How far is too far in regulating students’ iPads?
The question became a point of contention at the Santa Barbara Unified board meeting on Tuesday as members heard updates on how technology with intent — a series of changes on district-issued devices following a shifting attitude towards technology — has been implemented.
What followed was a lengthy discussion about technology’s place in education and how far the board should go in regulating it.
It all began with Ali Bjerke.
During public comment, Bjerke, a Goleta parent, held up two posters plastered with printed-out screenshots of what her daughter could search on the school iPads.
“My 12-year-old can view explicit sexual imagery and explore themes that are intended for adults,” Bjerke said. “She can consume graphic content celebrating extreme thinness for girls and dysmorphic bodybuilding for boys.”
Other search results she listed included: how to be eligible for GLP-1 inhibitors, five physical signs to tell you’re a virgin and provocative photos of Asian men.
Board members were disheartened by the content of her posters. While some board members asked how the district could be more proactive in making iPads safer, others wondered how the district would realistically be able to prevent all unsafe searches.
“It seems like much of our strategy for intentional tech has come through pressure from parents,” said board member Celeste Kafri. She then asked what the “cost benefit” of having iPads for every student in the district was if “[the district] can’t keep them safe for students.”
Board president Bill Banning, on the other hand, wondered, how far is too far?
“This disturbs me to no end to see these pictures,” Banning said, referring to Bjerke’s posters. “But I also understand the enormous hurdle of getting it so that it’s absolutely impossible. But if it’s 99% or 98%, are we in a better place than just saying, ‘we can’t do anything about it?’”
Student board member Victoria Martinez Penaranda, a senior at Alta Vista Middle College, said students will be exposed to all types of content regardless of devices.
“Technology is part of our future,” Martinez Penaranda said. “I spend hours on my device, but it’s all for school and I’m studying…I think it’s a privilege to have a device that you can take home and study.”
Over the summer, the district banned YouTube on all student devices. Martinez Penarada said the ban has negatively impacted several San Marcos students’ ability to study.
Additionally, the district developed a digital citizenship framework for TK-12 and looked at new potential vendors to regulate school devices. Staff are currently recruiting students into the superintendent’s AI Task Force, evaluating companies that can conduct an audit of the district’s technology and examining how parents can regulate their students’ iPads at home.
Beating the heat
Santa Barbara Unified students were greeted with a warm welcome back to school this week: a heat wave.
The National Weather Service has issued an extreme heat warning until Friday evening. Temperatures can go up to 95 degrees.
Santa Barbara High School, Santa Barbara Junior High School, as well as Franklin, Cleveland, McKinley and Harding elementary schools will have a minimum day schedule on Thursday due to forecasted extreme heat. Students who can’t be picked up at the earlier time will be allowed to stay until the end of the normal school day in an air-conditioned room.
Evaluating enrollment
The board also briefly discussed how it intends to tackle enrollment and where families are choosing to send their kids to school ahead of its study session on the topics in November.
“There has been a discussion about schools being unbalanced, schools being overcrowded, schools being starved of resources,” said Beall.
The board will look at current enrollment and capacity data per school, a map of school and district boundaries, different academies such as career technical education programs at each school, and the trends in why families are transferring in or out of certain schools.
Santa Barbara Unified to the Grand Jury: we’re already doing the work
Is Santa Barbara Unified adequately prepared for a school shooting? The Santa Barbara County Civil Grand Jury thinks it could do more.
The Santa Barbara Unified School district on Tuesday released four responses to the jury’s reports. In addition to school shootings, the reports pertain to gangs, bullying and public participation.
With the 60-day deadline approaching, the Santa Barbara Unified School District has issued its responses to four Grand Jury reports addressed to school agencies in the county.
The district’s board approved 4-0 its responses to the Grand Jury at its Aug. 25 meeting, with member Gabe Escobedo absent. The vote came with little board discussion and general consensus that the reports dealt with county-wide issues that don’t always pertain to Santa Barbara Unified.
“Every item on these response documents is in one way or another directly connected to our board priorities of supporting school environments and community family engagement,” said Banning.
The Grand Jury is a 19-person community watchdog group under the Santa Barbara County Superior Court. It investigates public entities in the county and issues yearly reports in June with a deadline for when they must respond. It has no enforcement authority.
In its report on youth in gangs, the jury found most schools in Santa Barbara County to be engaged in promoting a positive learning environment, but that gaps in protecting students exist.
The jury’s recommendations to, for example, create after-school safety programs for students and implement systems for reporting danger have already been implemented at Santa Barbara Unified. The district stated that it will implement whatever policies or programs the Santa Barbara County Education Office and local law enforcement agencies create in response to the jury’s recommendations.
In the event a mass shooting were to happen on campus, Santa Barbara County schools are mostly prepared, but can strengthen their readiness, the jury found in another report.
The district will implement the jury’s recommendations to send district leaders to a safety training training every two years. Additionally, it will assess its visitor check-in practices and identify any gaps that may exist. The district will not implement the Grand Jury’s recommendations to have a school resource officer at each school site, a role it eliminated in 2021.
In its report on bullying, the Grand Jury found that additional safety measures, reporting process and parent participation in outreach programs can reduce bullying in schools.
All but one of the recommendations issued by the Grand Jury have already been implemented at Santa Barbara Unified. The district said it will not achieve a ratio of one counselor for every 250 students, as recommended in the report, because it already has additional resources to support students.
Finally, the Grand Jury found that school boards could have clearer practices that would make public participation at its meetings easier.
In response, the district will make clear that providing identifying information such as a name or address is not required to address the board at its meetings.
However, it will not implement the jury’s recommendation to allow for remote comment any time public comment is open. The district said it will maintain a 12 P.M. cut off the day of the meeting to sign up for remote public comment because it must know how much time to allocate each speaker prior to the meeting.
“The [Grand Jury] did bring up some big concepts,” said Beall. “As a board member, I’m paying attention and I would like to look at these things in different ways.
