myBurbank Talks
myBurbank Talks
Meet the Candidate: Dr. Emily Weisberg, Burbank Board of Education Candidate District 2
What if you had the power to influence the future of education in your community? Join us for an enlightening conversation with Dr. Emily Weisberg, the unopposed candidate for the Burbank Board of Education District 2, as she takes us on a fascinating journey from her early days in Chicago and Cincinnati to her influential role in Burbank. Discover how a passion for education at 16 set her on a path to becoming an advocate for equity, diversity, and inclusion. With academic achievements that include a doctorate from USC, Dr. Weisberg’s story is not just inspiring but a call to action for those looking to make a difference.
Dr. Weisberg opens up about her motivations for stepping into the political arena, inspired by her grandfather's union activism and her own experiences as a K-12 teacher. We explore her innovative approach to teaching history, where she connects past events to the lives of her middle school students, fostering a deep and engaging learning environment. Listen to her heartfelt recount of protesting against gun control inaction, providing a powerful insider perspective on the emotional decisions educators face.
As we look towards the future, Dr. Weisberg shares her visionary plans for the next four years, focusing on securing adequate state funding and bolstering financial support for students. She discusses the controversial changes in voting districts and the critical need for transparency and community engagement in district finances. If you're interested in the intricacies of educational policy or are contemplating running for office yourself, this episode is a treasure trove of insights and practical advice. Don’t miss out on this candid conversation with a dedicated educator committed to transformative change in Burbank schools.
My Burbank Talks presents another episode of Meet the Candidate, the show where we invite anyone appearing on the Burbank ballot in the 2024 election to join us here and give our listeners a chance to learn about their background and the issues important to them. Now let's join our podcast.
Speaker 2:Hello, burbank, craig Short, here with you once again for another Meet the Candidate, and today I think it's a very interesting one, one that you'll want to listen to and get some information, and it's not the bottom line information.
Speaker 2:Our guest today is Dr Emily Weisberg, who is the Board of Education president of Burbank, and the reason I'm very happy to do this podcast is number one. She's running unopposed, which means she doesn't need to do this, but she reached out and says I'd like to come on and do one of your candidate interviews. I said, well, that's great. And I said I'm going to ask the questions I'm going to ask. And she agreed and I think it's really important and I really appreciate her coming in to talk with me because, as she knows and most people know, I've been critical in the past. But if two people can't talk about things and understand each other's position, then why are we doing this? So part of the whole idea of this podcast is get to really know the person and hopefully today you'll get to know who she is and all about her. So, dr Weisberg, welcome to our show.
Speaker 3:Thank you. Thank you so much for having me.
Speaker 2:Well, my pleasure. Trust me A little background. Dr Weisberg is an experienced educator and an advocate. For over 20 years, she's worked as a teacher, facilitator and curriculum designer, with a specific focus on issues of equity, diversity and inclusion. In 2020, she was elected to the board one of the highest margins in the district and the city's history, earning over 30,000 votes. Won't happen this year with districts, though, Indeed.
Speaker 2:In her time as a board member and president of the Board of Education, she has been a fierce and effective advocate for increased mental health services to students, expanding diversity, equity and inclusion policies, improving working conditions for teachers and staff, and has taken bold measures to decrease deficit spending. She holds a doctorate in education at the University of Southern California and a master's of Arts from the University of California, Santa Barbara Ah, Santa Barbara, Indeed. She currently works as a 7th and 8th grade history teacher, where she specializes in helping students understand our history as it means to better understanding themselves. And boy, I'll tell you what those who don't learn from history are doomed to repeat it, as they say. Correct, A very true statement, yes. So my first question is does every administrator in Burbank have to go to SC and get their doctorate?
Speaker 3:I know. I feel like it's literally a requirement. Yes, there's a secret meeting where they say, did you go to USC, Are you a Trojan? Then we say, fight on, and then you're in there. But there's quite a gaggle of us.
Speaker 2:That's amazing.
Speaker 3:Everybody I'm talking to has had a doctorate from usc, which I'll tell you if you're, if you're looking for a doctorate in education. The thing about it is unlike, ucla has a great program, but at sc you can specialize in one of four areas. So you can do, I think, it's, administration, you can do educational psychology, which is what I did, and then you can do two others. So it really lets you focus in and that's my best guess as to why everybody that at least here, did that so that they could sort of hyper focus in the area that they were most interested in.
Speaker 2:So let's let's get into who you are. Ok, where'd you grow up?
Speaker 3:Where are you from? Midwest? So grew up in Chicago, was born in Chicago, my whole family, both sides, as far back as you can go. We moved from Chicago to Cincinnati when I was in my teens and then moved here at the kind of the end of my eighth grade year, start of my ninth grade year, out in Las Virginas, unified. So I grew up in Westlake Village. That's where I went to high school, went to Agora High and then came out to Sherman Oaks after I graduated because I was going to direct and teach theater.
Speaker 2:Oh, very good. So what got you into? You wanted to direct, but you wanted to teach and direct. Yes, yeah, what was it the bug that got you into teaching?
Speaker 3:I have taught since I was 16 in some capacity I mean no joke at my Hebrew school, when we're at my synagogue I was an assistant teacher and I just knew it was what I was going to do my entire life. I loved school enormously, but I also had friends who hated it and I also had you know, like we all do right Challenges with my teachers who made me feel stupid or made me feel not heard or made me feel insert word. And so I just said to myself well, I want to be a teacher who doesn't make students feel that way. I want to be a teacher who engages with content in a different way. And so, from the time I can remember, I consider myself really lucky, because a lot of people don't know what they want to do. But it's always been education, it's always been teaching, since literally 16 years old.
Speaker 2:The next logical question is what brought you to Burbank?
Speaker 3:So my best friend had lived here for a very long time and I hung out with her all the time and I just fell in love with it. I was living in Sherman Oaks and every time I came here I just said with her all the time and I just fell in love with it. I was living in Sherman Oaks and every time I came here I just said I love it here, like it's so much more calm, it has a small town feel. I can walk places. I just fell in love with it and so when I was looking to find a new place, I said I'm going to go to Burbank and so looked and got super, super lucky and ended up in a duplex. I'm living in one and my best friend and her husband are living in the other one.
