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Racism and equity gaps for certain demographics of students in the Pleasanton Unified School District took the center stage during a recent school board meeting where staff discussed different ways the district continues to address these issues.
While the Board of Trustees did not take any action during the regular board meeting, the consensus from the board and administrative staff was that even though PUSD is doing a number of things to support its disadvantaged student population, more can be done — particularly to address racist behaviors.
“Strong overall performance does not mean our work is done,” Jr. Yee, coordinator of educational technology, told the trustees. “We acknowledge that equity gaps continue to exist along historic and systemic lines in education. In PUSD, we do not view this as separate from our success, but essential to our work.”
During the Jan. 15 meeting, Yee and several other top administrators from the district spent nearly an hour going over student performance data and the different ways the district continues to respond to that data.
The overarching numbers showed how the district was in the top three districts in the county when it came to student performance in math and English language arts — PUSD also touted how it placed No. 1 when compared to other similarly sized districts.
But what staff spent most of their time discussing was the data regarding PUSD’s disadvantaged groups of students who are socioeconomically disadvantaged or English learners, as well as students with disabilities, Black and African American students and Hispanic students.
At a glance, a lot of the data on these disadvantaged student groups showed how math and language arts scores stayed mostly the same. Other performance measurements were also mostly viewed in a positive lens as well by staff.
“These results reflect not a single initiative, but a sustained equity-focused approach grounded in high expectations, strong instructional practice and the relationships and connections that support student engagement, persistence and learning — especially for our most underserved students,” Yee said.
However, a closer look showed slight dips in certain areas of performance for each category of disadvantaged students.
“When I look at the data, what I see is a little bit different than staff,” Christina Nystrom, a longtime Pleasanton resident, said during the meeting. “What I see is that Pleasanton Black students are performing below the state average in both (English Language Arts) and math with math performance declining from 2024 to 2025.”
“You can play with numbers as much as you want but when I see that for ELA, all students in Pleasanton are 69 points above standard … but African American students are below by 40-plus percent … this is embarrassing,” she added.
The data also shows that Hispanic students, who make up roughly 11% of all students, and students with disabilities, who make up about 8.6% of all students, are also underperforming in both math and language arts.
Staff spent a good amount of time going over the different ways the district and specific school sites support these marginalized student communities.
“Our focus remains on closing achievement and opportunity gaps through intentional, data-informed strategies implemented within a culture of strong relationships grounded in our core belief that belonging, high expectations and meaningful connections are prerequisites for learning,” Yee said.
From adhering to the district’s “Multi-Tiered System of Support” framework for equitable instruction, to offering specific programs for these student populations, administrators said they are committed to doing everything they can to continue supporting these students who are not performing as well as others.
“We focus on belonging, we focus on relationships, we focus on student engagement,” deputy superintendent Ed Diolazo said during the meeting. “Our data tracking is specific and then our resources are targeted, that’s what we want to tell you tonight. That’s the story that we want to end with and letting you all know that we are focused on all of our students and especially our students who are underachieving.”
Several school site administrators, including Pleasanton Middle School principal Marco Lopez, went over the different ways schools work with these marginalized student communities through improving the culture, instruction and systems at these schools.
One example Lopez provided was how his school introduced extended learning and extended day tutoring programs in order to close those equity gaps.
“Black and African American students participating in this program have demonstrated measurable growth in core academic skills, increased attendance and proved self-efficacy as learners,” Lopez said.
Other principals from the district also noted their progress in helping particular disadvantaged groups of students and how their teachers and staff continue to do the most important work, which is building relationships with these students who need a little extra support.
“We firmly believe that teachers, staff and administrators have the mindset to serve our underserved population,” Diolazo said.
One topic that soon took over the conversation was racism and how, from a community-building perspective, it’s hard for PUSD to say it’s supporting students while those marginalized communities continue to experience racism at the schools.
“I’m so disappointed,” Nystrom said after she didn’t hear much talk about racism during the presentation. “You talk about creating community; how can you create community when there is racism that is widely known?”
One example of this came up prior to the discussion during the board’s public comment period where a mother of a fifth grader said her African American child was bullied multiple times by fellow students and even by some adults. She said kids have made fun of her child’s hair and called her racial slurs — she also said her child experienced micro-aggressions by staff during kid’s club.
Each board member acknowledged how these cases of racism need to be addressed and during the discussion, Trustee Mary Jo Carreon asked staff to come back to the board with data on hate-motivated speech at PUSD schools.
Trustee Charlie Jones, who was particularly fired up on the topic, said that while he doesn’t believe in kicking students out of the district, PUSD needs to be more mindful of how it is handling students who are being racist and are not facing consequences at home.
“We can’t sacrifice the 99% of our students for a 1% that might not want to change or refuses to because you cannot have community and you cannot have learning in a place that you have no safety, that’s just a reality,” Jones said. “And right now we have students that feel like they have no safety here and therefore they are not a part of the community because they have been othered.”
“It’s not that we need to get rid of kids. It’s: does the system actually support and protect our most vulnerable, or is it leaving them more vulnerable?” Jones added.
To that end, PUSD Superintendent Maurice Ghysels introduced the idea of establishing an ad hoc advisory group — which was supported by the board — on equity and inclusion where stakeholders will discuss these issues and other ways to support and improve the experience of marginalized students in the district.
Board President Kelly Mokashi also added, as echoed by her colleagues, that the school board needs to continue discussing these difficult topics in an open forum so that they can all find a way to address these issues.
“Racisim does exist,” Diolazo said. “It exists in society, it exists in our schools and we want to combat it to the best of our ability.”
