of Rights and Responsibilities
2017-18
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GUIDE
FREE PUBLIC EDUCATION
(ACLU Website)
Unlawful Pupil Fees
masked as donation?
Under CA law (Ed Code section 49011), a student in public school shall not be required to pay a pupil fee for participation in any educational activity. ALL SUPPLIES, MATERIALS, AND EQUIPMENT needed to participate in educational activities, including extracurricular activities offered by the school, SHALL BE PROVIDED TO PUPILS FREE OF CHARGE.
Uniform Complaint Procedures click here.
UCPs allow citizens to file a complaint when they feel something the school has done violates the law.
A complaint can be made by writing a letter or email to an agency administrator. Complaints are most commonly made in connection with:
a. donation requests, or
b. poor, unusable, inappropriate or nonexistent instructional materials (a "Williams" UCP complaint).
If you wish to file a complaint, write a letter to your school or district administrator, describe what has happened, attach documents if possible, and explain why you feel that issue is a violation.
Donation Guidelines:
• Schools may not require payment of a donation on behalf of a student for any activity offered by the school
• For example, if a student is required to ride a district bus to participate in an athletic event, the student cannot be required to pay a transportation fee and funds may not be automatically deducted from team funds.
• A school may not offer "privileges" related to educational activities in exchange for money or donations. EDC section 49011(b)(4).
• Examples of what schools cannot charge for:
1. Science lab equipment or supplies;
2. PE uniforms if required to take class;
3. Participation on sports teams;
4. Books used in class;
5. Attendance at graduation ceremonies;
6. Photography or art class supplies; and
7. Summer school.
Foundations • Governance • Special Ed • Budgets
Have a question, concern or want to share experiences;
Attend a board meeting and present a public comment!
It's easy! Fill out a speaker's slip and you'll be called up when it's your time. (3 minutes to speak)
District Deeds
**Best way to listen is to download
It took Dr. Grove at 4:46:45 to remind the room left of mainly only Board Members and District Cabinet Members that their purpose is to provide for a world class education to our students.
Item 9. LCAP - TPHS Principal - 34:20
Item 10. Public Comment - 44:15 - 17 citizens had comments. Superintendent said it was a record.
Item 16: Updated Board Policies - 1:38:00
Item 18: Sufficiency of Instruction Materials - 1:43:44
Item 19: Unaudited Income - 1:47:43
Item 20A: HS Foundation Update - 1:54:12
Item 20B: TPHS Batting Cage Donation - 2:49:00
Item 20C: Quan Contract - 3:17:45
Item 21: MOU County Office - 3:23:11
Item 22: Special Education Task Force - 3:25:00
** at 3:49:00 President Amy Herman states she is working to regain the trust of the community. Ms. Herman holding the District's Administration accountable to honest and transparent practices would be a good start.
Item 23: Resolution for Late Start - 3:53:33
Item 24: CVRA - 4:08:00
Item 25: Parent Engagement (through LCAP discussions) - 4:30:00
Item 26: Home-to-School Transportation Update - 4:33:00
Item 25: Ed Services Update (Dr. Grove) - 4:46:45
Meeting Adjourned
San Dieguito fails to release district salaries by deadline.
San Dieguito was one of only three districts out of the county's 42 districts to fail to release salary data to Transparent California. The district has come under increased scrutiny over the last couple of years for a majority of the board's approval of a 12.5% retroactivesalary increase (touted as the highest salary increase ever in the county) to all district staff despite projected operational deficits and ongoing parent requests for more funding at school sites. The district's master contract for its teaching staff currently requires that the staff be the highest paid in the county and includes an open "top salary guarantee" in the contract, an approach which earned the district the San Diego Taxpayer's Grand Gold Fleece Award in 2016. San Diego Tribune
Board considers turning $11 million Prop AA funded fields over to the City of Carlsbad despite language of Prop AA bond measure.
Despite the urging of community members, superintendent Eric Dill is recommending that the $11 million fields built with Prop AA funds be turned over to the City of Carlsbad to manage and operate. Residents from Encinitas and other communities questioned why the board would ever consider turning over the Prop AA funded athletic fields in the La Costa Valley area to the City of Carlsbad instead of to a district based nonprofit or agency given that this amounted to the use of district bond funds to essentially build a Carlsbad park. Per the language of the bond measure, Prop AA funding is to be used solely for the improvement of district facilities and to benefit the Prop AA community, of which most of Carlsbad is not. Representatives from Encinitas Soccer and other groups urged the district board to self-manage the fields to comply with the language of Prop AA to serve the district's students and residents who paid for the bond. The building of the sports fields -- soon to be turned over to the City of Carlsbad -- was prioritized over many other school projects, including the building of a new campus for Sunset High School and other facility needs.
