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Parents and community members press San Marino Unified for clearer behavior reporting and standards
Summary
Multiple parents and community members urged the San Marino Unified School District board to adopt clearer behavioral thresholds, public data reporting and a districtwide handbook update after a series of incidents and perceived inconsistent administrative responses.
SAN MARINO, Calif. — Several parents and community members used public comment at the San Marino Unified School District Board of Education meeting on May 13 to press the district for clearer behavior policies, more transparency about incidents and a public behavioral-response matrix.
Speakers described repeated student-on-student incidents and urged specific changes. "Lip service to these policies has to stop and structural changes should be undertaken," Michael Rizzo, a parent, told the board. "We propose a public behavioral matrix structured to go beyond current models with the transparency and consistency to raise the bar for San Marino."
Parent Mei Sung described a series of incidents involving one student and said, "When a child says no and that is ignored and he gets hurt, that's not a misunderstanding." She called for a districtwide behavioral-response framework, clear thresholds for Student Success Team (SST) involvement, parent-notification standards and an updated student handbook before the 2025–26 school year.
Other speakers urged caution about publicly disclosing every behavior incident, citing student privacy in a small district. One commenter said publicizing anonymized reports can still be revealing and argued that continuous documentation would create administrative burden while risking student stigmatization.
Those who called for greater transparency said the district currently publishes annual suspension data through the School Accountability Report Card (SARC) but that suspension figures do not show day-to-day incidents or interventions. "If suspensions are rare and diminishing, how are other incidents tracked, and how can we see if things are getting better?" Michael Rizzo asked.
Board members and staff took public comments under advisement during the meeting. No formal policy changes or votes on reporting requirements were taken at the May 13 session.
The meeting also included a longer district presentation about positive behavioral systems and separate board business, including adoption of a world literature and ethnic studies course and a facilities program update.
