The third in a series of five town hall meetings hosted by Stockton Unified School District’s superintendent will take place this Thursday.
The Sept. 14 town hall, which starts at 5:15 p.m. and runs until 6:30 p.m., will take place at Cesar Chavez High School, 2929 Windflower Lane.
Each of the town hall meetings is focusing on a different educational topic. Thursday’s agenda includes a discussion of the various courses being studied at the district’s schools. A meeting held Aug. 29 talked about staffing and retention, while the Sept. 7 session discussed facility improvements. The upcoming Sept. 18 meeting at Hong Kingston Elementary School at 6324 Alturas Ave. will look at parent, student, and staff engagement; it also begins at 5:15 p.m.
Michelle Rodriguez, who has been the superintendent of SUSD since June, said that the topics selected for the town hall meetings came from issues or concerns discussed at listening sessions.
Back in June, Rodriguez said at her first meet-and-greet with the community that she planned to hold listening sessions with sites, departments, union leaders, elected officials, parent leaders and community partners to understand the current challenges being seen and priorities.
According to a 30-day progress report from the school district, Rodriguez held five meet-and-greets and received 322 responses from her listening sessions during her first month on the job.
The report listed five emergent themes from the sessions: staffing and retention with 49 related responses received, student engagement with 45 related responses received, the broad course of study, which had 33 related responses, and parent and student engagement listed as the last two.
On Oct. 3, Rodriguez is set to host the last town hall shown on the district’s calendar. As of now, that could be the most valuable meeting, with its topic being safety.
Safety has been a concern for the district for some time after a 15-year-old girl was stabbed in April 2022 on a Stockton campus. Two other students were attacked earlier this year at a park near Cesar Chavez High School. One of them was fatally shot.
More information about the town hall meetings can be found on the district’s Facebook page.
Victoria Franco is a reporter based in Stockton covering San Joaquin County for Bay City News Foundation and its nonprofit news site Local News Matters. She is a Report for America corps member.
