Featured Post
Public Records and San Diego Unified
This article in the Voice of San Diego hit close to home. Since September ReopenSDUSD has made numerous public records requests with San Diego Unified School District to be told turn around time is 8-12 weeks. It’s so hard to get documents that the San Diego Society of Professional Journalists actually awarded the district “The…
Who is Negotiating on Behalf of Our Children?
Update March 12, 2021: Looks like this contract for Covid-19 Leave just got approved. Teachers can get 80 hours of COVID leave prior to utilizing their own personal leave balances between now and June 30, 2021 to “care for children due to school closure/childcare closure.” It also provides “up to five (5) days of this…
The Next Goalpost?
During the Reopening Update at the March 9th Board San Diego Unified School District the District’s Medical Consultant, Dr. Taras of UCSD, said hybrid learning is necessary because full capacity isn’t possible until all students are vaccinated, or other other indicators allows. He then said he these other community health indicators aren’t yet established. Parents…
It’s Time to Open Labor Negotiations to Public Stakeholders – Parents!
Sounds like the San Diego Education Association is voting on these proposals for Elementary Phase 2. All choices are only 2 days per week and depending on the vote the day will be 2, 3 or 4 hours. After 365 days this is all they are offering. When will families be brought into this process?…
Will Schools REALLY Open April 12?
Many of you have asked us to weigh in on San Diego Unified’s announcement of April 12th as a target date to reopen school sites for in-person instruction. We see so many red flags with this proposal that we can’t, in good conscience, call it a “plan.” It’s really just another stall tactic that prevents…
Do SDUSD’s Negotiations with Labor Unions Run Afoul of State Law?
Negotiations between the parties “shall not take place on any proposal until a reasonable amount of time has elapsed after the submission of the proposal to enable the public to become informed and the public has the opportunity to express itself regarding the proposal at a meeting of the public school employer. Gov. Code §…
Reopen SDUSD, together with with Open Schools CA, Calls on Legislators to vote NO on SB 86
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE SAN DIEGO, CA – February 19, 2021 Yesterday the Legislature introduced SB 86, the Safe and Open Schools (SOS) Plan. Rather than a life raft to rescue students from the endless sea of Zoom school, the “SOS” Plan leaves students to tread water longer while prioritizing the needs of educators at their expense. California schools…
Dear Governor Newsom
Read our letter with Open Schools California sent to Governor Newsom about the Safe Schools for All Plan. January 25, 2021 Governor Gavin Newsom 1303 10th Street, Ste 1173 Sacramento, CA 95814 RE: California’s Safe Schools for All Plan Dear Governor Newsom, On behalf of Open Schools California, we are writing to express our deep concern…
Parents Across California Band Together to Organize Statewide Movement to Reopen Public Schools for In-Person Education
Governor Newsom, local politicians must urgently act to safely reopen schools, prioritize wellbeing of children Today, a group of parents from across California announced a new grassroots statewide movement, Open Schools California, focused on safely reopening public schools for in-person education. Most of California’s 6 million public school students have not been in the classroom…
San Diego Education Community Coalition Calls for Comprehensive Search for San Diego Unified School District Superintendent Replacement
The selection of a new Superintendent will affect every student at San Diego Unified for years to come. Seven years ago, the Board made this decision overnight, behind closed doors and without community input. Please ensure that stakeholder voices are heard this time. Forward this to every SDUSD parent you know and encourage them to…
A Message for SDUSD Leadership
Below is the $160 Million in spending San Diego Unified outlined in its Learning Continuity Plan (LCP) this year. How much of this are they doing? The line items which are yellow and are marked “contributing” represent INCREASED OR IMPROVED SERVICES for vulnerable students. SDUSD receives supplemental funding based on the number of these students…
Did Taxpayers Fund Cindy Marten’s Nomination?
We received a spreadsheet of CARES Act spending from a Public Records Request filed last year. On it was $37,500 paid to The Raben Group, a Washington DC based Lobbyist Firm. It appears San Diego Unified used stimulus funding to hire a lobbyist to ask for more stimulus funding. When we saw the name “Raben Group” on…
Special Education Lawsuits Soaring at San Diego Unified
Right now there are more than 100 lawsuits pending against San Diego Unified, filed on behalf of children receiving special education services, and that’s just what’s on the current calendar. Due to specific regulations for the timeline of these cases, many others have already been settled and moved off the calendar. Perhaps this is why…
Statement from reopenSDUSD about Nomination of Superintendent Marten as Deputy Secretary of Education
While we commend Superintendent Marten on this nomination, our efforts continue at the local level. Our frustration from the beginning has been San Diego Unified’s lack of focus around getting our students back in the classroom. This announcement makes it all the more difficult since the Board’s time will be tied up searching for a…
Paging Dr. Taras!
Sharing last week’s Safe Schools Panel hosted by our Norcal counterparts and moderated by Louis Freedberg, the editor of EdSource. Medical experts present the science on safe school reopening and on the psychological effects of social isolation. The risks and benefits of in-person school and distance learning are addressed. “If we knew in March what we know…
Frustrated Parents Leaving San Diego Unified
Each month more parents are pulling their children out of the district and choosing another path. While most of the local Charter schools have waiting lists, a parent can file free of charge what’s called a “Private School Affidavit” at any time and begin homeschooling. There is so much interest that organizers of the CA…
Returning to School Safely Panel Jan 14th
Parent groups around the state are coming together as the legislative session begins. We are sharing an event hosted tonight at 7PM by our Nor-Cal counterparts. You can register here. Jeanne Noble, MD, MA Associate Professor of Emergency Medicine Director of COVID Response, UCSF Emergency Department will be a panelist. She and her colleagues at UCSF…
Reopen SDUSD Class Action Lawsuit
Dear SDUSD Friends and Families! This is an important update to our campaign. As you know, “Reopen SDUSD” has joined families the entire school year asking Cindy Marten and the San Diego Unified School Board to reopen our schools with definitive options for in-person learning. To this day, San Diego Unified continues to deny the…
Governor’s Budget Update: In-person instruction is the default mode of instruction in 2021-22.
