Welcome to our board meeting!

Congratulations to Dr. Tom Glover! Starting July 1, 2016, he is going to serve us all in the role of Assistant Superintendent of Human Resources. Dr. Glover is home grown, alumnus of CPH. Also, congratulations to David Delacalzada, Director of IT/Enterprise Architecture, who was selected as the Education Honoree for the 2016 Top Tech Exec Awards by the San Diego Business Journal!

And finally, as I was reading AAA San Diego Westways Magazine, the cover article was about the cultural guardians of Ballet Folklórico in San Diego. One of Sweetwater’s teachers, Carlos Santoyo, was cited as a significant contributor to the growing popularity of this cultural dance in our region. We just have incredible staff!

This is the final meeting of the 2015-16 school year which also means it’s been one year since I have been superintendent! I asked all cabinet members and all school sites and district departments to reflect on our proudest accomplishments over the past year.

Here is our recap:

• Equity, Culture & Support Services
  • Conducted an equity listening campaign and together with the Equity Task Force developed a 3-year Excellence through Equity Plan.
  • Developed a district-wide Heat and Hot Weather Plan.
  • Revised and refined the district student transfer policy.
  • Implemented the first phase of the district’s Restorative Practices three-year plan.
  • Worked with 12 high schools to provide a series of Unified Sports “Showcase” games that highlighted our moderate to severe students along with their general ed “Unity Partners.” These games provided an opportunity for students to participate in a true game-like situation in front of a full gym of fans, bands, and cheerleaders.
  • Collaborated with the office of Foster and Homeless Youth to coordinate trauma-informed care for district staff.

• Facilities & Operations
  • Developed a Long-range Facilities Master Plan for all school sites and a Project Priority List using a community engagement process.
  • Conducted external process reviews of Planning & Construction (SDCOE), Maintenance (SDCOE), Transportation (HR), Nutrition Services (FPM).
  • In the 2014-15 school year Nutrition Services ended the year approximately $1M in the red. In 2015-16, the department will finish in the black with a balance of approximately $429k.

• Finance
  • Crafted a balanced budget which afforded employees a 4.5% raise and a $1,000 increase in the health care cap.
  • Issued second series of Prop O bonds that resulted in $62.2M of new funds to help with facility construction.
  • Refinancing of Special Tax Revenue Bonds that will pay off Series B, pay down Series A that result in a 31% decrease in debt burden for these bonds.
  • Staff completed the review of 31 years of Communities Facilities District (CFD) expenditures.

•  Grants & Communications
  • Developed and established a consistent protocol for web training and creation of new sites and pages on our district website. Check out the Superintendent, Teaching & Learning, Curriculum, and Professional Growth pages.
  • Coordinated successful district-wide special events such as the Employee Recognition and Welcome Back Rally.
  • We have a much greater web presence as demonstrated by 2.1M visits since July 1, 2015, Twitter has 2,821 followers, and Facebook has 2,197 likes! Over half a million unique users – which means that these users have visited our website an average of four times.
  • Sweetwater Currents is still communicating our story and is even better than ever!

• Leadership Development & Systems Innovation
  • Reinstatement of a teacher induction program.
  • Collaboratively developed a new management evaluation system ready to pilot in upcoming year.
  • Created an aspiring administrator academy and a mentor AP program.
  • Received a California Department of Education Educator Effectiveness Grant for $2.3M to promote educator quality and effectiveness across our system.

• Legal Services
  • We settled our 10-year Title IX litigation and refocused the eyes of the district on gender equality system wide.
  • Implemented a district-wide athletic inventory system.
  • Re-established a legal division that streamlined procedures for PRAs, subpoenas, and wage claims. Monitoring use of outside counsel and, as a result, we are decreasing that cost paid. Settled various longstanding lawsuits and cut off risk.

• Teaching & Learning
  • Offered a summer school program at each middle school to support student achievement and learning – first time in 10 years.
  • Increased the number of high school summer school programs from four to seven.
  • Developed and entered into a data sharing and collaboration agreement with Southwestern Community College.
  • CTE received a $5M grant to improve and grow our career and technical education programs.
  • Improved relationships with our feeder districts to ensure data was transferred in a timely manner.

Our governance team, the Board Members and I, conducted 50 First Dates with all principals and directors. At the request of our Board, we participated in State Superintendent Tom Torlakson’s Labor Management Symposium that resulted in a joint letter written and signed by all labor groups. We are committed to purposeful collaboration!

We are proud of our R.I.S.E. Program where our Compact Scholars who want to return and teach in Sweetwater will be guaranteed employment with us!

I would also like to acknowledge some of the courageous decisions made by our board of trustees:

• Reinstatement of attendance boundaries based upon three guiding principles: balancing school enrollments, alignment of middle and high school attendance, and distance from the school.
• Adoption of a revised LCAP after we held 5 trustee area meetings with over 1200 students, parents, and staff.
• Adopted a resolution in support of term limits
• Resolution of outstanding lawsuits that originated from prior administrations and board of trustees.
• Revisited, supported and approved the revised Long Range Facilities Master Plan.
• Appreciate their respect for opinions/points of view of each other, members of the public, staff, students, and parents.
• Visibility at many district and school functions and events.
• Their belief that Sweetwater is “worth fighting for!”

As a new team, we wanted to highlight some of what we consider key accomplishments this year! Each and every success I’ve mentioned has been designed so each student could excel in the classroom, compete with honor, and express their creativity! In fact, I was a bit overwhelmed and emotional this past weekend at the Summer Arts Academy Closing Day Performance. Each instrumental, voice, dance, and visual arts demonstration was full of passion and pride. This year’s theme says what we want to do every day – Empowering Each Student to Think, Work, Live Creatively!

Overall, we have worked deliberately to restore trust by being transparent and going out of our way to listen to all stakeholders, to listen to all of you! We hope you agree this has been quite an amazing year in Sweetwater!

Lastly, we know we have turned the corner on reorienting the culture in Sweetwater and we realize we have many hills yet to climb. Please continue to join us on this most important journey together!

Thank you for the opportunity to serve and support each of you!

Sincerely,
Karen Janney, Ed.D.