Cajon Valley Union School District has long prided itself on being a game changer. It has been at the forefront of technological advances, like when it distributed laptops to every one of its students a decade ago. It has also long utilized AI to surveil student’s behavior on those devices. Superintendent David Miyashiro has been so bullish on edtech advances that he and Cajon Valley have received a whole host of accolades.
The district’s go-its-own-way approach hasn’t been limited to technology. It has gone against the grain on other big decisions, like how quickly to open back up after pandemic closures. The district developed the county’s first plan for a return to in-person school.
But the past month has been a tough one for Miyashiro – and Cajon Valley.
A couple weeks ago, news broke that state investigators found district officials had wiped all mention of LGBTQ+ individuals from both mandated sexual health education and its curriculum at large.
The change came last year when, like many schools across the country, the district faced pressure to eliminate mention of LGBTQ+ identities from the district’s instruction. The board agreed to do so and created its own curriculum that omitted any mention of LGBTQ+ people or the discrimination they’ve faced. At the time, Board President Jim Miller said the revamp was necessary “in order to make it more palatable and proper for our community,” the Union-Tribune reported.
The California Department of Education didn’t take kindly to that, writing in a report that the new curriculum failed to acknowledge that some people have different sexual orientations than others and failed to teach students about gender and gender identity or the harm of negative gender stereotypes.
The state gave the district a trio of 2025 deadlines to fix its curriculum.
This wasn’t the first time Cajon Valley’s policies related to LGBTQ+ staff or students raised alarms for some. Last year, Miyashiro directed staff to remove posters that identified their classrooms as a “safe space,” for LGBTQ+ students.
In a prerecorded message to staff, Miyashiro acknowledged the directive would be perceived as a “step backward,” for many staff in the district.
“On one hand we have the extreme left, and other hand we have the extreme right. Both sides are doing so much damage and causing so much harm,” Miyashiro said.
Credit card woes: Then another report dropped, this time from CBS 8, showing Miyashiro spent an eye-popping amount on his district issued credit card. Miyashiro was already one of the highest paid superintendent in the county, raking in about half a million dollars a year when healthcare and retirement contributions are included. But over the course of almost two years, Miyashiro spent nearly $400,000 on his district-issued card. That came out to an average of $19,000 a month.
Miyashiro spent thousands on conferences, airfare, hotels and fine dining over that period, CBS 8 reported. This wasn’t the first time someone in the district has questioned Miyashiro’s credit card spending. In 2019, a former board member raised concerns about his spending and was hit with a restraining order alleging she’d harassed staff.
Though Miyashiro’s spending seems to have exceeded some limits set by the district, like the stipulation that no individual transaction be more than $300, it’s not clear if the superintendent’s card operates under different rules than those of other district employees.
In a statement to CBS 8, Miyashiro wrote that his travel opens up new revenue streams and translates to immediate positive impact on the district’s coffers.
“In the last five years Cajon Valley has received just under eleven million dollars in grant funding to support our students and programs. Many of the Federal and State grants we receive are very competitive and require close teamwork in all of our departments here at the district office,” he wrote.
Content Bouncing Around My Mind Palace
LGBTQ+ issues have long been polarizing for Americans and I’d be lying if I said they’re more polarized than ever. After all, the toxic (and false) “groomer,” language has been around for decades. But the fever swamp of the internet has reenergized anti-LGBTQ+ rhetoric and lent itself to evermore levels of abuse and distortion.
A new California law signed by Gov. Gavin Newsom shows how quickly distorted views of policy can spread when weaponized. The law prohibits school boards from requiring educators to notify parents if their child is transgender or chooses to go by different pronouns than those assigned at birth. That’s a meaningful distinction from how many portrayed it, which was that it required educators not disclose that information to parents. But, as our Scott Lewis found when he chimed in on the importance of that distinction, some people just don’t really care about specifics.
What We’re Writing
For the past 16 years, Richard Barrera has served on San Diego Unified’s Board of Education. Over his long tenure, he’s become an outsized influence on the board, but now, he’s got a new side hustle. State Superintendent of Education Tony Thurmond has brought Barrera on as a senior policy advisor. Barrera said will continue to serve on San Diego Unified’s board, assuming he wins reelection in November. Spoiler alert: He will. He’s running unopposed.