Speaker 2:So watch out for each other that way too.
Speaker 3:And we got to quarantine together. So it was kind of an amazing lucky coincidence. So just I loved it and wanted to be here.
Speaker 2:So 2020 rolls around and you said, gee, I'm going to run for, I'm going to jump into politics. Now, what, what got you motivated to run for the board and do all that? What was the motive? Because politics is a whole lot different than everything else in the world. It is. It kind of takes a special breed and all those things. What got you into politics and what got you to say I'm going to do this?
Speaker 3:So my grandfather was the head litigator for the steel workers union for decades and decades and so he was sort of the big driving force of my life. My family was active, but he was really, you know, he was a precinct captain and so I would go walk with him and knock on doors and he really just helped me, or sort of helped me understand that the way to change things was to get involved and to learn about things and to keep an open mind and to connect with people and not to center myself in the conversation. So just because something might be good for me doesn't mean it's good for somebody else. Um, and so was very involved in local, like local, activism. Local dem clubs got involved with the local dem club here in Burbank and just started to I don't remember which of my friends who was a teacher in BUSD started to say, hey, bring up some. We all do right, we complain about our job, there's good things, there's bad things. And I said, okay, well, so I started to go to school board meetings and I just sat in the back for at least a year and just listen and I said to myself, huh, ok. And one of my friends said have you ever thought about running? And I said, no, not at all. Are you kidding? I'll just have coffee with people and if what they're telling me, I feel like my skill set and my expertise might be helpful, I'll think about running.
Speaker 3:But this was literally a year and a half very slow progression and I said, all right, well, I mean, there's three incumbents running, there's no chance I'm going to win, but I'll put my thoughts out there, I'll put my ideas out there, we'll have good conversations, we'll see what happens. I'll put my ideas out there, we'll have good conversations, we'll see what happens. And so that's. That's really. What motivated me was just a sense of like I think I have some. I would have been at that time. There were no K through 12 teachers on the school board. I thought that was a unique perspective and I had also spent a lot of time working like you read in my bio and curriculum design and really just felt like I had stuff I could offer. So I said, all right, we'll have these conversations and I probably won't win, but I'll be able to talk about things that matter to me, because nothing matters to me more than education. And then I won. Be careful what you ask for I know, I know.
Speaker 2:I know I'm going to go delve one more thing into your past. Then we're going to get on to it. Sure, you're teaching history, yes, especially to middle school kids. Yes, when I was in middle school at Jordan, I was not a history fan. I know, it just didn't interest me.
Speaker 3:I get it.
Speaker 2:And as I got older and in the last 20 years I've been fascinated now by it and I want to travel the country. I've traveled many places in the country. I've walked the Freedom Trail in Boston, I've been to the Smithsonian, I've done a lot of our Civil War the whole thing, and my next goal if I ever get a couple new knees and I can start moving again is to go to Europe and visit some historical sites. So how do you deal with those junior, high or middle school kids who have just glazed eyes in history, although you know that down the line they may come to appreciate it? How did you, what's your focus there? How do you figure that all out?
Speaker 3:the good question. So I am a we need teachers who. I could never teach younger students than middle school. So I have nothing but deep admiration for for our teachers who teach the littles. Middle school is like my sweet spot, my jam. I love them. They're like complete messes of intelligence and hormones and weirdness, and but they're so smart and they have so much to say. And so you know, generally speaking, the connection is so there's a National African-American History Museum. Their tagline is we are living history and that's like, and so we talk about why what we're learning matters in the now, right? So yeah, we've been spending a lot of time recently reading George Washington's farewell address in my eighth grade class and the conversation is not let's spend our time there, but what connections can we make to 2024? What connections can we make to the life you're living? And so when you can bring the past into the present and connect them to that, you don't get every kid, but but as long as there's some kind of connection being made, I find that they are a lot more engaged and a lot more, um, insightful than I think people would expect, and it's I mean, every day with them I'm learning something new.
Speaker 3:I gave them as an extra credit assignment. For example, c-span had a really great lesson on debate watching, so I printed off their bingo card and gave them. I said it's extra credit, I don't have to watch it. It wasn't at all about like who would you vote for? What are your politics about the mechanics of the debate itself. Mainly like do you think that's a good way to learn about candidates? And we had the best conversations. It was so refreshing because I think you and I both know talking with other adults about presidential race is not particularly it's polarizing. It's polarizing and it's often upsetting and it's but the but. The kids are the curiosity.
Speaker 2:Did the kids in general watch the debate? They did, and I mean, would they have watched it anyway? You think no.
Speaker 3:Some of them, yes.
Speaker 2:What do you think that's going to do to them for their future, as far as being now involved in society a little more?
Speaker 3:I hope what it makes them is more active and engaged citizens, and that's what I tell them all the time. You know I'm never going to tell you how to vote, but I want you to vote. I'm never going to tell you which political party to align, but we're going to study both of them and helping them understand that, the choices they make. There's a I used to work for an organization called Facing History and Ourselves and they have this tagline people make choices, choices make history, and what we talk about is that every single choice you make adds up to these monumental moments. And when you say to them hey, where we are right now in 2024, people are going to study this moment and you're living in it they get excited about it and, like I said, not everybody, but I would say 85% of my students I have five classes of seventh and eighth did the debate watching and I did not expect that that would be the number. We had a really good conversation, so I hope it sparks them to keep asking questions.
Speaker 2:I wonder how many of those kids actually watched it with their parents also, which made it a great family experience.
Speaker 3:Most because that was a question on the extra credit. So who did you watch with? What did they think? And I got a we had back to school night this past week and I had great conversations with them as well. So most of them watched with mom or dad or, if they had an older sibling, and it did. It sparked great conversations and I'll say the same thing to them when it comes time to vote. Sit with your parents when they either go to the ballot or they fill it out at home. Give me your observations on the process, you know, just so they can see. This is, this is interesting. This is kind of cool. There's more than just president on the ballot. They don't know that.
Speaker 2:Absolutely Well. This is our podcast tonight. There's a lot of people in the Burbank ballot here, but I know. Well, that's going to bring us to the elephant in the room, and that's not me. I know I'm a big guy, but we have another elephant in the room and it sounds like you're very you are very patriotic, that you're very in tune.
