Beyond Tolerance: Moving Ahead Together
A Community-wide Conference Organized by the Santa Barbara School Districts
June 28, 1997
Keynote Speech: Dr. Michael Caston, Superintendent, Santa Barbara School Districts
Finding Solutions Together: School/Community Collaboration
I would like to take this opportunity to thank all of you for taking time from your weekend to attend such an important event. It is most impressive that our attendance is so large. This points out the great deal of interest our community has in this topic. I also want to thank those members of the Jewish community who were inconvenienced but still attended.
I also want to thank Bill Cirone for his great keynote address, and congratulations to him for being named ADL man of the year. Bill is a great advocate for young people and a real resource for our school district. In addition, Bill has been a good friend to me and was always there for support.
Last week President Clinton asked that the country step up the dialogue about racism and other diversity issues. When I heard him make that statement, I thought we are on the right track. I am convinced that he is totally correct. Without a global look at the problem and involvement of the entire community, progress will be slow at best.
This is not a problem with simple answers and simple solutions. While our country has made progress over the past thirty years, there is still much work to be done and many more hills to climb.
The Santa Barbara School District sponsored and organized this workshop for one reason – to bring our community together to work on these issues as a community. It is easy to identify the problem and place blame, but finding workable solutions takes real work on many fronts. It is not just a school problem, or a city problem, or a police problem, or a poor parenting problem, or too much TV. From the perspective of the school district, it is not just a high school issue but K-College. And no, it is not just a San Marcos High School problem but district wide.
It is all of our problem, and we all have to work together as a team to find solutions that will work. It is my strong hope that this can be achieved. If it can be achieved anywhere, it can be done in Santa Barbara. This community can do it. Collaboration is the key to success.
The Santa Barbara School District’s mission statement, which was developed in 1995, and was the result of a long and very productive visioning process, states "students shall understand and respect diversity."
For the past year the District’s Strategic Planning Task Force has been working hard to develop a comprehensive plan to be sure that that statement is implemented on a system wide basis. One of the school board’s focus goals is to develop a comprehensive model for staff development and for K-12 curriculum in the areas of cultural diversity and tolerance in conjunction with the Strategic Planning Task Force. In addition, our Board of Education has passed a resolution that lays out the components of our comprehensive plan. They are:
- Staff inservice and training. Ongoing staff development and training is the backbone of the District comprehensive
plan. The Superintendent, Assistant Superintendent, Board of Education members, Strategic Planning Task Force members,
principals, assistant principals, district office administrators, and secondary counselors attended a two-day diversity
and tolerance training provided by the California School Leadership Academy. This same training will be provided
to all teachers this coming year. This same group of individuals also received hate crime training provided by the
Anti-Defamation League. All new teachers will receive this training as well.
- The District has developed and implemented a new policy which addresses hate crimes and bias related acts. All
administrative staff have been trained, accordingly, by the Anti-Defamation League. School site faculty and other
staff will be trained this fall.
- A subcommittee of the strategic planning process is currently examining the K-12 curriculum on diversity. Many
great things are already happening in our classrooms such as the McKinley tolerance project. The District has made
strong efforts to improve education for all students and in particular to reach out to under represented students
to help them achieve at higher levels, such as:
- Class Size Reduction in Grades K-3:
We are the only District in the State to commit to class size reduction in four grades. Research indicates that small class sizes lead to improved academic achievement for all students.
- A.V.I.D. (Advancement Via Individual Determination):
The A.V.I.D. program targets underrepresented minorities and provides the support necessary for students to move into and be successful in academically challenging courses. The goal of the program is to help these students complete the requirements necessary for entry into a four-year college. The program began four years ago in our District with one class at two junior highs and has grown each year to its current level of 3-4 classes at each junior high and 1-2 classes at each high school.
- Summer School:
The District has provided one of the most comprehensive summer school programs at the high school level for some time. In the past few years, efforts have begun to provide more programs at elementary and junior high levels. At the elementary level, a program that started last summer and is being offered again this summer, the junior math and science academy, targets under represented minorities with above average potential. Seven classrooms of students participate in this challenging and enriching science and math program.
- Seven Period Day at the Junior High:
The length of the junior high day was extended by a period in order to provide all students with more science and in some cases to offer more intensive and remedial assistance in math. Beginning this fall, all junior high students will take two years of science, which will have an impact on the types of science courses taken at the high school level. The goal is for more students, especially under represented minorities, to enroll in and take advanced science and math courses at the high school level which are necessary for college entry.
- Enrollment of Latinos in Higher Level Science and Math Courses:
This has been a major focus of the District’s instructional efforts at the secondary level for the past two years. In addition to providing support systems such as A.V.I.D., new courses are being offered, such as two-year algebra courses, to better prepare students for entry into higher-level college courses. In just two years, the number of under represented students taking college level courses has steadily increased particularly at the entry levels and intermediate levels such as in math, algebra I and II and in science, biology and physics. We anticipate that in 2-3 years these students will be participating in the more advanced courses such as Advanced Placement (AP).
We are already seeing enrollment increases of minority students in college level math and science. While we are still far from reaching our goals, progress has been made.
- Class Size Reduction in Grades K-3:
- Schools will hold more assemblies that address issues of diversity and tolerance.
- Student groups have been formed at the high schools to deal with issues of diversity. These groups are intended
to open up the discussions with principals regarding these difficult issues. Congratulations to the Santa Barbara
High School SOAP organization as they have led the way with this concept and have been in operation for several years.
It is this type of involvement of students that will help us find workable solutions.
- All eighth graders will visit the Museum of Tolerance in Los Angeles as a school field trip. This visit also corresponds
to a strong related curriculum. This goal was accomplished this past school year and it was powerful by any measure.
This year all junior high school teachers will make the visit to the Museum as well. This will happen the first week
of the school year. This is an example of a community effort and support through donations to the Public Education
Foundation.
- Zero-tolerance approach with students who commit a hate crime. Students have been expelled from the District for
such actions and all students have and will continue to be warned that the District will continue to take the strongest
possible action.
- A School Board focus goal has also been established to continue our strong efforts to hire a more diverse teaching
and administrative staff. This process has been very productive with this year’s hiring of teachers and administrators
being over 35% minority representation.
- And last but maybe most important, the District and all schools shall work with their communities to address these issues. With all of your help we cannot fail.
Our community is strong. We have many community-based programs that have a strong effect and impact on the youth. Each of these organizations should have a strategic plan to further our community’s desire to go far beyond tolerance. If it is just left to the schools, success will allude us for sure.
It is certainly my hope that today we can raise the dialogue, work together in a cooperative manner, understand that placing blame doesn’t lead in any direction but failure, but finding solutions leads to success.
Thank you for your help and support.