SD city, school officials pledge to work together
Cities might not have jurisdiction over what happens in classrooms, but the relationship between schools and the city of San Diego is going to get cozier if some members of the City Council and San Diego Unified have their way.
As schools face major cuts, city officials and mayoral hopefuls have expressed a growing need for local government to aid its school districts.
Wednesday marked the first step in San Diego working more closely with the largest school district in the county when San Diego Unified School District Board President John Lee Evans and Superintendent Bill Kowba presented some of the district’s needs to the council’s rules committee.
“I’m really excited … to be able to talk a little bit about how we might be able to collaborate for the benefit of the kids in San Diego and for basically the development of the workforce,” Evans said.
The school district representatives and the council members expressed interest in working with each other to put students in extracurricular programs; expand the joint use of facilities such as parks, libraries and recreation centers; and find cost-saving measures through shared services such as landscaping, maintenance and public transportation.
The discussion comes as education has become a focal point for mayoral candidates Councilman Carl DeMaio, District Attorney Bonnie Dumanis, Rep. Bob Filner and Assemblyman Nathan Fletcher in this year’s election. The major candidates’ plans — from collaboration to Dumanis’ pitch for the mayor taking a strong role in schools — have been met with varying degrees of approval from educators and the public.
Nearly three-quarters of voters believe its appropriate to use city resources to shore up public education, but about two-thirds of them oppose a mayoral takeover of schools, according to a recent Center for Education Policy and Law/U-T San Diego Poll.
The California Constitution assigns power over local education to elected school boards, which means any kind of help from City Hall will have to come with coordinated efforts between the two entities, which is precisely the kind of relationship Council President Tony Young, a former teacher, said he wants to create.
“It is not my goal or the goal of this council to take over the school board or to delve into their budget or day-to-day operations,” he said. “We should try to find ways to support our students’ educations.”
There are about a dozen smaller school districts within San Diego city limits, but Young’s spokeswoman Jill Esterbrooks said working with San Diego Unified was the natural place to start. She did not specify how the city might work with the other districts.
Councilman David Alvarez, whose council district intersects with five school districts, said he hopes the city will be inclusive of all children rather than just the ones who attend San Diego Unified.
“If the city is going to take an official position on education, we shouldn’t leave anyone out,” he said.
The specifics of how the city and San Diego Unified will work together are unclear. The City Council expects to have an education-centered meeting in mid-September that will shed light on some of the details.