Bonds, budgets and curriculum: Six weeks in, Carlsbad’s new schools superintendent cites broad experience

An experienced North County educator recently took the helm of Carlsbad Unified School District with an eye to improving budget-making, facilities and all students’ achievement, with help from the community.

Andrea Norman, who was most recently assistant superintendent of business services for nearby Oceanside Unified, officially began on June 16, months after her predecessor left to lead Poway Unified.

A San Diego native who has worked in both the classroom and the central office, Norman says she brings an understanding of all aspects of a school district and experience with facilities funding.

Her background — which includes human resources, business services and curriculum and instruction — has helped her understand the complexities of leading a high-performing K-12 district like Carlsbad Unified. 

“I understand everything from how you roll out curriculum to implementing board policies to how you manage your budget and make sure that you’re able to meet the needs of your students and of your staff,” she said in a recent phone interview.

Within the next five years, she hopes to raise students’ achievement and implement social and emotional wellness programs. And within the next decade, Norman said a group for their bond project is finishing up next year and then another cycle will be starting. She said they’re redoing the master plan for their facilities right now, which will be presented to the board.

That’s one area where her background in budgets and bond projects may come in handy, she said. Just the other day, she noted, she was on the site of a construction project being funded by bond money and was able to share what kinds of funding models might be available for similar projects.

Like many new superintendents, Norman is prioritizing listening to and learning from students, staff and families. Her goal is strong relationships, which she finds essential to the work of education. 

She says she’s already seen how collaborative the city is with the school district. And when she met with school leaders, she learned how valued their staff is by the district’s “gem of a community” — and how much the staff values students.

“A lot of our educators live in the community and care deeply about the experiences that they bring to our students,” she said.

The community cares in turn, she said, pointing to voters’ passage of bond measures to support the district and maintain its facilities as evidence of public investment in students’ success.

Carlsbad Unified voters passed the $265 million Measure HH in November 2018 to modernize classrooms, science labs or classrooms; that measure’s last issuance was received in February. Previously, with Prop P, approved in the mid-2000s, they issued four bonds totaling almost $200 million.

Its bond success reflects to some degree Carlsbad Unified’s demographics as a relatively affluent, high-performing district. Fewer than a quarter of its students are considered socioeconomically disadvantaged.

Its community and parent involvement may reflect those demographics, too.

“I love the parent involvement,” Norman said. “I think parent involvement is essential to helping students be successful, both academically and socially.”

Carlsbad Unified, according to California’s school dashboard, scored well last year on math and English language arts, with a green rating on both of those subject areas. It scored even higher, or blue, on college and career preparedness, as well as on graduation rate.

But the district earned its lowest score, orange, on progress by English language learners.

Fewer than 5% of the district’s students are English learners, and Norman points out that many can be high-performing in one area but not in others — making it especially important the district identify in which areas of language learning a student most needs support.

Meanwhile, with the start of the school year, Carlsbad Unified is working to implement a universal design for learning along with a multi-tiered system of support, Norman said. Those programs, she added, will ensure the district is working with students in a systemic way, not an arbitrary one. 

“It’s important that we are academically challenging and rigorous and at the same time we’re making sure that we’re meeting the needs of all learners,” she said. “Are we really focusing in on our students who also are not achieving?”

The community involvement Norman praised has also at times led to political tumult for the district.

Norman declined to discuss the issue of political polarization in school districts and on their elected boards. But in recent years, the district she now leads has played host to several such conflicts.

Two years ago, the school board approved the district’s first-ever ethnic studies class, but not without removing mentions of institutional racism from the description after complaints. And a draft diversity plan later drew opposition from local church members who didn’t want LGBTQ+ matters discussed in schools.