BY BRADEN CARTWRIGHT
Daily Post Staff Writer
New school board members are working through philosophical differences from the old school board as they plot a path forward for the Palo Alto Unified School District.
The board on Tuesday debated next year’s “PAUSD Promise,” a plan that outlines the district’s goals for students.
Shounak Dharap, who has been on the school board for six years, defended his goal of having every student reach a minimum baseline, such as testing at grade level.
“There was one sort of foundational ethos that was with the old board…,” which is, we can’t call ourselves the best school district in California if we’re failing our most underserved students,” Dharap said, suggesting the new board favored academic acceleration for advanced students.
New board members Rowena Chiu, Alison Kamhi and Josh Salman agreed the basics come first, but said the district could do a better job of meeting each student at their level.
The goal isn’t necessarily acceleration, Chiu said.
“It might be a better goal to say we’d like each student in the district to be appropriately placed or appropriately challenged, which isn’t quite the same thing as saying we would like acceleration as a goal,” Chiu said.
Individualized plans
Salman talked about his experience raising a boy with special needs. His son has an individualized education program, or IEP, that outlines where he is now, what strengths he is trying to develop and steps for getting there and measuring success.
“Wouldn’t it be amazing if we could have an IEP for every student?” Salman said. “I feel that we would do better by our students, and I would love to see us as a district move in that direction.”
Guillermo Lopez, associate superintendent of educational services, said the district already ensures students are appropriately placed.
“Our teachers do a good job, along with our counselors, to have those conversations with students and parents about how they’re doing,” Lopez told the board.
Ceiling to acceleration
Yolanda Conaway, assistant superintendent of equity and student affairs, encouraged the board not to focus on where students are placed because it creates a competitive environment.
“There’s nothing wrong with acceleration, but there has to be a ceiling to that acceleration. Otherwise, we will move outside of our capacity to meet that and do it well,” Conaway said.
Superintendent Don Austin said the district already offers four years of math in middle school so eighth graders reach Algebra 1.
Students can accelerate one year ahead of the standard path and go at their own pace when they reach high school, he said.
“When we talk about appropriate placement, or appropriate rigor or matching skills with our programs, to what end? And at what level?” Austin said. “Do we say, ‘OK, we’re going to do Algebra 2 in eighth grade? We’re going to do Pre-calculus in eighth grade?’ At what point do we say, ‘You can do it, but do it somewhere else.’”
“Some students may have a need that is greater than one grade level,” Chiu said. There’s a middle ground between teaching the basics and providing a tailor-made education, Chiu said.
Having an IEP for each student is going too far, but the district should better diversify each student’s experience, she said.
Kamhi said the district doesn’t need to pit equity and excellence against each other.
Board member Shana Segal asked new board members to be more specific.
Teachers are working on an advanced math class for seniors, and the district already offers AP and honors courses, she said.
Chiu said she would need to discuss specifics based on the individual merits of classes.
Ten years from now
Dharap said he was worried that future board members would be faced with limited funding, staffing or time 10 years from now, and they wouldn’t prioritize struggling students because of the board’s current direction.
“We can provide challenging coursework and all sorts of different areas for our students to explore,” Salcman said. “I have to believe that we have the resources as a district to do that.”
Board members and Austin agreed the district should focus on transitions between schools — fifth and sixth grade and eighth and ninth grade.
They also want to make sure students are well-rounded and “future ready” when they graduate high school.
Segal said she wants students to have at least one activity to participate in outside of school.
Dharap said he wants to prepare students to be informed voters who “help maintain the foundations of democracy.”
Kamhi said she wants to make sure students are physically safe, both on campus and traveling to and from school.
Board members agreed the district should hire a sustainability coordinator after a group of students pushed them to make sustainability a priority.
The board will discuss the PAUSD Promise again on May 13.
Imagine if they had this meeting in private. They’d all be talking about how they can save DEI without getting caught.
The SWIFT plan is inherently racist. Don Austin put together a committee of high school students to discuss EBG, which is, by the way, a part of the SWIFT plan, and EVERY SINGLE STUDENT on that committee was against it, noting it created more stress among students and also created teacher bias. Of course, instead of scrapping EBG, Don says we’ll reflect and modify. The district will do what the district wants to do- what is the point of even seeking input at this point? Get rid of SWIFT. We can do DEI without it.