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Super Bowl Month at RCSD – are these “Special Teams” focusing on Equity?
San Mateo County is one of five California counties with some of the richest school districts in the country, thanks to very high local property tax revenues. However, the county is not exactly known for outstanding education. If you asked people about “good school districts” in California, few school districts in this county would make the playoff bracket.
“Winning is a habit. Unfortunately so is losing.”
[Vince Lombardi]
If we borrow the NFL’s logic, the reason is simple: the county has never established a winning culture through those head coaches. Few districts here excel in core categories such as Education (reading and math), Financials (funding vs. spending), or Equity (supporting SPED and SED students). No one treats “Safe-Routes-To-School” as a serious part of their game plan – despite well-documented benefits for physical health, mental well-being, and student outcomes.
“Mens sana in corpore sano – a healthy mind in a healthy body.”
[Roman poet Juvenal]
Based on various metrics, the Redwood City School District (RCSD) can arguably be considered one of the worst school districts in this county, if not in the Bay Area. Even the superintendent and the Board of Trustees would have to agree. According to Superintendent John Baker, RCSD has struggled for several decades, and he never managed to get the team out of the basement. If there were Relegations in this league, RCSD would have been demoted to the Bush League some 25 years ago.
His retirement finally gave the trustees a chance to find a new head coach from a truly winning environment, not another coordinator from a losing franchise.
Is the New Superintendent coming from a Winning Franchise?
“Talent wins games, but teamwork and intelligence win championships.”
[Michael Jordan]
New superintendent Christian Rubalcaba seems to stem from a coaching tree that has never won any championships:
- San José Unified School District (SJUSD)
- Franklin-McKinley School District (FMSD)
- San Mateo Foster City School District (SMFCSD)
In Part One of this series, we were reminded how bad RCSD has been in the category of “Education”. To our astonishment, we also found that SJUSD, FMSD, and SMFCSD were even worse.
In Part Two of this series, we determined that RCSD is one of the richest school districts in the World. Few cities and countries get $25,163 per student per year and can even spent $30,195 thanks to taking on debt.
“If it doesn’t matter who wins or loses, then why do they keep score?”
[Vince Lombardi]
At least we learned that too much funding appears detrimental to educational outcomes. Coaches and coordinators in rich districts might become greedy and distracted. The top districts in the California Reading Coalition rankings tend to spend around $ 15,000 per student per year, which, by global standards, is solid funding. But the worst districts in this ranking – including RCSD, FMSD, SJUSD, and SMFCSD – receive even more funding and still call nothing but three‑and‑outs on offense. Dr. Rubalcaba has now worked for four of the worst franchises in the Bay Area.
Superintendent John Baker always had one main excuse for this funding‑versus‑results mismatch. Because RCSD has many students requiring Special Education (SPED) and many who are Socioeconomically Disadvantaged (SED), its draft board was always limited. He was simply dealt a bad hand.
“A man’s got to do what a man’s got to do.”
[John Steinbeck or John Wayne]
He is correct that the education of these “special teams players” is often more resource-intensive. And being an “equity‑focused” team does mean you have to devote more of the playbook and more of the salary cap to your Special Teams. The question is whether those units are actually moving the chains.
Can The “Special Equity Teams” Score Some Points?
“Offense sells Tickets. Defense wins Championships. Special teams decide close games.”
[Zarathustra]
So far, RCSD, SMFCSD, FMSD, and SJSU, along with their head coaches, have not really excelled in Offense (education) or Defense (finance). Maybe their Special Teams (equity) can win the day.
Even on a good team, the top point scorer is often the kicker. And the punter determines if the opponent has a long or short field to deal with. But since they are the only players who can touch the ball with their feet, these guys are special. The same skillset that would make them fit in with Major League Soccer (MLS), makes them a specialty in the National Football League (NFL).
Maybe RCSD has applied such a strong equity lens to every decision that it has kept them pinned deep in their own territory for years. And maybe Dr. Christian Rubalcaba comes from districts that are just as “outstanding” on the equity front as RCSD claims.