San Diego Grand Jury urges more training for the San Dieguito Board even though several members have been on board for decades
After reviewing the county's 42 school district boards, the San Diego grand jury selected the San Dieguito Union High School District school board a one of the 4 boards in need of mandatory training. The grand jury also found that the superintendent also needed training. This past year, board members Dalessandro, Hergesheimer and Herman approved the hiring of superintendent Eric Dill, even though he did not have the credentials required by the State of California: namely, a teacher's credential and an administrative credential. The board members, who form a voting majority, agreed to waive the state requirements. Click here for report
By August 1, 2017 the District was required to submit a response. According to Voice of San Diego, the District's response was as follows:
"the recommendations have already been a part of the training for its superintendents. Its response also said the Grand Jury lacked any evidence of specific shortcomings in the boards’ training, so the board assumed its voluntary programs were good enough."
Updated 10/12/2017 - Board of Trustees passed at the Board Meeting that they will hold a public six-hour governance training sometime in February 2018.
Governance
2017
District slow to comply with reform urged in February 2017 Spec Ed Report by its expert Gary Greene, Ph.D
A $25K report commissioned by the district to examine the transition program for its disabled students urged numerous reform measures including teacher training, results oriented goals, the purchase of curriculum and a parent advisory committee to insure overall program improvement. Special ed parents have been demanding similar changes unaware that the same changes had been recommended by the district's hired expert as early as February of this year. At the August Spec Ed workshop of the board, associate superintendent Mark Miller stated he listened to the parents concerns raised and purchased curriculum. The curriculum purchased was the same recommended by the district expert back in February 2017. Parents hope the long overdue curriculum will arrive soon along with the expert's recommended parents advisory committee and other changes urged more than 6 months ago.
District Shares Best Practices with PTA and Foundation Teams Regarding Pupil Fees and Public Use of District Facilities.
Despite numerous attempts to discredit parents' concerns about certain practices of TPHS and its foundation, district finds numerous claims valid.
6/16/17:
In two separate letters, San Dieguito Superintendent Dill found that the following violations occured with relation to the baseball program and warranted corrective action:
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Torrey Pines Foundation's requests for donations should more clearly inform parents and students that their decision to donate (or not donate) will not affect their ability to participate in the district's programs;
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TPHS coaching vacancies have not been internally or externally properly advertised for the past 3 years even though multiple coaches have been hired;
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a TPHS baseball coach charged for private lessons on the campus during non-school hours without submitting a permit;
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two TPHS baseball coaches may have had pre-enrollment contact with students without submitting the required information as required by CIF Bylaw 510;
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the TPHS Foundation entered into an agreement with a {DONOR}, who, at the time was also TPHS foundation member, to accept approximately $400K to erect baseball cages on campus without advance board approval as required by Board Policy 3290;
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the donation of the baseball cages had conditions that allowed the donor to use district property for no charge for outside teams of his choosing;
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the donated batting cages had been mischaracterized as "fences" by school staff in 2013 and not submitted for approval to the state;
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the batting cages did not comply with the American with Disabilities Act when it was built; and
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the Torrey Pine Foundation's request for a "bus fee" for boys volleyball players "could lead a reasonable person to believe that the fee was mandatory."
8/21/17:
The CA Dept. of Education also found the district was required to automatically reimburse all students on the boy's volleyball team who paid a transportation fee beginning on January 3, 2016 through January 3, 2017 (p. 8 of CDE Letter).
10/11/17:
Letters have gone out to all Boy's Volleyball Team members who paid the transportation fee as far back as January 3, 2016 that they will receive a refund check by November 3, 2017.
Principal falsely claims some parents are trying to shut down foundations in effort to derail parents' drive for more transparency and accountability.
Parents' push for increased transparency and accountability in connection with foundation/district relationships resulted in an email dated 8/18/17 from CCA's executive director Joanne Couvrette to staff and others quoting a false claim by Torrey Pines principal Coppo that these parents met with him and told him that their "goal was to shut down the foundations." The parents in question did not meet with him as claimed or say what he represented. Despite having been advised of the falsity of the statements relating to private persons, and what was likely a wide distribution of this email containing false and disparaging information, neither the executive director nor the principal were asked to issue a retraction. The Superintendent simply shared that the principal's words were intended as private comments not for public circulation.
How is your school spending money - Understanding our School's site budget process will help us as a community better understand how to support our students. In order to effectively influence what we, as a community, care about we need to understand which spending decisions are made at the school level and which the district controls.
In order for us to be more informed let's start with the site budgets at each school to better understand what if costs to run these schools. The benefit of our District is each School has a personality, understanding it the site budget will help direct funds to what is important to our school community.
Historic Site Actuals and Current Year Budget