Speaker 3:Yeah.
Speaker 2:Now I have a disagreement with you when it comes to your stance on the Pledge of Allegiance. Sure, I, and I'm not going to get on my soapbox. No, it's okay, this is your time to talk. But I'm going to say this I respect your right to protest when the situation is about equality, correct?
Speaker 3:That was where it started.
Speaker 2:Sure, so I respect your right to protest and say you know what, tonight I'm not going to stand for the pledge of allegiance in protest of whatever, and we're going to talk about what the reason was. But now it's been a couple of years later, you're still not standing, you're still not, and I, I I can't remember why you are protesting, sure, um, I don't think people who just tune in now have any idea why you're protesting, because it's not saying you, and I think you should say it at every meeting. Once again, I choose not to stand for this reason. Okay, I think people need to understand why you're not standing up. Yeah, I think that, in my opinion, you protest and then you move on.
Speaker 2:Sure, you know, doing it this long kind of bothers me a little. When I coach, we have the national anthem. Sure, I don't let players take a knee. I make players remove their caps. To me it's not so much. I respect the flag itself. I respect what it stands and the people who fought for our country, for that flag and for our right to not stand, our right to burn the flag and all those things that are just. You know we don't like it, right, but that's the price of freedom. Sure, so explain to me why you do not want to stand and recite the Pledge of Allegiance with everybody else. Sure, what your reason was for the protest and why, two years later, it's continuing at this point, and why you haven't ended the protest yet.
Speaker 3:Yeah, that's a great. These are great questions and I appreciate you asking them respectfully, because most of the time when I engage with people about it, it's less than respectful. So you're absolutely right. After Uvalde in 2022, it just felt like our government wasn't standing up for students, it wasn't standing up for teachers and I couldn't, in good faith, stand. I mean, I keep in mind too look, I'm a nerdy history teacher at my core and you know this isn't, and I think, the truest form of patriotism and I talk about this a lot, and not about standing for the flag, but with my students which is you have to love something enough to criticize it and want it to get better. So, for me, I don't want to be inauthentic, I don't want to be inauthentically patriotic, and I know that the history of the pledge is really you know what it was created in 1893, didn't really become a thing to the 40s and in 54s, when they added the under God. I mean what. What what I'm trying to do is be authentic, to be true to the Constitution, to be true to what the founders said, to be true to what many historians and thinkers and writers have talked about, which is I love my country enough to criticize it. And the reason that I keep sitting is because think about how many school shootings have happened since Uvalde, and that's and that's why I, if it felt like something had moved, I would stand the heck up and I really, actually I'm going to think about your. I wonder if there's a place in the agenda where I can briefly say, for those of you who don't know, my thing is this I don't want it to be this performative thing where I suck up time, which is why I turn, I face, I look at the flag. I often recite the pledge. I want to, I mean, and look, there are people who choose to video me during the pledge, which I don't think is respectful either. Right, and they put it up on YouTube and they slam me for not standing in life and politics. Right, Exactly, but it's so.
Speaker 3:So, and I will also say that I it was a I'm going to use the word excruciating, it's a little little hyperbolic, but the decision was hard because I don't want to insult people and I have enormous respect for those who have served in the military, for our police, enormous respect for those who have served in the military, for our police. I would never want to denigrate them in any way, shape or form. But I also feel like it's important for me as a public servant and as a history teacher and just as a person. I mean, we had a shooting last week and so for me, if there had been meaningful legislation where I felt like our government said you should not have to go to school in fear I mean I told the story at the last board meeting that I had a student say to me you know, dr W, do you think if I jumped out the window I could make it, I could survive if there was a shooter?
Speaker 3:The fact that I have to have these conversations with 12 year olds, gary, it's, it is, it is, I mean it's every word. It's scary, it's, it is, it is, I mean it's every word. And so I absolutely understand why people don't have a different reaction. My intention is not to piss anyone off or to be disrespectful in protect its students and teachers, and you know, serving in public office is a form of trying to get that done. And I hope I hope more than anything that soon I'm going to stand up again that something changes and that there's some more stuff in place, so that our kids don't ask me can I survive jumping out of a window?
Speaker 2:So what in Uvalde? Was the main thing? That really what is your main focus there? That really said I've got to take a stand now.
Speaker 3:What was the it's a great question, I think I just you know how sometimes you just go enough it's enough. I think it was that. I don't think there was anything about that particular.
Speaker 2:I think we've all said it's enough a long time ago for a lot of this.
Speaker 3:No kidding, yeah. So I don't know that there was anything about that incident that made me go. Now is the time I think it was having those conversations with my kids again being scared to go to do my job. You know, I have a classroom that has windows on both sides and it is. I shouldn't be terrified, I shouldn't think when I walk into my classroom or or be terrified that I'm going to get a call from the superintendent and he's going to tell me that one of our schools had it. You know what I mean. Like it just, I just something snapped and I said I can't, I can't anymore, it's disingenuous for me. So, man, I will be the most excited person in the world to stand again, and I think your point is well taken that I should find ways to make sure that, and I have communicated it. But you're absolutely right, I don't do it every time because I'm trying to find that. I don't want it to be like look at me.
Speaker 2:It was over 30 seconds to say you know, once again, you know I'm I'm supporting the lack of gun control and school shootings and this is my way of doing it. And you move on I think that's great. I think it's you know, if people are first time in a meeting and they see you do that, they don't know what you're. You know they don't understand the history of it, absolutely.
Speaker 3:That's a great suggestion.
Speaker 2:I would, I would, I would appreciate it because I say I forgot why you were. Reinforce it.
Speaker 3:I like it. I really like that suggestion a lot. Thank you.
Speaker 2:That's what I'm here for, but thank you for talking about it too. Anytime, I think it's important we talk about it. Me too. I'm going to move on to what I think is a disaster, and that's our going to districts. Me too, I hate it. The city would not do it. They saw through the form letter and why the board did it. I'm just a little confused why they did it. In fact, when I finally found the map, it's called Map 104. Yeah, why wouldn't you put it on the website and call it school district, districts or something instead of Map 101? Because, oh, is there Map 101? Is there Map 101? You know once again, what we know and what the public who comes in for the first time knows are way two different things, totally. But why would we consider going back out of districts? Because I think this is a disaster. I hate it and people right now two-fifths of the city cannot even vote for a school board member in this election it's insane.
