Councilman Isaac Barone urges push for universal pre‑K as enrollment falls; highlights student mental‑health strain

Councilman Isaac Barone, serving as the committee's nonvoting trustee representative, used the Education Advisory Committee's Nov. 3 meeting to outline district trends and areas where city‑school partnerships may be needed.

Barone said several schools have shown improvement under the district's performance framework, but he warned that CCSD is facing falling enrollment driven by demographic shifts and charter competition. "Enrollment's going down," Barone said, citing lower birth rates and other factors. He urged civic support for the district's leader and for a proposed universal pre‑K system that could both help families with child‑care costs and introduce students to CCSD earlier.

Barone told the committee a short special legislative session is likely and said the city should consider engaging legislators on pre‑K funding. He also referenced recent student traffic fatalities and said those incidents have bolstered discussion of state crime legislation and possible changes to penalties for impaired or distracted driving. "Back in 2021, the city had tried to pass something called AB 10," Barone said, referring to an earlier legislative effort to increase penalties for certain moving violations; he said that previous effort did not pass in the form the city sought.

Committee members pressed for clarity on volunteer access to schools. Barone and staff said volunteers have to be vetted and that some volunteer processes are currently on hold. When a member asked whether the volunteer issue is a district or state rule, Barone asked city legal counsel to clarify. The committee's legal participant (identified only in the transcript as counsel) said the kindergarten‑age change was adopted by the state legislature and that a later amendment set the cutoff date at Aug. 1.

On student well‑being, Barone cited district surveys and principals' efforts to reduce chronic absenteeism and expand mental‑health supports. He noted a student survey result showing about 41% of students reported staying home because of anxiety or feeling overwhelmed in recent years and said schools are adding counselors or licensed social workers where budgets allow. "The isolation of students [during COVID] was devastating," Barone said, and he described hiring licensed social workers at some schools to help address the need.

Staff and committee members said they will continue to coordinate with the district on workforce readiness, volunteer access and other supports. Barone said he would follow up with staff (including Ingrid) to provide more detailed answers at a future quarterly meeting.

The committee concluded its business portion and moved to staff comments and committee discussion; no formal policy votes or new budget items were taken during the meeting.