District equity team lays out student-centered plan after survey shows gaps for Hispanic students
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Summary
Superintendent Presta and the district's Equity Design Team outlined a multi-year equity strategy focused on student listening, data review and "safe-to-fail" pilot projects; a student experience survey found Hispanic students disproportionately reported feeling unseen. Board members expressed support and asked for accessible messaging for families.
Superintendent Presta and members of the Jefferson Union High School District Equity Design Team presented a multi-year plan to address systemic inequities, saying the work centers student voice and iterative, data-driven pilots.
"The purpose of the presentation tonight is to provide information about the broad work going on in our district in service of our commitment to dismantle the systemic inequities," Superintendent Presta said. The team emphasized a partnership with the National Equity Project and the use of "liberatory design" practices to shape district policy and school-level projects.
The team said it conducted a student experience survey that drew about 2,400 responses and multiple listening sessions. The presenters highlighted a finding that Hispanic students make up about 33.7% of the district and that 41.7% of Hispanic respondents indicated they "rarely feel seen, heard, and valued" at school. The data informed a decision to begin focused listening sessions with Hispanic students and expand into other subgroups.
Dan Arzaga, the district's teacher on special assignment for equity and ethnic studies, described the implementation strategy: collect data, listen, prototype small "safe-to-fail" experiments with students, analyze results and scale effective practices. "A big point of what we've been working on is just creating safe to fail experiments," Arzaga said, adding the district will prioritize co-creating solutions with students rather than designing for them.
Site teams at Terra Nova, Westmoor, Jefferson, Oceana and Thornton described different pilots: Terra Nova plans classroom lessons on microaggressions for ninth-grade ethnic-studies classes; Westmoor will pilot restorative, nonacademic flex-time offerings to foster connection; Jefferson plans an interactive unity wall; and Oceana intends for student teams to facilitate staff professional development on scenarios such as comments about hair texture.
Board members praised the work and asked for clearer, plain-language messaging that families and community organizations can understand. A trustee suggested simplifying the "equity challenge cycle" graphic for broader audiences and recommended considering a CSBA presentation submission.
The presentation closed with the team's next steps: continuing listening sessions across the district, piloting prototypes this spring, expanding family engagement in the fall and determining the district's ongoing partnership with the National Equity Project beyond the current cohort cycle.
The presentation was for information; no formal action was taken. The board agreed to continue oversight as the design team refines pilots and returns with findings and recommendations.