Speaker 3:So so I cannot. There's no way for me to physically agree with you more, and I can guarantee you every single board member hates it. Everyone in the district office hates it. So the way it was presented to us was this that that we were threatened. Well, right, it wasn't the threatening part, though, and we knew who had put the guy up to do it, which is you know, and we knew why, which is, when you district, you intentionally disenfranchise voters, you drive down the vote, and those people who did it thought it would be helpful for their candidates.
Speaker 3:Our lawyers told us no school district has beaten this yet, and it's going to cost millions of dollars, and that money comes out of our general fund, and so, for me, I'm not willing to spend a penny that could go to our classrooms. And they really made it seem like you're not going to win. It's a done deal. You either do it or you waste millions of dollars and you'll still lose. And so that's the way it was presented, and I we had to take the lawyers at their word, but when we went, when the district, so the map numbers, so we had a whole bunch of right Every submitted maps blah blah blah.
Speaker 3:Yeah, that whole thing. And when the district and committee came to approve our map, they said you guys don't need to district. And I said I know. So what I want to have happen, and I think this is something that our legislature can do. There needs to be one more step. So these people who are just doing it for funsies to threaten you, they submit their application to district. There should be a governing body that says this is credible, this isn't credible, instead of it being left up to us where we're being told you either lose millions of dollars or you do this thing. So we felt like we had no choice. I can't wait to get rid of these.
Speaker 2:Let me ask you this. I know we have all kinds of rules about co-mingling. We do have our joint school board and city council meeting. Why is this something that we couldn't have got with the city and say, look, this is a common problem for both of us here, can we fight this together, can we work together on this? And you could have known what they were doing and you could have come up with the same result that way, sure, instead of kind of going off on your own. I mean, is that something you can revisit now and say, look, we want to?
Speaker 3:So when we spoke to the city about it, what they told us is they were willing to fight, they were going to go to court, they would spend the money, they would do it no-transcript funding streams. And we we made a decision that we knew would disenfranchise voters, because we also felt like we were not comfortable with using money that could be used for the classroom to fight a lawsuit and it was a lose-lose right. But that money belongs to our kids. It doesn't belong.
Speaker 2:Because I really can't find. I couldn't walk up to four or five people in the city and say do you know what district you? Live in? Do you know? About this but they had no idea about it. I know, and I think you know you're talking about disenfranchising voters. Well now we've really done that.
Speaker 3:Well, you want to hear even something crazier that people don't even know yet that I just found out. So, according to an ed code in 1996, and I can't do anything about it now, but I'm sure as hell excuse my language I'm going to do something about it for future candidates. So I got something in the mail a couple of days ago and it said notice of election cancellation. And I went what I freaked out? So apparently 1996 Ed Code, which is created by the legislation, it says if you have a school board race in a districted area and you are running unopposed, you are taken off the ballot. So I just get appointed now.
Speaker 3:So that means the 22,000 people who are already completely disenfranchised don't even have the right to vote against me or vote for me. It is undemocratic. I called the registrar himself and I said this is not. This is. This is not democratic. It is not fair. People aren't going to show up to vote for school board maybe ever again, and it's going to erode trust in us. I had never heard of it. I mean, I just found this out. So I'm not even on the ballot anymore. How is that fair to our voters? Whether you like me or don't like me, you should be able to vote.
Speaker 2:It's crazy. Yeah, you're not. There's no disagreement coming from me here. I think that's absolutely nuts, it's insane.
Speaker 3:How is that democratic?
Speaker 2:I kind of wish you guys would never have left the city clerk and gone to the county also.
Speaker 3:That wasn't up to us either.
Speaker 2:Well, I was told you guys did for financial reasons.
Speaker 3:Oh really.
Speaker 2:Yeah, I was done for financial reasons and since then it's hard to find out things about any part of the school board race whatsoever. I know Because the county just doesn't care about. Bert, let's face it At all. You're just one of many.
Speaker 3:I couldn't agree more. And our clerk is phenomenal, and I just, oh, yeah, I mean, I'd like to see you guys returning that back.
Speaker 2:We put it all together like it used to be, I love. I couldn't agree with you more about it. Well, this is going really well, isn't it? Where's all the let's fight? Where's our contention here? Um, but once again, it's good to listen to you know, to your points of view, and to listen what you have to say, and I appreciate it. So likewise, uh, I'm now I might throw a couple of your words against you here. Do it? Let's see here. I can't find it, but you talked about in your bio, about fiscal responsibility.
Speaker 3:Yes.
Speaker 2:I'm going to bring up a couple things which I thought were very fiscally irresponsible.
Speaker 3:Please do.
Speaker 2:That's a mouthful.
Speaker 3:I know, try saying that three times fast.
Speaker 2:That borrows education. So let's start off with the fact that the board we have Dr Matt Hill, who's our superintendent, and with close to a year to go to his contract, we rip up his contract, yep, and give him a nice big fat raise. His contract's supposed to end in June, yep. We gave him a two or three year new contract and a nice big raise, yep. And then June comes along and we decide to fire him for whatever reason.
Speaker 3:Yes.
Speaker 2:Now, because we fired him, but we gave him the brand new contract instead of letting it expire and saying goodbye, dr Hill, we appreciate your time here. Yep, now we're going to pay him an entire year's salary. Yep, at that nice big raise, yeah. Plus, now we're going to get a new superintendent, which we get, and Dr Paramo, who I think is doing a great job but never been a superintendent Sure, and we give him a $50,000 raise above Matt Hill's raise. Sure, which holy cow, $50,000. A lot. Plus, we hear there's an administrator retiring and Stacey Cashman's going to be retiring in a couple months. Rip up her contract, give her a nice new contract with a raise, and then she retires at a higher rate yeah. So explain to me how, when we're cutting things and things, everything else, how do we justify those kind of pay raises to administrators? Sure, and what's going on there?
