Guest Commentary
by Bill Ponder
As we head into the fall election, what has become clear is that the San Diego Unified School District is an organization with lots of issues which need to be addressed. The district is entering the third year of program improvement under NCLB (no child left behind). There are schools within the district entering Program Improvement with multiple years of poor performance under NCLB. We continue to see senior leadership make bad decisions regarding these schools and wishing that the problem would go away (high quality schools in every neighborhood with no real focus on how to get there).
If you look at the 2020 plan it is full of hope and dreams and little measurable outcomes. The cluster approach to parent and community involvement is strong in some communities and weak in others. The fiscal reality of how the district makes fiscal decisions is somewhat problematic since all these decisions are based on special interest and not student success and achievement.
Each day the district spends money. How that money is spent and what it is spent on is the issue. Recent audits show district leadership spending money on non-instructional items. The lack of planning on how to deal with the next bond revenue as witnessed by the statement of the superintendent who said “I don’t have a plan” shows a lack of responsibility on his part.
There are some fundamental problems with those in leadership who can’t articulate any specific plan around spending 2.8 billion, yes 2.8 billion dollars. I find it hard to understand that a district which was on the verge, and I believe still could be insolvent, cannot have a fiscal strategy to get the district solvent and to explain to the taxpaying public how this new bond will be used and paid for given the current issue around Capital Appreciation Bonds (CABs).
I am sure the district leadership will find some answers to these questions but I think it’s too late to convince the citizens of this city to support anything that comes from the current individuals who are leading.
District E
I’d like to take some time to discuss the issues within my district. With some 27,000 students, district E is one of the largest sub-districts. It is by far the most diverse and has over the years had the most challenges in terms of student achievement. Some of the demographics and academic issues are starting to be addressed. Our sub-district has a number of options for parents and there is strong academic leadership among some of the schools. What is still a challenge is the long-term sustained support for equity. Our schools need a long-term focus around student achievement, educational reform, teacher accountability, talent management and parental education and advocacy. We understand that to solve these issues we as a community need to take responsibility for our part of fixing these issues. We also understand that the district needs to change its long standing practice of de facto equality. If a number of our schools do not have the best teachers( not just on paper)and we can document this as being fact, then all those decisions to block initiatives and programs which are created in district E and then usurped by district staff must stop. Let our academic leaders in our schools do the work they need to do, let our parents do the work they need to do. Let our administrators do the work they need to do, period.
I know that in other sub-districts, community members demand and get those initiatives and programs and the district does not block their efforts. For example, the International Baccalaureate programs north of 8. The number of advance placement courses among high schools. The full array of A-E courses which are available at most of the schools north of 8. This de facto equality practice has been the norm and continues to this day. The question is when is it going to stop?
What the citizens of San Diego must ask themselves is this question: Can we continue to have two separate and unequal school districts? One north of 8 and one south of 8, and believe that all children and parents are being given the best 21st Century education?
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William Ponder is a candidate for District E in the San Diego Unified School District. Fore more information, visit his website.