San Diego Unified School District⁩'s Bold Plan: $4 Billion Housing Strategy Without Taxpayer Funds

Part two of my Schoolutions conversation with Superintendent Fabiola Bagula, Ph.D., details the San Diego Unified School District's strategies for affordable housing and community building. Their initiative showcases a regional vision for urban planning that aims to tackle the housing crisis and drive social change. This discussion offers a glimpse into real estate and local news efforts to support educators.

💫Make sure to watch Part 1 & Some Episode Mentions:
➡️David Tate's Conscious Accountability
➡️Ayanna Pressley (quoted by Fabi) "The people closest to the pain should be closest to the power." 
➡️Emancipatory Leadership and Improving Equity in Education
➡️Balboa Elementary: school where Fabi served as principal and implemented the full-day grade-level PLC/RTI model

📑 CHAPTERS
0:00 Introduction: Part 2: The Financial Strategy & Bold Regional Vision
1:45 How to reduce a billion-dollar budget deficit without sacrificing people
3:00 Investing before cutting: the asset-based approach to budget decisions
4:15 Removing "my department, my budget" identity from financial decisions
5:30 Three things every district needs to replicate the housing initiative
6:00 A forward-thinking board and strong labor union relationships
6:45 Community buy-in, and the dog park request
8:00 Documenting the process so other districts can replicate it
9:00 What emancipatory leadership means: power to the people closest to the pain
10:45 200 schools, no one-size-fits-all: regional autonomy within system stability
11:10 Influence over power: building voice, agency, and community
12:30 Giving principals protected time together for communities of practice
13:30 The Balboa Elementary model: one full grade level out every day
14:00 The Yale research finding that stopped superintendents cold
15:30 What actually moves student achievement: competitive wages and time
16:15 Affordable housing as peace of mind, the missing layer in teacher time
17:45 BRAND NEW: The Regional Housing Finance Authority
18:15 What if we built affordable housing around under-enrolled schools?
19:30 40% of community college students are housing insecure
20:00 Bond money, votes, and a vision for families setting roots in San Diego
21:00 How to follow the initiative and access resources as they're published
21:45 Next episode teaser: Dr. Benjamin Freud, The Green School Bali

🎧 New episodes every Monday & Friday with bite-sized Wednesday reel bonus content.
📧 Connect with me if you’d like a thought partner to help you cultivate curious learners who advocate for what they believe in.
🎵 Music: Benjamin Wahl

Next Week: Dr. Benjamin Freud, Head of Upper School at Green School Bali, challenges everything we think we know about education, from the dangers of "global citizenship" as a mission statement to why rubrics and standardized assessment are fundamentally at odds with how learning actually works. 

When teachers, coaches, administrators, and families grow together, they create schools where everyone is inspired and every student is fully engaged, supported, and ready to thrive.