Speaker 3:so great question your time. So first I will say that I was one of two board members to not vote to renew his contract. Um, it was a difficult vote but I thought it was the right vote to take. So I I did not vote to give him a raise, I did not vote to extend his contract where we recognized that there was no way that we didn't feel like there was any way that Matt could continue leading the district, that the trust had eroded so much that he had to go. So when we spoke with the lawyers and when we talked about what was happening, you know, he, he, I think Burbank Unified is one of the, you know, the top five employers in Burbank. Right, we have over 2,000 employees, we've got 15,000 kids, 215 plus or minus million dollar budget and it's really standard as part of executive contracts to have a sort of severance payout, whether it's public sector or private sector. If there had been, that was part of his contract. There was nothing that we could do about that. But if we didn't, renew the contract.
Speaker 2:That never would have happened. I mean we don't give severance packages to teachers in April. We say you're going to be laid off in June and we don't give them an extra year or a new contract.
Speaker 3:Greg, I agree. That's why I voted against it. I mean I don't have a way to rationalize because I didn't vote to renew the contract. All I can say is that there that his severance package was, and I asked at the time because I was concerned it was standard. It's pretty much standard, not just and was interesting. I asked Andy Cantwell about this recently. He said it used to be an Ed Code that you had to give like 18 months when you let somebody go. Thankfully they reduced Ed Code, reduced it down to 12 months. So yeah, I mean it felt like we were hemorrhaging money for somebody that we didn't think was doing the job.
Speaker 2:And then why did we give a big raise to our new superintendent, who, like I say, great guy. I'm not saying that was a bad decision, I'm just saying is that we didn't give him another raise as an unproven commodity?
Speaker 3:So the way that his contract is structured is that he does not get raises, so that $50,000 was built in. So you will see him. He does not get raises.
Speaker 3:Now For how long For at least the length of this contract and then we'll see when he gets his next contract. So that was there. So basically we negotiated with him and he said I don't want raises. So that's where that comes from. And because he had served for 18 years in the district in all the positions that you already know, he's still underpaid in comparably sized districts and I recognize that he still makes a lot of money. But again, you know it's like managing an organization with that kind of budget, those number of employees, those students and parents. It's an exceptionally difficult job. But I don't want people to think we gave him 50 grand raise and we're continuing to give him a raise because he does not get one. So it's not a perfect solution. But I think Are you going to commit to making him serve his contract out before you give a new contract then, because he does not get one?
Speaker 2:So it's not a perfect solution, but I think Are you going to commit to making him service contract out before you did give a new contract then, or we're not going to rip it up a year and a half down the line and say here's a new contract for you.
Speaker 3:So I learned during my first term that it's pretty standard to do that with superintendents, which still is weird to me, absolutely. So that's something that we'll have a conversation about. Look, I think that what is invaluable about it independent of because I'm okay with six months in advance or something four or five months.
Speaker 2:I get that because you want to have some stability, but over a year, a year and a half in advance to me is ludicrous.
Speaker 3:I don't disagree, I really don't disagree with you.
Speaker 3:I was saying the same thing at that moment and we were going through such a devastating fiscal Bomb at that time, absolutely.
Speaker 3:So it was this moment of of just, and again it's hard, because you don't want to be the guy to be like. I told you so, guys, because it was horrible that's my job, well but so you wanted to make sure that we were bringing somebody in, because, I'll tell you, the biggest thing I worried about, beyond being deeply concerned about our fiscal situation, was rebuilding the trust that was completely gone in the district. And so, if you, you know and that's one of the things that's hard often when you hear, look, when people run for office, you got to bring out like the this is wrong and this is wrong, I totally get it, but the district that was two years ago is not the district that is today in any way, shape or form, and you have a superintendent now who is committed to teachers, committed to students, has rebuilt that trust, and you know what comes next. Who knows, but I can guarantee you that Matt did not. Dr Hill did not get anything other than what was standard in his contract and is standard in other superintendent contracts.
Speaker 2:My thing was just that got ripped up halfway through.
Speaker 3:Oh, I agree, that was my thing. Yeah me too.
Speaker 2:You're talking about. We're not the same schools as we were a couple years ago. And one of my questions is we used to have a lot of California Distinguished Schools and Blue Ribbon Schools. Yeah, and you can drive by a lot of schools and it's painted on the wall, but the year's up there. That's not happening anymore in any of our schools. That's not happening right now. I think the last year or two, not one school has become a distinguished school or a Blue Ribbons school.
Speaker 3:So I don't I would have to check on that.
Speaker 2:Okay, and I could be wrong, but it's not the volume we used to have, right.
Speaker 3:What can we do to change that? It's hard because the two main drivers of people leaving not just Burbank right and Burbank Unified, but public school districts in cities across the country. It's two things which I'm sure you've heard everybody say right, people don't have kids anymore and people can't afford to live here. We do exit interviews in the district and we say, like, are you leaving because the quality of education is low? No, we're leaving because we can't afford to live here.
Speaker 3:So I think there's been this sort of myth that's been spun that our test scores are down or that they're not learning as well. And certainly test scores everywhere are down, as we're still. And again, I'm not using COVID as an excuse, but it did create like very, very severe learning loss. And so this is what I say to people a lot when they look at metrics it's not we don't work in a bank, right? Like these metrics are kids and there's a million things that go into that. So I do not think and I would push back with confidence that our academics have suffered. I don't think that's true. I think the issue is that, because of the money and the funding that we receive, we do have slightly larger class sizes still significantly smaller than in surrounding districts. I don't know. I'll admit I need to check out the Blue Ribbon and Distinguished Schools Because I don't know if it's like. Once you get it, do you?
Speaker 2:always have it. Well, I think it's only good for a year. For a year it was issued, or whatever.
Speaker 3:I'll shoot you an email, but I just. I feel like the work that's being done in our schools is still exemplary. People are still moving here to take their kids to Burbank Unified. The issue is that people can't afford to stay.
Speaker 2:We did lose 12 principals in an 18-month period. Now, is that because of, do you think, issues with Dr Hill at that?
Speaker 3:100%. We haven't lost anybody since Dr Paramo has come on board. What we have seen are people come back. So Oscar Macias, who I call the unicorn of Burbank unified um, that man is he's outstanding.
