E-Mail Your San Diego City Council Member – “VOTE YES on Item 331”!

Tomorrow, on item 331, the San Diego City Council will be voting to amend the city charter on two items that will positively impact all San Diego Unified School District SDUSD Stakeholders.

The two items, if passed, will impose SDUSD Board of Education Term Limits and allow voters from each individual district to elect their own Board Member.  Here is the wording from ITEM-331: Consideration of Request to Amend Charter Section 66:  Board of Education:

• Amend Article VI, Section 66 to include that no person shall serve more than two consecutive four-year terms as a San Diego Unified School District Board member from any particular district.

• Amend Article VI, Section 66 to include that in the general election held for the purpose of electing San Diego Unified School District Board members, the electors of each Board District shall select from among the two candidates receiving the highest number of votes at the primary election in that district, one candidate for the office of San Diego Unified School District Board.

District Deeds urges all SDUSD Stakeholders and Taxpayers e-mail your City Council member and tell them to “Vote YES on Item 331”!

If you are unsure of who your Council Member is, click HERE for help!

Four Council Members, Zapf, Kersey, Cate and Sherman have committed to a YES vote and they need ONE MORE VOTE from Council Members BRY, WARD, COLE, ALVAREZ and GOMEZ for Item 331 to PASS!!! 

Here is the memo from the four Council Members supporting the change:

Attorney John Stump, an individual who has dedicated much of his life to advocating for the rights of ALL, wrote the following letter to the City Council making a compelling case for a “YES” vote:

Honorable City Council,

            Thank you for scheduling a special hearing on amending the Charter to address governance improvements to the San Diego Unified School District – CITY SCHOOLS.  As you are aware, the City Council was originally the Board of Education but subsequently a specific focused elected School board was formed by amendment to the City Charter.  There have been some seven (7) amendments to the City Charter; so as to improve the governance of our City Schools.  A generation and some 40 years have passed since the governance system of our City Schools have been considered.  Progressive reforms have been made to the election and reorientation systems for the Council, but city Schools has lagged behind. 

The SDUSD is the least democratic, representative, and progressive political body in our Region.  The San Diego Board of Supervisors seems progressive as compared to City Schools.  It still elects representatives at large; it has the same number of representatives as it did when created in the 30s’, there are no term limits; districts are determined by a political process rather than by an independent commission; cash political contributions are not locally limited; and board fringe benefits and board pensions are excessive.  All of this might be ignore if City Schools was succeeding, fiscally sound or the preferred educational provider for City students and Parents.

I have submitted several past  reform proposals, over the years,  for modernization and improved representation for the school board government.  City Schools continues to have declining enrollment caused by parent flight, a constant series of political scandals, and an almost annual  crisis concerning budgets and management of Bond funding. Housing in San Diego is, in large part, unaffordable because of the ever increasing and never ending Bond Tax burden on rental housing and real property.   For years, I  have appeared before the SDUSD School Board regarding the need for reform, to no avail.  I welcome this new and timely effort by Councilmembers

In many ways the quality of Schools determines the success of our children , the quality of our neighborhoods, and the vigor of our economy.  Families will not seek neighborhoods without quality schools, employees will not live in cities were the schools are not first class, and corporations will not locate high technology centers in areas that have low performing schools. 

My own community, City Heights, has no community High School and the majority of the high school students commute out of the community to distant schools.  Parents make very difficult decisions for the benefit of their children.  Parents elect to send their children to Charter schools to gain access to quality education or send their children outside of the artificial school clusters to gain access to quality education and facilities. 

The region can never meet its Climate Action goals as long as, a poor performing school system, fosters a busing need larger than MTDB and a massive Teacher work commute, from their quality school communities to the inner city paycheck schools of SDUSD.  The School District could solve a third of its current budget deficit by reform of its busing and commuting spending.

Reform is needed.  The current system is seriously broken and a new participatory democratic election system must be installed to address ever declining public school system.

All the best,

John W. Stump, III

City Heights, California 92105

District Deeds strongly urges ALL San Diego Unified Stakeholders and Taxpayers to contact your San Diego City Council Member and ask them to support the changes the Honorable John W. Stump, III and Council Members have recommended!

It is critical that ALL San Diego Unified Stakeholders and Taxpayers have a voice on the San Diego Unified School Board!!! 

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