Strategic Planning Engagement: San Juan Unified
The Challenge
San Juan Unified School District – a large, diverse district serving more than 38,000 students in Sacramento, CA — reached out to CESO Communications as leaders prepared to develop a new strategic plan rooted in authentic community engagement. While the district had strong existing practices in family and community outreach, they wanted to deepen that engagement, reach communities that had historically been underrepresented in conversations and ensure their next strategic plan reflected the voices and lived experiences of their entire district. The situation around them was uniquely complex. San Juan Unified welcomes thousands of new-to-country families each year, with linguistic, cultural and socioeconomic diversity. Families represented a wide range of languages — including Arabic, Pashto, Persian, Russian, Spanish and Ukrainian — and brought varied experiences navigating the U.S. public education system. Leaders wanted to build a process where every family felt welcome, heard and safe while participating.
Our approach
CESO partnered closely with the district’s Director of Family and Community Engagement, who brought deep expertise in cross-cultural engagement and connection. Working alongside her, CESO helped design a multi-layered engagement strategy intentionally built around accessibility, cultural responsiveness, and inclusion of all voices.
Key elements of our collaborative process included:
Extensive community listening
CESO facilitated in-person sessions, surveys, online focus groups and multilingual breakout rooms, often with six or more languages represented. Interpreters, cultural liaisons, and the district’s FACE Ambassadors ensured families felt safe and supported.
Pop-up engagements in schools and neighborhoods
CESO created engagement prompts while district teams traveled to meet students and families where they were — from elementary schools to community gathering spaces.
Elevating student voice
The district’s commitment to student perspectives was exceptional. In addition to pop-up events at many district elementary and middle schools at which students as young as second grade provided insights on their hopes and dreams, a special gathering of student representatives from the district’s 10 high schools had students participating in a consensus workshop that culminated in six key areas the district should focus on in its next strategic plan. Several high school students were also part of strategic plan development teams, shaping the emerging themes and priorities of the plan.
Deeply representative design teams
The planning and design teams intentionally included certificated and non-certificated staff, current and future families, students, interpreters and community partners. With a core planning team of 65 members, and a design team of 35 district administrators and students, it was one of the most inclusive strategic planning teams CESO has ever supported.
Barrier-free feedback loops
From gallery walks to open houses, advisory committee meetings and surveys, CESO and district leaders created multiple entry points for ongoing feedback throughout the process.
At every step, San Juan Unified leaned into the belief that belonging and inclusion are foundational to community trust. CESO’s role was to facilitate, guide and amplify, while ensuring the process reflected the district’s values and the strengths of its community.
Our impact
The result was one of the most comprehensive and deeply inclusive strategic planning and engagement efforts CESO has led. Families felt heard; students felt valued; staff saw themselves reflected in the work; and district leaders gained clarity about their community’s hopes, priorities and shared vision for the future.
Key impacts included:
- A strategic plan grounded in authentic community voice, shaped by thousands of data points across diverse languages and cultural perspectives.
- Sustained community engagement practices: The district continues to use the strategies built during this partnership — from multilingual virtual focus groups to pop-up engagements — embedding these methods into their ongoing work.
- Strengthened trust and accessibility: By meeting families where they are, the district reinforced itself as a safe, welcoming and responsive system, something particularly meaningful for newly arrived immigrant and refugee families.
- Clear alignment around student outcomes: Even in a politically shifting environment, the district’s design teams and leadership consistently returned to one central question: “What is best for students?” This unified focus helped shape a plan that resonated across the community.
The San Juan Unified project stands out not only for its scale, but for its heart. The partnership demonstrated what is possible when a district embraces inclusive, multilingual and community-rooted engagement.
Thanks to the CESO Communications team, we were able to create one of the most comprehensive, student-centered, community-driven strategic plans that our district has ever had. Much of this was due to the extensive community engagement that CESO Communications helped us lead. Through their highly-skilled approach to facilitation, the ways in which they build trust with all participants, and their incredible way of optimizing participation of all in attendance, our new strategic plan is one that our entire community feels connected to and proud of.”
– Amy Rovai Gregory, Family & Community Engagement Director, San Juan Univied School District (CA)