Speaker 2:I've I've known. I've known him since I used to coach against him, so then you know he was a coach at Notre Dame High School. When I was coaching at Crespi's, I got to know him, but that was 30 years ago. So yeah, absolutely.
Speaker 3:So when everything?
Speaker 2:happened, amazing man.
Speaker 3:Amazing man, and I think about Dr Meg at Huerta and I think about all these people. And I remember, you know, after Dr Hill left, I remember sending a text to Dr Macias and I said, when are you coming home? And he came home. And if you look at the district now and this is sort of my point about what's different the only time we're seeing principal turnover is when they're getting promoted and moving up. So Rebecca Harris, who was the principal at Disney, is a phenomenal example, rockstar principal Now she's able to serve all of our you know, all of our primary community, all of our elementary community in her role. So we're seeing people, what every business wants. Right, you want really talented people to be able to impact more.
Speaker 2:And you want them moving up. I mean, Dr Perron was a principal Dr.
Speaker 3:Macias was a principal Dr Macias right.
Speaker 2:And you want I mean you want people to be promoted.
Speaker 3:That's right In those positions but we don't want school districts like see me poaching our people, right, but I think it's not a good thing. If you look at the timeline of when our principals left, it has not been within the last school year, that's true. And so what I think? That to me, is the biggest indication of the type of positive now are we perfect? Heck, no. Do we have an enormous amount of work to do? Yes, but I think where we are now versus where we were is extraordinary difference.
Speaker 2:Well, we're going to talk a little bit about funding. So we have a bond measure. Yes, sir, we have also a state measure, california Prop 2. Yes, I'm wondering how many. Do you think it was a mistake to put the bond measure for the school district on the same time as a state measure? Because people might say, okay, I'll give the state, but I can't, I'm not going to do twice, or they might cancel each other and we'll know on both of them now. Do you think it was a bad time to put that onto the ballot? And let me ask you this also Sure, a lot of people they don't trust the board. They really don't, and I was one of those people for a long time.
Speaker 2:I get it and I was worried that if we pass this and give you a billion dollars, that you're going to have all your friends come and be on the committee to decide where it's all going to go. Sure and the accountability. Sure and the accountability. Sure and the infrastructure projects. Burroughs was a disaster when they rebuilt Burroughs. It's falling apart, yeah, yeah, because of shoddy work and craftsmanship, and maybe we got the bottom of the barrel for what we could pay for. I've heard that. So how do we make sure that we have people on oversight who are going to have the best? You know, get the district built for the next 50 years and not do favors, or you know? I understand what you're saying on that right, oh yeah. So what are your thoughts on A having the same time as the state? And then, how are we going to make sure that people know it's going to be dealt with correctly?
Speaker 3:I love these questions so much. No, I literally, because I get to talk, I get to respond to them. So first thing to know about the state bond is that we would get none of it if we weren't putting our bond on the ballot, because you basically need to match funds. So we stand if we match funds. I think and I'll ask, I'll get clarification but I think we get something like $40 million, which is I'll take every penny of it. But we have about $1.2 billion of infrastructure repair that our facilities master plan highlighted. The bond continuance that's on the ballot will generate about $500 million. We would get nothing from the state bond if we weren't able to put up matching funds, which we couldn't do without the bond. So, yeah, I don't love there being two bonds, but I am happy that we will hopefully be in a position to get that matching fund from the state.
Speaker 2:The bond money for the district and I don't know I have not read the bond measure of the state Neither one can be used for any kind of salaries or anything else. They can only be used for infrastructure.
Speaker 3:Absolutely so. The thing that somebody taught me this and it's the thing that makes the most sense in my brain is bonds are for buildings, parcel taxes are for people. So one of the things that we've been putting out that's in the bond language itself, but it's really long and boring, and also in our flyers is that it can literally only be used for infrastructure. You cannot pay anybody with it, you can't use it for anything like that, but you can free up some general fund dollars that you can use for other things. So, and to answer your question, so we have a. Is it called SFOC, the civilians? Oh my God, it's the oversight committee that oversees the bond. I don't believe the board has any say in who is on that committee, nor do I think that we have any say. So who points that?
Speaker 2:committee then.
Speaker 3:So my guess would be facilities, the superintendent and a number of other people. So we've had the same committee for a very long time. They don't interact with us, and that's the correct thing to do.
Speaker 2:Well, I'll tell you what. Those people in the committee were here when Burroughs Construction was. They should not be on the committee anymore.
Speaker 3:I think it'll be a new committee. So one of the things you know we did this, we do this ethics training every year. And one of the things that always resonates with me about it is it's not about, it's not just about doing the right thing, it's about the perception that you're doing the right do but, I don't want our hands touching anything.
Speaker 3:The board is there to approve the contracts once they're done, but not to create them, not to call in favors, not to do any of that stuff. And again, I wasn't on the board the last time there was a bond on the ballot. But I talk about that ethics line constantly. If it even looks like we're doing something unethical, we've got to stop doing it. So you know, hopefully, if you have Mr Cantwell or somebody else come in and talk, he can speak more to that, but the oversight committee is the one who's really doing that. The other thing, too, that I think we have to spend some time thinking about is is part of the reason why Burroughs was built so poorly because we didn't use skilled union labor Like who are we using to build this?
Speaker 2:Yeah, I mean, I really don't. I don't remember all that because I was not involved at that time much, but I just know that a lot of complaints from a lot of people, it's just it's falling apart already, oh yeah.
Speaker 3:It's only been what 20, 25 years Not that long, yeah, so it's, it's, it's. So there are. There are very clear rules about what we can do and what we can't do, and where our hands are and where they aren't. And so, if I mean for people who watch board meetings, if they ever see on a consent agenda that's usually where contracts show up we don't put it on there. We can ask questions, which I often do. We can pull it if we're confused about it. I pulled something recently because I saw we were paying a quarter of a million dollars to this cab company to transport our special education students, which we obviously need to do. But my question was could we be partnering with somebody that uses clean energy? Can we find somewhere that's a little less expensive while not losing any quality? So there are times where we do pull things, but I have no say in who we hire to do those jobs, and I think it's important for people to know that.
