It Starts With Data and Listening to the System – Practical Ways to Approach Equitable Resource Allocation

08/17/21 • 21 min

Veteran school district CBO Jayne Christakos joins us to help build our practical understanding of equity and resource allocation in educational systems, and to identify some good places to start. She emphasizes the crucial importance of embracing a districtwide culture that is comfortable using data, asking questions and "listening to the whole system."
Throughout our series, we’re sharing specific experiences and examples of leaders and practitioners who are doing the work of ensuring a more equitable allocation of resources. We explore their motivations, what tools they’re using, what’s working, and what they’ve learned.
Check out the Episode 2 Companion Brief: Using Data to Advance Equity.
Jayne Christakos has served as a chief school business official in several California districts, including the past six years as CBO with San Bernardino City Unified School District (SBCUSD), where she recently retired from in June. SBCUSD is among the 12 largest school districts in the state with nearly 50,000 students, about 90% who qualify for free and reduced price meals. The district has implemented a number of significant initiatives to improve learning and well-being for its diverse student population.
In this episode, Jayne describes work she has helped carry out in the district, including an initiative called Targeted Support for School Progress (TSSP) that utilized data across all areas to identify a number of school sites for additional support. As part of TSSP, district and site teams worked to examine everything they were doing, from classroom instruction to professional development. The effort also involved creating a new cabinet-level assistant superintendent position for continuous improvement (led by Dr. Rachel Monarrez) -- and strengthening cross-departmental collaboration. Data after the first year of the program showed significant improvements for student subgroups across many areas.
Jayne also shares additional timely advice for leaders and school business officials based on her experiences in the CBO chair, as a CBO mentor, and as a "go-to" person for so many in the state on school district budgeting.
Related resources
CASBO WorkWise Webinar: Leaders from San Bernardino City USD discuss the value of social emotional learning for education leaders and share real-world examples and best practices.
About our series

Budgeting for Educational Equity is presented by the California Association of School Business Official (CASBO), the premier resource for professional development and best practices for more than 24,000 California school business leaders, in partnership with WestEd, a national nonprofit research development and service agency that works to promote excellence and equity in education.
We are grateful to the Sobrato Family Foundation for providing additional support.
Engage with us!

Follow us on Twitter at @Budget4EdEquity to keep up to date on the series and share your thoughts, ideas, questions and feedback.
Budgeting for Educational Equity is written and produced by Paul Richman and Jason Willis. Original music, mixing and sound by Tommy Dunbar. John Diaz at WestEd serves as an advisor and develops the written materials that go along with each episode.

Previous Episode

Introduction: Getting Our Resource and Educational Equity Bearings

Advancing equity continues to be a major focus for California public education at all levels of the system. Yet, as education leaders and school business officials, it's not always easy to press your way forward into the noisy, bustling, sometimes uncomfortable intersection where equity meets educational resources.
In our first episode, host Jason Willis, director of strategic resource planning and implementation for WestEd and a former chief business official in several California school districts, invites several guest policy experts, advocates and school district leaders to share how they think about and define resource equity in education. It's our way to help you get your "resource equity bearings."
This also helps set the context for a core question we'll be exploring throughout this series: How can dedicated teams of educators, administrators, school business officials and entire school communities allocate resources — resources like time, money and our most valuable asset, people — to better meet the needs of all their students? Especially at this watershed moment, coming out of the pandemic, when student needs have never been greater and an influx of additional federal and state dollars offer opportunities for transformative change.
Guests in this episode:

Christopher Edley, Jr., J.D., interim dean, U.C. Berkeley Graduate School of Education; co-founder and president emeritus of The Opportunity Institute; professor and dean emeritus, U.C. Berkeley School of Law; former professor, Harvard Law School; and co-chair, National Commission on K-12 Excellence & Equity
Maria Echaveste, J.D., president and CEO, The Opportunity Institute; and former White House deputy chief of staff
Jayne Christakos, former chief business officer, San Bernardino City Unified School District
Marguerite Williams, Ed.D., assistant superintendent of educational services, Adelanto Elementary School District; and former senior director of equity and diversity, Association of California School Administrators
Adela Madrigal Jones, superintendent, Sanger Unified School District
Michael Kirst, Ph.D., professor emeritus, Graduate School of Education, Stanford University; and past president, California State Board of Education

