Guest Column
Kelly Osborne, Retiring Member
Laguna Beach Unified School District Board of Education
If you truly look at what we’ve accomplished, in spite of the pandemic, you’d have to be impressed
It has been my sincere honor to serve on the Laguna Beach Unified Board of Education the last four years. I want to take this opportunity to thank voters who entrusted me with making decisions on behalf of students and share accurate school data.
Let’s start with academics. LBUSD has exceptional academic results. Looking back at 2020 and 2021, let’s remember that schools faced the biggest disruption in the history of American education. Nationwide, student math and reading scores plummeted in the wake of the COVID-19 pandemic, and the 2022 National Assessment of Educational Progress, or NAEP, showed that nationally, nearly two decades of progress in reading and math were erased. With this national data in mind and our local data in hand, our Board of Education supported additional teachers, new intervention programs, diagnostic assessments, tutorial models and intensive goal setting with our superintendent to improve academic results.
2024 state CAASPP test scores were released by the California Department of Education on October 10, 2024. Laguna Beach Unified is the #1 ranked district in Orange County in math, language arts and science. In fact, focused strategies led to a 17-point rise in high school math scores last year alone. Overall, we outperform the rest of the county in all three areas by approximately 22%. You will not find a better school district in Orange County. I am incredibly proud of these results, results every resident of Laguna Beach and every family in Laguna Beach Unified should celebrate given the tumultuous last four years.
Furthermore, we have seen tremendous gains in our Advanced Placement courses, with 44% of students participating in AP courses in 2024, a rate that has more than doubled from 22% in 2015.
Over the last four years the Board of Education has approved new courses including AP Human Geography, Ethnic Studies, Data Science and Integrated Science 2/2H to name a few.
For our youngest learners, the board has approved the expansion of transitional kindergarten and invested in a new preschool program to enhance school readiness of young learners.
Released October 15, “Laguna Beach High School was named to the College Board’s 2024 Advanced Placement® (AP) School Honor Roll and has also received the AP Access Award for its commitment to expanding AP opportunities to all students, including those from underrepresented groups. The AP School Honor Roll recognizes schools that have increased access to AP coursework while maintaining or improving exam performance.” From 3-year-olds to 18-year-olds, Laguna Beach Unified and its board are investing in our students and care deeply about their academic achievement.
Academic achievement is not the only dimension on which one should assess our schools. Over the last decade, and especially in recent years, the social-emotional health of children has been paramount.
In 2021, the Surgeon General issued a warning that our youth were facing an unprecedented mental health crisis. The board supported additional counseling and nursing staff, and developed a facilities master plan to modernize our high school counseling facilities. We welcomed adding well spaces to our middle and high schools and worked towards one-on-one counseling visits with every student, every year in the 7th-12th grade. We continued our partnership with Stanford’s Challenge Success program which adopts research-backed strategies tailored to high performing, achievement-based communities. We approved contracts for new mental health referral services through CareSolace and Hazel Health. The district created programs designed to increase students feeling connected at school, such as adding a middle school sports program with 10 different teams in 2022.
LBUSD partnered with SchoolPower to open the Family Resource Center in 2023. The board supported the LEAD summer enrichment program in 2021, which by 2024, featured 110 different courses.
Our superintendent intentionally focused on increasing positive school climate and set goals around it. And our data shows it’s working. Pre-2017, 38% of our 11th graders reported chronic sadness and 16% considered suicide in the past year; in the last California Healthy Kids Survey given in 2023-2024, 23% of 11th graders reported chronic sadness and 6% considered suicide. We provide social-emotional support programs with a counselor to student ratio that far exceeds the state average (1:254, exceeding the state average of 1:385).
How safe do kids report feeling at school? 87% of students in LBUSD report feeling safe at school, 27% higher than the rest of Orange County. This data is both powerful and meaningful, if you pause to reflect on the gravity of what is at stake here. The board continues to invest in nurses, counselors, extra-curriculars, facilities and research-backed programs that improve our students’ wellbeing and connection to our schools.
We continue to strive to improve, but to do so, we need board members who can think about both short- and long-term needs, approach policy questions in a thoughtful and collaborative manner, and develop positive relationships to the multiple constituencies that we serve – teachers, staff, parents and community members with students at the center of each and every decision.
Given an inside look at the district and board the last four years, I’ve given much thought to who I endorse for Laguna Beach’s Board of Education. There are five candidates running; you are asked to vote for two candidates. I urge you to vote for Lauren Boeck and Jan Vickers.
Before moving to Laguna Beach, Lauren was a middle school math and science teacher, and helped lead people as an assistant principal. She has immersed herself in Laguna Beach community work as secretary of the LBUSD PTA Council Board, Trustee of School Power, appointed member of the city’s Recreation Committee, and as a member of the El Morro PTA Board and School Site Council. She has a Masters in Educational Administration and brings a wealth of educational experience to the boardroom. She has three children in our schools.
Jan Vickers is known to many people in the community. I know from my work with her on the board that she has deep knowledge of the schools, and works constructively to support policy initiatives. Her commitment to students is unwavering. She is humble, ethical and kind. And her vision for carbon-neutral facilities and environmentally literate students has aligned with mine.
There are candidates running who do not support long-term investments at our school sites. These candidates have not provided positive and constructive ideas for how to move the district forward. Even more troubling, one of the candidates frequents board meetings and makes personal attacks on staff, individual board members and student board members in the name of reform.
Please put our students first and support Lauren Boeck and Jan Vickers.
Kelly Osborne is a trustee of the Laguna Beach Unified School District. She is writing as a public citizen.