Speaker 2:I look forward to number one seeing that bond pass because I know what shape our schools are in. But number two is holding the district to a standard that the schools will be built in the proper way and with the proper you know.
Speaker 3:Couldn't agree more.
Speaker 2:We're going to turn the page a little bit here and we're going to go back to kind of what we talked about before. We talked about Uvalde. Going to go back to kind of what we talked about before. We talked about yvaldi. But, if we understand, I've been a high school coach for 40 years. I taught in the classroom for eight, nine years myself. Every teacher knows, no matter what they tell you, they all know who gets bullied, all the kids know who gets bullied.
Speaker 2:Yep, you can have a district policy that says we are 100% anti-bullying, and all the great sayings and the posters on the wall and all those things, but the bullying goes on and these school shootings are being caused by kids who were bullied and feel they have no other recourse but to act out. It's just so unfortunate. Of course we all know it's a mental health thing and that type of stuff.
Speaker 2:But I've had ideas such as why not have students in the school, a group of four or five students who are leaders in the school, who know who's being bullied, see what happens, work to get it fixed and stay on it Instead of you know? Because, let's face it, you know, everybody turns their back a little bit and says well, you know, I see that kid's getting bullied, but nobody does anything. And that's the systemic problem. After a period of time, if we had a way of curing that either with peer groups in the schools who always they know right from wrong and they want to make a difference, and there's a lot of really smart kids who want to make a difference. So what can be done?
Speaker 2:Let's say we have bullying, and this is not just Burbank, this is every school there is. This is not our board's fault, anybody else's fault, but it happens, yeah, but we all know. We think that the shootings are being caused by bullying over a period of time. So what? What are your thoughts on that? What can be done to really help fix that problem?
Speaker 3:I love that question. I mean it's it's and it's a sort of impossible one to answer. I can see here a couple of things that I think. I think that we know that not every kid that gets bullied turns around and does something extreme like a school shooting, and I think you hit the nail on the head when you talk about mental health. So one of the things that I think has been so great to see at our high schools, for example, is, you know, we have a student mental health board, we have link crew, we have ASB, we have all these different affinity clubs that you can join, and I think those are a step in the right direction where you feel like- those are a step, but is the bully going to come out of his shell I mean the kid being bullied come out of his shell and want to participate in that?
Speaker 2:That's my thing. You know, as a coach, if I see a kid every day, I say you suck. And the next day, the first couple days, the kid says oh yeah, I laughed it off, right right, but I say it. You know, 35 days in a row the kid's going to start no question.
Speaker 2:So, yeah, we have these things. The kid can you know, oh, you can go join this, join that, but that's still their choice to go join it, compared to somebody being there in support for the kid who doesn't want to, you know, who gets into a show and wants to go home and hide in his room every day.
Speaker 3:So there are a couple of other things that are there and the question is, to your point, like, do people use these things? So we obviously have a see something, say something. We have an anonymous tip line that you can call If you see something, you hear something, that you're scared for someone you know. No one wants to be the snitch, right, Right, but you can do it that way. Our teachers are phenomenal at identifying.
Speaker 2:Yeah, and I don't want to say our teachers don't care, that's not what I'm saying. I'm just saying that they know what's going on more than anybody believes.
Speaker 3:There's no question. I also think you know our school psychologists, I think our counselors, but the reality is, to your point, all of those things, is someone going to take advantage of them? Because some does slip through the cracks often, and so part of what we're trying to do to address that, and I think it's something that we're slow to do, I think a lot of districts are slow to do, because everyone, we all kind of hyper fixate high school, right, high school, high school. We got to start in elementary, correct? So that's one of the things the district has shifted pretty dramatically is the amount of focus we're putting on our elementary schools in regards to bullying, in regards to hate speech, in regards to mental health, and so I am hopeful. Is it going to fix everything? I don't think so, but we should, and I would say this to anybody in any district If you start in elementary, hopefully those seeds that you plant blossom as they get into middle and they get into high school and it changes the tone and tenor a little bit. So that's something I think we hadn't previously done a great job of, but I'm really happy about, and that's why I think you know, having Rebecca Harris there, having Dr Macias, dr Kanapik, they're really focusing on those things.
Speaker 3:The other thing that I asked for, which has also been helpful and we implemented last year, is that every five weeks we get a report which is all of the information about any student incident. Now, this isn't going to pick up maybe a kid who is silently suffering, like you bring up right. But if there's a kid who is bullying, someone who is constantly on a kid or has been called into the principal's office and we start to see trends every five weeks that's basically a grading period Then we're able to say wait a minute, I'm seeing this at this site. We need to get more resources here. I'm seeing things at this site. Let's to get more resources here. I'm seeing things at this site. Let's have FSA come in and do some some you know community circles. So we're paying a lot more attention in that manner to try to see if we can catch things before they happen.
Speaker 3:Sergeant Lauffer, who is, and I think, the head of our juvenile division she's in the police, she's unbelievable and she also works with our school services team, with Dr Paramo, and talks about they do threat assessment as well, which you can do by looking at you know myriad things. So I think the short answer is right we don't know. The longer answer is we're starting younger. I think data is really, really helpful, I think reminding our students that, hey, you have this resource here that you can use anonymously, so that if you see something and it just makes your spine tingle a little bit, just call. So I'm hoping that those things make an impact. But it is, it's an epidemic, right. We need and I don't think anyone yet has found a cure, you know, but we keep looking.
Speaker 2:Getting us rid of the assault weapons is the first part of that cure but, Wouldn't that be nice. There's no simple answers. There's no easy answers. I wanted to hear what you had to say about it.
Speaker 3:Yeah.
Speaker 2:There's probably a lot more we can get into, but we're kind of getting at near the end. Here's the funny part, because the podcast for anybody appears in the Burbank ballot and now we're finding out you're not going to appear on the Burbank ballot, although that's not your choice. No, but I do like to give the candidate, or at least the person, some time to talk to the voter. Sure, and explain what your vision is going to be for the next four years, or the next 10 years in the district. Talk to people, tell them what you're all about, what you want to do, what you'd like to accomplish. You know where your camera is right here, hello. So I will let you give you as much time as you want to put the message out that you want to right now. I appreciate that. So the time is yours.
