District Spotlight — Savanna School District

What does labor management collaboration have to do with family engagement? Everything. When the adults inside a school system learn to trust each other, communicate openly, and solve problems together, that culture does not stay behind closed doors. It shows up in every interaction staff have with families, in how welcome parents feel when they walk through the school doors, and in how much confidence communities have in their schools. Savanna School District is proving exactly that, one conversation at a time.

Laying the Foundation for a New Way of Working Together

Nestled in Orange County, Savanna School District serves approximately 2,400 students across four elementary schools. Like many school systems, the district faces the challenge of balancing competing priorities to meet the needs of students, families and staff. This year, labor and management leaders recognized that addressing those challenges would require a different type of approach grounded in trust, communication and a commitment to solve problems together.

The starting point is not always easy and in Savanna it took a change in district leadership for the status quo to change. Dr. Jennifer Solano arrived as the district’s new Executive Director of Human Resource and noticed that labor relations were tense, and conversations were framed as labor versus management rather than partners working on solutions together. After speaking to staff, she learned that there was a long history of formal, lawyer-driven, and positional bargaining and labor relations.

She also recognized the opportunities for collaboration. Based on her previous work with the California Labor Management Initiative (CA LMI) in her former district, she thought the district was primed for a new way to work. After discussing the idea with Superintendent Dr. Sue Johnson and Dr. Carmen Garcia, President of the Savanna District Teachers Association, the district agreed to bring LMI training to Savanna. It was a significant step, but one that came with no guarantees.

Things started to shift during an intensive LMI training where participants were asked to name the elephants in the room and share what they’d actually experienced over the years. For Dr. Solano and Dr. Garcia, that became the foundation for everything that came after. Participants acknowledged what had gone wrong and then chose to move forward.

The change showed up fast. Bargaining moved to an interest-based approach, and for the first time in years, sessions happened without lawyers in the room. And in another first, they didn’t go to mediation either. One key example was that teachers were brought into class composition conversations that had once happened behind closed doors.

On the classified side, Robert Rainey, CSEA Classified President, has also acknowledged that the district culture shift is taking place, one conversation at a time. Rainey sums it up best, ”You have to break the past to get on with the future.” For Savanna, that means leaning into honest, sometimes uncomfortable conversations now, so staff, families and students can benefit from a healthier, more collaborative district for years to come.

For more information, contact Dr. Jennifer Solano at jennifer.solano@savsd.org.

About the California Labor Management Initiative

The California Labor Management Initiative (CA LMI) provides opportunities to transform labor-management collaboration with the goal of improving public schools and advancing educational equity in California and beyond. CA LMI creates transparent, safe, and inclusive convenings for district and county office labor-management teams to engage in the tough conversations that lead to authentic dialogue and collaborative problem-solving. Through leadership development rooted in well-being and professional growth, CA LMI builds the collaborative practices, structures, and organizational culture needed for improved outcomes for all.

CA LMI proudly operates under the Californians Dedicated to Education Foundation.

Questions? Contact: gustavo@cdefoundation.org