Guzman Office Hours Feb ‘26

• Attendees: Trustee Guzman, two district parents, and Leigh Cavalier

Prestwood Campus: Guzman stated his understanding that both existing charter schools were asked about using the Prestwood campus and both declined.

Petition Deficits: Parents questioned why identified financial and operational deficits in the charter petition have not been addressed. They also questioned the logic after having been given the district's legally mandated Charter Petition analiysis and the fact the petitioners didn't have sufficient information that was required, that Guzman's four board colleagues voted to grant the charter their petition anyway. Guzman said he took in all the information available to to the board and made his decision based on that. He could speak as to why the other 4 came to a different conclusion.

Governance Training: Guzman stated governance training is voluntary but important and that the looks forward to participating.

Teacher Communication: Emphasis was placed on the need for stronger communication with teachers, who understand which services can or cannot be reduced without harming students.

Financial Impact of Charter: Guzman acknowledged that approving the charter would result in deficit spending; district funds would be redirected to the charter, leaving less funding for approximately 3,100 remaining district students.

Board Transparency: Concern raised that excessive use of acronyms during Board meetings creates barriers to public understanding; recommendation made that acronyms be defined for clarity.

Charter Justification Concerns: Question raised regarding how the Board can justify approving a charter when financial experts advised that current enrollment decline and fiscal instability make this an inappropriate time.

Academic Metrics Discussion: At a recent Board meeting, Sonoma Charter presented select performance metrics. A teacher commented that broader metrics show district schools outperform Sonoma Charter overall.

There was concern expressed that comparisons between district schools and charter schools should use equivalent data for fairness and accuracy. It was mentioned that at the last Board meeting when Sonoma Charter was giving their presentation, they displayed 1 test score which was meant to show how well Sonoma Charter was performing & higher than the district schools.

A teacher at that board meeting said, that score was misleading. One score tells very little about how students are doing academically, it's when you look at ALL the metrics that gives you are far more accurate picture.

District schools actually out perform the Sonoma Charter if the measurement was an aggregated analysis of all the metrics. When making comparisons they must be done using the same group of metrics, not one score from one test.