Community Forums

As part of our ongoing commitment to the pursuit of an extraordinary school experience, our Community Forums provide a valuable space for open dialogue and collaboration regarding our Strategic Plan, Destination 2028! These 2-3 hour sessions bring together community members to share their insights and provide feedback to help shape the Priority Actions for each school year.

Destination 2028 Team Meeting

The next Destination 2028 Team Meeting will be in the Fall. All families and staff members will be invited to participate through email communications and this webpage.

Meeting Recaps:

April 20, 2026 Community Meeting

Our final Destination 2028! Team Meeting of the school year on April 30 was held at the Ocean Air School MUR, bringing together parents, staff, and community members from all nine schools across the district.

Superintendent Marisa Janicek opened the meeting by sharing key themes from her recent listening tour, centered on Shine, Shift, and Dream. Through conversations with students, staff, and families, these themes reflect both the strengths of the district and opportunities for continued growth.

The meeting was interactive and gave attendees from all schools across the district the opportunity to work in mixed teams. Groups identified successes, raised questions, and generated ideas aligned to each of the District’s Four Levers, which drive the Destination 2028! Strategic Plan. The session included a gallery walk where participants engaged with the thinking of other groups by offering feedback, identifying priorities, and adding new questions. This process encouraged deeper collaboration and broad input across the community.

Facilitated by educational consultants from Learner-Centered Collaborative, the input gathered during the session will be synthesized to support the district in building on the momentum of Destination 2028! and informing next steps in the strategic plan.

Feedback from this evening, along with information from the Spring Community Survey, inform the development of Priority Actions for the 2026-27 school year, which will be reviewed at the next Destination 2028! team meeting in the fall.

Marisa Janicek opening the April 30, 2026 Community Meeting

September 4, 2025 Community Meeting

The first community Destination 2028! Team Meeting of the 2025–26 school year was held on on September 4 at Ocean Air School. This gathering marked the first community-wide session with DMUSD’s new Superintendent, Marisa Janicek, who joined parents and staff representatives from every school across the district in advancing the shared vision for student learning.

The meeting focused on reviewing the District’s Four Levers, which drive the Destination 2028! Strategic Plan, and on providing feedback about the draft priority actions for the year ahead. Guided once again by educational consultants from Learner-Centered Collaborative, participants worked in mixed teams of parents and staff from every school to share perspectives, identify areas of strength, and surface ideas for refining and strengthening implementation.

Input gathered during the session will be synthesized by DMUSD staff and Learner-Centered Collaborative to refine DMUSD’s Priority Actions for 2025–26. The District extends its gratitude to all participants for their commitment to co-creating a future-focused learning environment for students across the Del Mar Union School District.

May 8, 2025 Community Meeting

More than 100 parents, teachers, staff, and community members came together at Ocean Air School for the final Destination 2028 Team Meeting of the 2024–25 school year on Thursday, May 8, 2025. The session was facilitated by educational consultants from the Learner-Centered Collaborative, continuing their support in guiding this important strategic planning process.

After an initial time for small group connection and conversation, participants explored the World Economic Forum’s Top 10 Skills for 2025 and received updates on DMUSD’s professional learning efforts, including hosting two global education summits during the current school year. The group revisited the District’s Four Levers outlined in the Destination 2028! Strategic Plan. With these guiding principles in mind, participants collaborated to share insights and draft potential objectives for each lever. There were robust conversations centered on student agency—such as voice, choice, and ownership in learning—as well as on the importance of support, both for meeting student needs and partnering with families. These discussions reinforced the community’s shared commitment to shaping the future of learning in DMUSD.

The meeting concluded with a gallery walk, where teams reviewed each other's proposed priority actions. Attendees were encouraged to provide feedback directly on the working drafts, fostering a spirit of shared ownership and co-creation.

The Learner-Centered Collaborative will now synthesize the input collected during the session to help shape DMUSD’s Priority Actions for the 2025–26 school year. The District would like to thank all who contributed their time, perspectives, and ideas in support of co-designing the next set of district’s priority actions. The Design Team will reconvene in early September to review and refine the proposed priority actions for implementation in the coming year.

September 9, 2024 Community Meeting

On September 9, 2024, approximately 100 parents, teachers, staff, and community members gathered at Ocean Air School for the second Destination 2028! Design Team Meeting of the 2024-25 school year. The session was once again facilitated by educational consultants from the Learner-Centered Collaborative.

During the meeting, the Design Team reviewed input from the May 21, 2024, session, where participants shared "wows," "wonders," and “ideas.” The feedback from that initial meeting was synthesized, and the proposed priority actions for the 2024-25 school year were revised accordingly.

At the September meeting, participants revisited the themes identified during the May session and worked together to ensure no critical areas were missing. For each of the proposed priority actions, groups utilized an impact-effort matrix to assess and prioritize actions by considering both their potential impact and the effort required for implementation. The session concluded with a gallery walk, where participants reviewed the proposed priority actions and highlighted the ones they believed should be prioritized.

DMUSD would like to thank everyone involved for providing such valuable input into co-designing the district’s priority actions for the 2024-25 school year.

May 21, 2024 Community Meeting

On May 21, 2024 parents, teachers, staff, and community members gathered at Ocean Air School to participate in the first of our Destination 2028! Strategic Design Team Meetings for 2024, led by educational consultants, Learner-Centered Collaborative. After reviewing the first year of DMUSD's strategic plan implementation, participants had an opportunity to reflect on the District’s four Levers and the corresponding 5-year Objectives, identifying and sharing bright spots, questions, and ideas.

The Design Team’s perspectives and insights play an important role to guide our next steps. The Learner-Centered Collaborative will review all of the group’s input to help shape our roadmap for the 2024–2025 school year. The team will meet again in early September.