Every year, districts must file School Accountability Report Cards (SARC), and they are not allowed to fudge the numbers on these scorecards. In those SARCs, they publish how much they spend on teachers, education and school administrators. They also compare those numbers against California averages of similar districts.
If our four districts really have so many “Special Teams” players and really care so deeply about them, the budget should show it. These districts would divert most of their cap space to instruction, leaving less to spend on “front office” costs such as central administration and extra layers of management.
Let’s throw the challenge flag and go to the replay booth.
“Special Teams” Are Not Moving The Chains
All these numbers can be complicated and confusing, so it sometimes helps to color‑code the scoreboard.
- Districts that spend above the state average on “Education” are shown in green.
- Districts around the average rate are yellow.
- Districts that underspend on education are shown in red.
For “Administration,” we flip the colors. Districts that overspend on administration show up red, because too much front office spending usually means you are playing prevent-defense with your own classroom budget.
| Reading Rank 2022 | School District | Reading Percentage | NCES Revenue per Student | Educational spending compared to state average | Admin spending compared to state average |
| 1 🟢 | Bonita Unified | 53% | $15,814 | n.a. | n.a. |
| 2 🟢 | Etiwanda Elementary | 51% | $15,901 | 🟠 | 🟢 |
| 3 🟢 | East Whittier City Elementary | 48% | $16,099 | 🟠 | 🟢 |
| 4 🟢 | Alta Loma Elementary | 47% | $15,616 | 🔴 | 🔴 |
| 162 🔴 | Redwood City Elementary (RCSD) | 23% | $25,163 | 🔴 | 🔴🔴🔴 |
| 170 🔴 | Franklin-McKinley Elementary (FMSD) | 22% | $23,199 | 🔴 | 🔴 |
| 227 🔴 | San Jose Unified (SJUSD) | 18% | $20,728 | n.a. | n.a. |
| 279 🔴 | San Mateo Foster City Elementary (SMFCSD) | 12% | $21,367 | 🔴 | 🔴 |
| 285 🔴 | Ravenswood City Elementary (RCSD) | 4% | $39,140 | 🔴🔴 | 🔴🔴 |
The two worst districts on this chart are Redwood City and Ravenswood. Both underspend on education, while administration feeds deep into the salary cap. Redwood City is way over the line, with administrative spending at roughly 150% of the comparable state average, according to its own SARC reporting.
The fact that SJUSD appears not to publish comparable SARC spending data is not a good look; it’s like quietly forfeiting the game rather than lining up for the snap. FMSD and SMFCSD are not bright spots either.
Once again, the only green lights are districts with much lower funding, not the so‑called “rich” districts. Green shows you where the head coaches are actually winning; red marks the programs that keep shanking punts and missing assignments on Special Teams.
Final Thoughts
“Individual commitment to a group effort… that is what makes a team work, a company work, a society work.” [Vince Lombardi]
Is there an individual commitment to create a winning culture within RCSD?
It is still unclear what Trustees Cecilia I. Márquez (Area 5), Mike Wells (Area 4), David Li (Area 3), David Weekly (Area 2), and Jennifer Ng Kwing King (Area 1) were really looking for in their new head‑coaching candidate. They even rolled out a survey asking the community what they expect from a new superintendent. You have to wonder how many RCSD fans answered:
- “Please do not hire anyone from a proven winning program.”
- “Keep running the same scheme of educational underdogs and lovable financial losers.”
If the Trustees were not serious about fixing their three biggest problems – always blowing through the admin salary cap, being perennial underdogs in education, and getting taken to the house on equity – then what exactly is the Hail Mary trick play we are not seeing here? Are we watching a designed fake or just another busted play?
“RCSD keeps running the same play, expecting a different result.”
[… what’s that called again?]
To be continued …
Editor’s Note: The views and opinions expressed in all blog posts are those of the authors and do not necessarily reflect those of the Redwood City Pulse or its staff.