Speaker 3:Well. So one of the things that I'm still going to do, despite no longer being on the ballot, is I'm still going to knock on doors. It's really important to hear what voters care about, and I'm so angry about how disenfranchised everybody has been through this process. I don't want people to stop caring about the school board. I don't want people to stop scaring, caring about schools. I want people to stay invested and involved. So we're I'm still going to get out there and talk with people. I'll still continue. You know, once, once the new term kicks in, I do weekly. I call them office hours, where anyone can either zoom or call me and we can talk about things.
Speaker 3:But the next four years for me are really going to be about setting the district up to be in a better place than it was four years ago. So I can talk about a couple of things. So I know you've had people on here talk about the abysmal way that we're funded. So there's sort of two categories that I'm going to be advocating at the state level to change, because it's not enough just to say the state doesn't give us enough money. The end they do, they don't give us enough money. But you can only say that for so long until you then have to try to fix it. So we need to change it so that we're funded by enrollment, not attendance, because we don't hire teachers based on attendance. We don't buy supplies based on attendance. We do it based on enrollment. We're one of only, I think, seven states in the entire country us, mississippi and a couple of other states and while I'm sure Mississippi is a beautiful place to be, I don't want us coupled with them when it comes to education statistics. I also we have.
Speaker 3:I'm going to try to make a complicated thing simple. So we have something called unduplicated pupils, and what that means is if you're a student who is either an English language learner, low socioeconomic, homeless or foster youth, you get extra money from the state so that you can help support those kiddos in a more meaningful way. But you can't be counted in more than one category. So let's say you are homeless, but you're also an English learner. Now, when your test scores come out, that kiddo is separated into all the categories into which they fall, but we only receive funding for one of those categories. So we're not getting the financial support we need to help that student. We're just getting enough for one part of where they're struggling. So that's something else that needs to be changed. So I would argue that most of our legislators probably don't know anything about this. Educational funding is complicated, and so one of the things that I'm going to focus on in the next four years is advocating strongly to get these things on a ballot, to get strong pieces of legislation written. I don't fault other districts for getting more money they have higher at-risk student populations but we are so deficient when it comes to the kind of funding we get from the state. I mean, I don't know that people know this. The state gives you no money for facilities, so the money that we get from the bond, that's what we use. So that's something I'm trying really hard to focus on. Also, voter education, so more people learn about this. Hopefully, more people run for school board advocate at the state and local level.
Speaker 3:Another focus for me is I'm sure people hear me talk about diversity, equity and inclusion a lot, because it's you know, it's the thing Buzzwords, buzzwords. It's the thing that everybody talks about. What I don't think that people and I include, you know, our education community, dei doesn't stop in the classroom. It also is about the type of labor we use to build our classrooms. Are those people being paid a living wage? Are they being treated fairly? Are we including our neurodiverse students as part of the conversation in diversity, equity and inclusion? Are we talking about our teachers? It has to be a holistic, sort of 100% everyone on board.
Speaker 3:I think it gets sort of marginalized in this thing where, well, you only care when you talk DEI, you only care about this student group and this student group, and sure that's what equity is right. You're reaching out to student groups that need more support. But it also means we have to think deeply about every aspect of our district, from the way we build things to the way we interact with our students, to the way that we treat our teachers. So that's a big thing for me. I want to make sure that we are also being transparent and accountable with our finances. So we had that third party fiscal audit FICMAT came in, told us what was wrong, told us all the things that we needed to fix, and we have regularly scheduled updates, and that needs to continue to happen because we have a lot of work to do. I think we're in a again. We're in a much better place than we were a year and a half ago, but we've got a ways to go. So I think that's a big focus should be for me and everybody on the board.
Speaker 3:I also think that helping and I think part of this is because in an election cycle everything tends to skew negative, right, because if something's working, why would you need to vote for somebody new, right?
Speaker 3:I get it, but I would love people to see the district as it is and not as it was, and I know that's a very hard thing to do. But you know to your point a little bit ago about that huge wave of principals we had leave, right, that's true, but that doesn't happen anymore. So how can we help our community see both what we need as far as assistance, but also all the things that are there to celebrate. I think that's a really important part of our job as board members to highlight the work our teachers are doing, our kiddos are doing and say, look, have you looked at our district lately? It's actually pretty phenomenal. I think that's a huge part of it. All of that, all of that. You know just those couple of things, but you know, and again, to be there to support every student that walks through our doors and to make them feel seen, heard, supported and elevated in every possible way.
Speaker 2:Wow.
Speaker 3:Just that.
Speaker 2:By the way, I don't think that high school kids like being called kiddos.
Speaker 3:You know what, though I teach? I taught, you know? Probably not. I'm a you, probably not. I'm a middle school teacher, through and through I'm a high school guy.
Speaker 2:So you know, I know, I know, but I, I really, you know, I I.
Speaker 2:It's a lot to unpack there yeah um, I think it'd be nice, maybe down the line, after the election cycles over, to come in and have another podcast and talk about a lot, because there's a lot going on that we can't even touch on here. I'd love to. I'd like to talk about canceling books and revising history and all those things I'm sure you have a lot of opinions on, oh my goodness. So I think those would be some good opinions down the line.
Speaker 3:I'd love to. I'd love to Anytime.
Speaker 2:Well, dr Weisberg, I can't tell you how much I appreciate you coming in to to spend time with us here, um for having me you know that I've been a critical, very critical, but I got to tell you what you've opened my eyes to some things.
Speaker 2:I respect what you have to say. Thank you, I think you do have some good vision. I think you do want to go in the right direction. Hope so. The fiscal audit you, the fiscal audit, you know the autopsy basically was a great idea. I thought it was much needed. So I think you know we are going in the right direction. But I appreciate you coming in and giving me that chance to ask my questions Anytime. I mean it. And I think it's important. I really do.
Speaker 3:Yeah, me too.
Speaker 2:So thank you once again. Thank you, and I will once again throw out there if you are on the Burbank ballot or you're running unopposed and get taken off the ballot, please send me an email at news at myburbankcom and let me know, and we would be glad to have you on a show and let people get to know who you are and why you are. So thanks again for listening Craig Sherwood saying. Thank you once again, goodbye.