A San Diego native who has worked in both the classroom and the central office,<\/a> Norman says she brings an understanding of all aspects of a school district and experience with facilities funding.<\/p>\n Her background \u2014 which includes human resources, business services and curriculum and instruction \u2014 has helped her understand the complexities of leading a high-performing K-12 district like Carlsbad Unified.\u00a0<\/p>\n \u201cI understand everything from how you roll out curriculum to implementing board policies to how you manage your budget and make sure that you\u2019re able to meet the needs of your students and of your staff,\u201d she said in a recent phone interview.<\/p>\n Within the next five years, she hopes to raise students\u2019 achievement and implement social and emotional wellness programs. And within the next decade, Norman said a group for their bond project is finishing up next year and then another cycle will be starting. She said they\u2019re redoing the master plan for their facilities right now, which will be presented to the board.<\/p>\n That\u2019s one area where her background in budgets and bond projects may come in handy, she said. Just the other day, she noted, she was on the site of a construction project being funded by bond money and was able to share what kinds of funding models might be available for similar projects.<\/p>\n Like many new superintendents, Norman is prioritizing listening to and learning from students, staff and families. Her goal is strong relationships, which she finds essential to the work of education.\u00a0<\/p>\n She says she\u2019s already seen how collaborative the city is with the school district. And when she met with school leaders, she learned how valued their staff is by the district\u2019s \u201cgem of a community\u201d \u2014 and how much the staff values students.<\/p>\n \u201cA lot of our educators live in the community and care deeply about the experiences that they bring to our students,\u201d she said.<\/p>\n The community cares in turn, she said, pointing to voters\u2019 passage of bond measures to support the district and maintain its facilities as evidence of public investment in students\u2019 success.<\/p>\n Carlsbad Unified voters passed the $265 million Measure HH in November 2018<\/a> to modernize classrooms, science labs or classrooms; that measure\u2019s last issuance was received in February<\/a>. Previously, with Prop P, approved in<\/a>\u00a0the mid-2000s, they issued four bonds totaling almost $200 million.<\/p>\n Its bond success reflects to some degree Carlsbad Unified\u2019s demographics as a relatively affluent, high-performing district. Fewer than a quarter of its students are considered socioeconomically disadvantaged.<\/p>\n Its community and parent involvement may reflect those demographics, too.<\/p>\n \u201cI love the parent involvement,\u201d Norman said. \u201cI think parent involvement is essential to helping students be successful, both academically and socially.\u201d<\/p>\n Carlsbad Unified, according to California\u2019s school dashboard,<\/a> scored well last year on math and English language arts, with a green rating on both of those subject areas. It scored even higher, or blue, on college and career preparedness, as well as on graduation rate.<\/p>\n But the district earned its lowest score, orange, on progress by English language learners.<\/p>\n Fewer than 5% of the district\u2019s students are English learners, and Norman points out that many can be high-performing in one area but not in others \u2014 making it especially important the district identify in which areas of language learning a student most needs support.<\/p>\n Meanwhile, with the start of the school year, Carlsbad Unified is working to implement a universal design for learning along with a multi-tiered system of support, Norman said. Those programs, she added, will ensure the district is working with students in a systemic way, not an arbitrary one.\u00a0<\/p>\n \u201cIt\u2019s important that we are academically challenging and rigorous and at the same time we\u2019re making sure that we\u2019re meeting the needs of all learners,\u201d she said. \u201cAre we really focusing in on our students who also are not achieving?\u201d<\/p>\n The community involvement Norman praised has also at times led to political tumult for the district.<\/p>\n Norman declined to discuss the issue of political polarization in school districts and on their elected boards. But in recent years, the district she now leads has played host to several such conflicts.<\/p>\n Two years ago, the school board approved<\/a> the district\u2019s first-ever ethnic studies class, but not without removing mentions of institutional racism from the description after complaints. And a draft diversity plan later drew opposition<\/a> from local church members who didn\u2019t want LGBTQ+ matters discussed in schools.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"An experienced North County educator recently took the helm of Carlsbad Unified School District with an eye to…\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":122606,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[5134],"tags":[5229,1582,276,407,1370,728,50,3549,7264,7289,67,586,132,5230,68,2969],"class_list":{"0":"post-122605","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-san-diego","8":"tag-america","9":"tag-ca","10":"tag-california","11":"tag-education","12":"tag-latest-headlines","13":"tag-local-news","14":"tag-news","15":"tag-san-diego","16":"tag-sandiego","17":"tag-top-stories-sdut","18":"tag-united-states","19":"tag-united-states-of-america","20":"tag-unitedstates","21":"tag-unitedstatesofamerica","22":"tag-us","23":"tag-usa"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/pubeurope.com\/@us\/114979752121175979","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/122605","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=122605"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/122605\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/122606"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=122605"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=122605"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=122605"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}![\"Andrea](\"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/08\/SUT-L-CARLSBAD-SUPE-01.jpg\")
Andrea Norman took over as the new superintendent of Carlsbad Unified School District in June. (Carlsbad Unified School District)<\/p>\n