Download the Interactive Companion Brief for this episode.
Budgeting for Educational Equity is presented by the California Association of School Business Official (CASBO), the premier resource for professional development and best practices for more than 24,000 California school business leaders, in partnership with WestEd, a national nonprofit research development and service agency that works to promote excellence and equity in education. We are grateful to the Sobrato Family Foundation for providing additional support.
Engage with us on Twitter at @Budget4EdEquity
Budgeting for Educational Equity is written and produced by Paul Richman and Jason Willis. Original music, mixing and sound by Tommy Dunbar. John Diaz at WestEd serves as an advisor and develops the written materials that go along with each episode.

Next Episode

Collaborating and Planning for Change: Resource Equity Learnings From a School District Leader Advancing the Work

In this episode, Sanger Unified School District Superintendent Adela Madrigal Jones highlights approaches and actions her district has taken to advance equity. It’s chock-full of practical guidance, real-life experiences and candid reflections from a lifelong educator who has helped lead successful work in this Central Valley district.

One of the key strategies Sanger USD utilizes are “Principal Summits.” These summits engage school site leaders in reviewing data, collectively exploring how dollars are invested (including LCFF-LCAP funds), developing plans and actions to meet the needs of all students, and regularly monitoring those plans.

Superintendent Madrigal Jones shares further insights into the mechanics of budgeting for equity, including describing how some recent allocation models called for distributing dollars equally, and some equitably. In addition, she takes us inside some of her district’s recent discussions about how best to utilize newly available one-time state and federal dollars to accelerate recovery from the pandemic.

Later in this episode, Sanger USD Chief Business Official Marsha Alfving joins Adela to discuss the key importance of superintendents and chief business officials working together and with their teams to support resource equity. CBO Alfving describes several ways that school business officials can deepen their engagement in their district's conversations around equity and Multi-Tiered Systems of Support (MTSS) to best meet the needs of all students.

Finally, Superintendent Madrigal Jones looks back on a key success in her district that improved early literacy. Plus, she recommends a few things that all educational leaders should consider bringing along as they prepare to embark on their own resource equity and "cultural shift" journeys.

Guests

Adela Madrigal Jones has served as superintendent of Sanger USD since July 2018. Prior to that, she served as associate superintendent, as a principal and a teacher, all in the district. She has also worked extensively with English Learners. In total, she has spent more than 37 years in public education.

Marsha Alfving has served in Sanger USD for more than a decade, including as Chief Financial Officer since 2013. She’s also a Certified Public Accountant and prior to joining Sanger, served for several years in public accounting.

Sanger USD is located in California’s Central Valley. The district serves about 11,000 students, nearly 70% who qualify for free and reduced price meals and 15% who are English Learners. The district has been recognized in research literature, such as the 2019 Learning Policy Institute brief, for its promising practices and outcomes, especially for students of color.
Download the Interactive Companion Brief for this episode.
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Budgeting for Educational Equity is presented by the California Association of School Business Official (CASBO), in partnership with WestEd. We are grateful to the Sobrato Family Foundation for providing additional support.
Engage with us on Twitter at @Budget4EdEquity
Budgeting for Educational Equity is written and produced by Paul Richman and Jason Willis. Original music, mixing and sound by Tommy Dunbar. John Diaz at WestEd develops our related written materials.

Budgeting for Educational Equity - It Starts With Data and Listening to the System – Practical Ways to Approach Equitable Resource Allocation

Transcript

It starts with data and listening to the system -- practical insights for approaching equitable resource allocation in school districts -- with Jayne Christakos
Opening music:

Jayne Christakos, guest:

The budget is merely a story of what’s important in the district, right? And so we want to really help move the systemic work that's going to improve outc