Establishing compassionate immigration response, responsible use of artificial intelligence, inclusivity in sports, and a clear curriculum opt-out process are a stakeholder group’s top recommendations to San Luis Coastal Unified School District.
At its May 5 meeting, the school district board received suggestions from the Common Ground Advisory Task Force about areas in focus for the 2025-26 school year.
“This is a group that has been forged through the fires of controversy,” Joshua Whiteside, an attorney working with the task force, told the school board. “How do we get people from different walks of life, different communities to come together into a room, understand more about what the district policies, procedures, and practices are, and really evaluate what the district is or isn’t doing to address really important issues that are facing our students?”
A mix of parents, teachers, school principals, attorneys, religious leaders, and concerned residents formed the task force almost a decade ago following two discriminatory incidents at SLO High School.
In 2017, a special education teacher resigned after he wrote a letter to the high school newspaper, Expressions, citing a Bible passage that appeared to indicate that LGBTQ-plus students “deserved to die.” His letter was in response to a print issue of Expressions that featured articles about the LGBTQ-plus community, including a cover photo of two women kissing.
Then, in 2018, the SLO Police Department said that a SLO High student had allegedly been bullying a 15-year-old autistic student since the beginning of the school year. Police revealed that the bullying involved sending the student threatening text messages related to his autism and perceived sexual orientation. The harassment reportedly extended to a physical altercation involving the juvenile suspect and the victim. The suspect was arrested on a felony hate crime charge.
Task force member and director of Central Coast Coalition for Inclusive Schools Douglas Heumann told New Times that he and other community members began collecting raw data on differences between the experiences of queer-identifying kids and straight and cisgender kids.
District Superintendent Eric Prater decided to establish the task force after deliberating with them and reviewing their findings. The group now meets monthly to discuss controversial issues impacting students and provides Prater with its suggestions.
“Sometimes, there’ll be a panel of students that tell us whether they’re discriminated [against],” Heumann said. “One year, we had a young man tell us that he felt he was being discriminated [against] as a Christian. We get to hear all sides.”
At the school board meeting, Whiteside said the task force’s recommendations on immigration response stemmed from a community forum at Pacheco Elementary School, which caters to many students from non-English speaking families.
Suggested protocol includes communication tools and techniques to help with the “after-effects of immigration enforcement”; hiring bilingual staff; diversifying communication channels through print, social media, and in-person interaction; and allowing meetings to take place virtually for families to conveniently be aware of their rights and kids’ education.
‘How do we get people from different walks of life, different communities to come together into a room, understand more about what the district policies, procedures and practices are, and really evaluate what the district is or isn’t doing to address really important issues that are facing our students?’
—Joshua Whiteside, attorney with Common Ground Advisory Task Force
The task force also recommended establishing age-appropriate guidelines for ethical AI use and setting up proactive education for students, staff, and families about respecting transgender students in sports while making participation accessible for those students.
Whiteside also touched on the national conversation around school curriculum—specifically the U.S. Supreme Court’s June 2025 decision in the case of Mahmoud v. Taylor.
The Supreme Court reversed two lower courts’ refusals to grant a preliminary injunction based on a Maryland school district not allowing elementary school parents to opt their children out of lessons involving LGBTQ-plus themed storybooks.
The Common Ground task force suggested that the San Luis Coastal school district create a transparent and consistently applied curriculum opt-out process that gives the teacher and the district the chance to explain the purpose of that lesson and related materials before granting requests to skip instruction.
“Specifically, this year we talked about library books and the collections of library books that we have at this district and how those reflect mirrors and windows,” Whiteside told the school board. “Mirrors for students to see each other in the material, and windows to see others and explore different perspectives and ideas.”
The task force’s recommendations didn’t require the board’s vote, and district leaders commended the group for its efforts. Task force member Heumann hopes the group stays on after Prater’s retirement in July 2027.
“It’s part of the culture now; it’s like having a student senate,” he said. “We also have different walks of life that I think we can add to, and I think that any superintendent would be grateful to get some input.” ∆
This article appears in May 14-21, 2026.