Governor Newsom released his preliminary 21-22 budget, which assumes that in-person instruction is the default mode of instruction in 2021-22. We want parents to be aware of what’s in there because San Diego Unified has presented a misleading narrative in the media, while at the same time sending no information to parents about the Safe Schools…
ReopenSDUSD Urges California Leaders to Counter Districts Misleading Parents About the Safe Schools for All Plan
DATE: January 7, 2021 TO: Superintendent Marten (SDUSD), Dr. Pan (CDPH), Ms. Barndollar, (SDUSD), Mr, Mueller (SDCOE), Mr. Johnston (SD County), Ms. Gordon (SD County) In a Jan 6th Union Tribune article about the Governor’s Safe Schools for All Plan, SDEA President Kisha Borden is quoted saying “Under Newsom’s plan districts in higher-income communities where Covid-19…
1044 More SDUSD Students Receive F-grades. Leadership Tries to Spin it Positive
EDIT 12/29: In the original version published December 18th, we said the grade data we received included middle school grades. This was not correct. This data is High School 9-12 only. It’s the same dataset that Superintendent Marten used for her presentation, which makes her positive spin even more startling. In light of the reports…
Call for Public Service not Lip Service
Senate Bill 98 (SB98) transitioned students to “distance learning” as a way to cope with the COVID-19 pandemic. SB98 was introduced by the California legislature and Governor Newsom when much was unknown about the virus, how it was spread, and the safety measures that would be most effective at reducing transmission in schools. While the intention of…
Phase 2 – SDUSD Shame on you! It’s Time to be Honest with Parents.
Remember on December 1st when Parents received an email from Superintendent Marten stating that Phase 2 would be postponed “due to ongoing health concerns related to COVID-19 and the safety of our students, staff and community.” Would it surprise you to learn that the District hadn’t even presented it’s Phase 2 plan to the Teachers’…
Public Comment Agenda Item H.4 Early Retirement Incentive- SDUSD Concealed from Public for 2 Months
The early retirement incentive is on the agenda for Tuesday’s Board Meeting. When you look at the MOU’s that are up for vote, you’ll see they were actually signed way back in September. Why didn’t SDUSD make this incentive public at any of the last 4 meetings? Specifically, why did SDUSD say NOTHING about this…
Where Students are Leaving SDUSD
District enrollment is down by 4000 students. Using the ADA funding formula that translates to to more than $60 Million the district stands to lose next year if these students don’t come back. ReopenSDUSD obtained enrollment information for SDUSD for November 2020. We compared that to the same report from December 2019. Have a look…
A Map of Equity?
If you watched San Diego Unified’s State of the District address you heard the edu-speak buzzword of the day: EQUITY. District leadership is fond of saying they have “equity at the core of everything they do.” Take a look at this map. This is NOT equity. In fact, we call this “Anti-Equity.” Reopened Districts are…
Phase 1 – So Few Students It Doesn’t Meet the County’s Litmus Test for “Open”
The chart above shows schools participating in Phase 1. There are more schools, but the graph is based on those with more than 10% of students back on-site. We felt this percentage indicated real effort on the part of school to reach out and serve students. There are only 20 of them. We also want…
SDUSD saved $50 MILLION in the Spring Shutdown
See the details in the Audited Financials here.
CARESAct – A Look at the $45 Million SDUSD Says Was Spent to Prepare Schools.
CARESAct spending through Sept 30th released. Once again the bulk of spending – $16 Million – is on Staff versus Student supports – in the category of “redirect personnel.” According to the Handbook, these are the type of expenses for that category: Budgeted Personnel and Services Diverted to a Substantially Different UseCosts of diverting educational…
San Diego Unified FAILS Transparency 101 – Turns Out They’ve Reported CARESAct Spending Twice Without Sharing With the Public
For months and months, parents, the public and the media have asked you, San Diego Unified (SDUSD), how you are spending the CaresAct Money received to prepare our schools and mitigate learning loss. Our concerns are valid. We heard you say it was used to shore up the budget deficit. We heard you tell us about varying…
The San Diego Unified Reopening Plan? An Ever Shifting Blame Game. Now they’ve crafted a testing metric 10x Higher than CDPH’s
First SDUSD blamed the State Legislature for cutting their budget. Those cuts were rolled back and the district is fully funded based on last year’s student count, despite this year’s students leaving in droves due to distance learning. Then it was the Federal Government for not providing enough money to schools, despite having already received more than $80M in…
Public Testimony Time
We are just hours away from our rally before the next Board Meeting and guess what is NOT on their agenda…Re-opening Plans! In case you were wondering, Phase 1 was a smoke screen. Please take a moment! Submit PUBLIC TESTIMONY by tomorrow morning. Include the subject line: SCHOOL REOPENING PLANS. They will be read as…
Can’t find what you’re looking for? Use the search form to search the site.
Get new content delivered directly to your inbox.
openSDUSD 
You must be logged in to post a comment.