with parents on the district budget, so they have developed a timeline and a link on their website called Show Me the Money. The board is supposed to respond to each funding request. They are also following how the money is actually spent to be sure it is focused on the students. email is DAC@sandi.net
Discussion:
- How do you invite members? Hopefully, parents are learning about this from the principal and others.
- In the past, some committees didn't get the money they were promised. Is that still happening? answ.: In 2013, categorical funding was ended, so this is no longer true. However GATE gets no money now.
Parent Student Resident Organization/PSRO - Presenter Dan Nyamangah
Children who have come from other countries and their parents have language and cultural barriers. Translation is not provided to many of them at meetings or through communications from the district so students end up translating for their parents. This committee provides translation at community meetings and makes recommendations to school sites and the District so parents can participate in the LCAP hearings. Another issue is that parents are scared to go out to meetings now.
San Diego Council of PTA's - Chair Janis Tan did not speak do to time constraints.
Next Meetings
Penny asked for ideas for speakers/topics. answ.: special ed students identified in preschools and their transition to obtain services.
There will be no meetings in November and December.