Coronado Unified School District Governing Board Three Seats Open<\/p>\n
Week #4<\/p>\n
“CUSD\u2019s Portrait of a Graduate is complete. How will you utilize that information as a school board member\u2026to what end?”<\/p>\n
The Portrait of a Graduate is much more than a list of desirable characteristics. In many ways, it is a fully developed mission statement for CUSD; and a particularly powerful one because it was created with extensive input from students, parents, teachers, staff, community members, elected officials, and business leaders. CUSD reports that the process incorporated more than 66,000 data points from interviews and community-engagement events. In other words, it reflects not simply what the District administration believes our graduates should become, but what the broader Coronado community values for our children.<\/p>\n
As a Board member, I would use that Portrait as a lens for decision-making. When we consider curriculum, budgets, staffing, technology, facilities, or new programs, we should be asking: Does this decision move us closer to the graduate we have collectively said we want to develop? A mission only has value if it actually influences priorities and resource allocation.<\/p>\n
Three elements of the Portrait particularly align with the priorities I have emphasized throughout my campaign.<\/p>\n
First is developing an \u201cInnovative Problem Solver and Critical Thinker.\u201d The Portrait calls for students who are curious and analytical, can interpret complex information, consider divergent perspectives, adapt when presented with new information, and develop creative solutions. That is exactly what I mean when I say schools should teach students how to think, not what to think. Academic excellence should be about much more than test scores. We should graduate young adults who can evaluate evidence, ask good questions, challenge assumptions respectfully, and reach their own well-reasoned conclusions.<\/p>\n
Second is \u201cSelf-Aware and Engages in Self-Care.\u201d The Portrait specifically identifies mental and physical health, emotional awareness, stress management, balance, and resilience as important outcomes for CUSD graduates. That reinforces my emphasis on student mental health, particularly during the middle-school years. If we say well-being is part of our mission, then our decisions about counseling, class sizes, school climate, workload, extracurricular opportunities, and even facilities should reflect that commitment.<\/p>\n
Third is creating graduates who are \u201cTechnologically Competent and Adaptive.\u201d Importantly, the Portrait does not simply say students should use more technology. It calls for students who can use technology effectively and ethically, adapt to emerging technologies, manage their digital identities, and critically evaluate the accuracy and value of information. That aligns directly with my focus on cell phones, screen time, digital literacy, and artificial intelligence. We should embrace technology when it improves education while protecting independent thinking, human interaction, academic integrity, and student well-being.<\/p>\n
Ultimately, I would use the Portrait of a Graduate as a North Star for Board governance: establish the outcomes we want for our students, align our policies and resources with those outcomes, and then continually ask whether we are actually achieving them.<\/p>\n
VOL. 116, NO. 39 – Sept. 30, 2026<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Coronado Unified School District Governing Board Three Seats Open Week #4 “CUSD\u2019s Portrait of a Graduate is complete.…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":483600,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[28],"tags":[20304,74,76,75],"class_list":["post-483599","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-san-diego","tag-coronado_city_news","tag-san-diego","tag-san-diego-headlines","tag-san-diego-news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/483599","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=483599"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/483599\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/483600"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=483599"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=483599"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=483599"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}