Veteran school district CBO Jayne Christakos joins us to help build our practical understanding of equity and resource allocation in educational systems, and to identify some good places to start. She emphasizes the crucial importance of embracing a districtwide culture that is comfortable using data, asking questions and "listening to the whole system."

Throughout our series, we’re sharing specific experiences and examples of leaders and practitioners who are doing the work of ensuring a more equitable allocation of resources. We explore their motivations, what tools they’re using, what’s working, and what they’ve learned. 

Check out theEpisode 2 Companion Brief: Using Data to Advance Equity.

Jayne Christakos has served as a chief school business official in several California districts, including the past six years as CBO with San Bernardino City Unified School District (SBCUSD), where she recently retired from in June. SBCUSD is among the 12 largest school districts in the state with nearly 50,000 students, about 90% who qualify for free and reduced price meals. The district has implemented a number of significant initiatives to improve learning and well-being for its diverse student population.

In this episode, Jayne describes work she has helped carry out in the district, including an initiative called Targeted Support for School Progress (TSSP) that utilized data across all areas to identify a number of school sites for additional support. As part of TSSP, district and site teams worked to examine everything they were doing, from classroom instruction to professional development. The effort also involved creating a new cabinet-level assistant superintendent position for continuous improvement (led by Dr. Rachel Monarrez) -- and strengthening cross-departmental collaboration. Data after the first year of the program showed significant improvements for student subgroups across many areas.

Jayne also shares additional timely advice for leaders and school business officials based on her experiences in the CBO chair, as a CBO mentor, and as a "go-to" person for so many in the state on school district budgeting.

Related resources

CASBO WorkWise Webinar: Leaders from San Bernardino City USD discuss the value of social emotional learning for education leaders and share real-world examples and best practices.

About our series

Budgeting for Educational Equity is presented by the California Association of School Business Official (CASBO), the premier resource for professional development and best practices for more than 24,000 California school business leaders, in partnership with WestEd, a national nonprofit research development and service agency that works to promote excellence and equity in education.

We are grateful to the Sobrato Family Foundation for providing additional support.

Engage with us!

Follow us on Twitter at @Budget4EdEquity to keep up to date on the series and share your thoughts, ideas, questions and feedback.

Budgeting for Educational Equity is written and produced by Paul Richman and Jason Willis. Original music, mixing and sound by Tommy Dunbar. John Diaz at WestEd serves as an advisor and develops the written materials that go along with each episode.