CONTROL OF GROSSMONT UNION HIGH SCHOOL BOARD HANGS IN BALANCE
Printer-friendly versionElection creates rift among Republicans By Miriam Raftery Five candidates are vying for two seats on the Grossmont Union High School District (GUHSD) Board of Trustees. The stakes are high. The outcome of this election may determine if a popular superintendent will be retained, if a new high school will be built in Alpine, and if divisive forces will regain a majority on the board—forces that prominent Republicans and Democrats have accused of opposing public education. Carroll Boone, an attorney/mediator from a family of educators, is backed by the Democratic Party, San Diego Imperial-Counties Labor Council, Service Employees International Union, many individual teachers and parents. “I’m tired of the divisiveness,” she said, adding that she will use her experience as a mediator to forge common ground on tough issues. “We need to look at education as a wise investment in the future of our children, our grandchildren, and the future of our community.” The other four candidates are conservative Christian Republicans. Two of those—incumbents Priscilla Schreiber and Larry Urdahl–are past and current board presidents endorsed by nearly all of East County’s prominent Republican office holders including Congressman Duncan Hunter and Supervisor Diane Jacob as well as the Grossmont Education Association (teacher’s union). So why has the San Diego Republican Party put its backing behind two lesser-known GOP challengers, Meg Jedynak and Gary Woods? Carroll Boone Priscilla Schreiber Larry Urdahl Schreiber and Urdahl emerged as independent thinkers who stood up against former board president Jim Kelly on key issues during one of the most divisive eras in the district’s history. Kelly, who heads up recruitment for the San Diego GOP, appointed GOP Party Chair Ron Nehring to the GUHSD board after pastor Gary Cass stepped down to found a school in Florida to train Christians to run for office. Nehring tried to turn the entire public school district into a charter district, a move which Urdahl and Schreiber helped halt after the real agenda behind the measure was revealed. “I supported Ron Nehring at first,” Schreiber recalled. “I wouldn’t today because he didn’t support children.” Kelly recruited a controversial superintendent who drew criticism from many quarters. Under the Kelly-led board, Proposition H funds targeted to repair or replace crumbling buildings languished and an oversight board was stacked with “Kelly cronies” according to the San Diego Union-Tribune, which endorsed Schreiber and Urdahl . A bitter18-month labor dispute with teachers ensued and board members were barred from placing items on the agenda without Kelly’s approval. Calls for strategic planning were repeatedly postponed, Schreiber and Urdahl noted. Disturbed by a board majority more concerned with a partisan political agenda than improving public education, Schreiber and Urdahl endorsed Democrat Ken Sobel and Republican Dick Hoy for the board in 2006. Sobel narrowly lost, but Hoy won – forging a majority along with Schreiber and Urdahl. The trio stood up against Kelly and Robert Shield. Jedynak and Woods have been endorsed by Kelly and Cass, though both denied in a recent public forum being recruited by Kelly. (Jedynak and Woods failed to respond to interview requests with East County Magazine and the San Diego Union-Tribune.) But the San Diego Union-Tribune editorial concluded that despite denials of recruitment by Kelly, Woods and Jedynak “show all the earmarks of being his latest recruits.” “It’s all payback,” Schreiber told East County Magazine in an exclusive interview. “They need to use Larry and I as standard bearers of what will happen if you cross the party. They didn’t look at our service record…While I came in with Jim Kelly and Gary Cass, I believe there is corruption across the board.” In the 2006 election, Hoy won a seat vacated by Nehring, who left to become Chairman of the California Republican Party. Although Kelly won reelection, another candidate backed by Kelly lost. The new board majority led by Schreiber conducted a national search for a new superintendent Robert Collins, who has won praise from teachers in a districtwide survey. As the Union-Tribune phrased it in an editorial endorsing Schreiber and Urdahl, “A bumbling superintendent recruited by Kelly retired and was replaced by one with impeccable credentials and real vision.” Schreiber warns, “This election will determine whether we keep this superintendent. I think there could be an effort to remove the superintendent through a buyout we can’t afford.” Urdahl, current board president, takes pride in requesting and pushing for adoption of a strategic vision plan for the district, as well as voting to hire Superintendent Collins. He was also instrumental in seeking a bond performance audit, which led to hiring of a bond advisory committee. “With the previous board, there were a lot of articles attacking the citizens bond oversight committee and progress on the bond itself. We needed to take action and that’s what we did,” he said. The new committee included representatives with finance experience as well as representatives of teachers, parents, students, and local business. “Now we are getting very good reports from the San Diego Taxpayer Association,” Urdahl said. Cost overruns have been reduced from 10% to 3 or 4%, he added. “People are happy with the forward progress of the district.” A life-long San Diego County resident, Urdahl is a graduate of the East County Chamber of Commerce, member of a community planning group and the East county Gang Taskforce. He is also the parent of a recent graduate of the Grossmont district. Urdahl levels sharp criticism at Jedynak and Woods. “These people are anti-public education,” he told ECM. “Gary Woods has spoken in support of homeschooling, which is fine if that’s what you want to do…but I question how dedicated you are going to be to the premise that you equal things out in America through education.” Woods sends his own son to private school, the San Diego Union-Tribune noted in an editorial, which suggested, “Would someone who opposes public school financing be better as a fundraiser for private schools?” Woods, chairman of the El Cajon Planning Commission and a former public schoolteacher, now
PROPOSITION U SEEKS FUNDS FOR CLASSROOM UPGRADES, NEW BUILDINGS IN GROSSMONT UNION HIGH SCHOOL DISTRICT
Printer-friendly version By Miriam Raftery Grossmont Union High School District’s superintendent and four of five GUHSD school board trustees agree that Proposition U is critical to repair and replace aging buildings throughout the district—and build a long-awaited new high school for Alpine. “We can’t modernize the old industrial classrooms abandoned years ago without Proposition U,” GUHSD Superintendent Robert Collins said at an East County Chamber of Commerce meeting. The bond measure will provide funds for career tech courses as well as modernization of buildings. Some campus buildings date back to the 1920s and lack air conditioning. “Prop U is an investment in our community,” Collins said. “Does it raise taxes? Yes, a little bit. Will it bring people into East County” Yes, he predicted, noting that parents place high value on modern schools for their children when choosing a place to live. Voters in the district approved Proposition H in 2004, which allotted $274 million to repair crumbling buildings and provide access for disabled students. At the time, board members acknowledged that the total was not enough to fund all needed improvements. Now Proposition U aims to complete the job. Prop U, which requires a 55% approval to pass, would allocate $417 million, or about $29.70 per $100,000 of assessed value. That’s $60 a year for the average home, or slightly over $1 a week. San Diego Taxpayers Association supports the bond. The current board voted 4 to 1 in favor of putting the bond measure on the ballot. Board president Jim Kelly voted against the bond, which is also opposed by the San Diego Republican Party. Of five candidates running for the GUHSD board, three support Prop U: Larry Urdahl, Priscilla Schreiber, and Carroll Boone. The other two, Meg Jedynak and Gary Woods, oppose the measure. “If you are against this bond, you are against children,” Urdahl told East County Magazine. “Prop U will bring every high school up to current standards that you seek in a modern high school. It will get rid of all the portables. It will complete what Prop H didn’t finish, plus it will enable us to build multi-purpose rooms in all the schools.” Multi-purpose rooms can be used as cafeterias, theaters or study halls and can also be rented out to communities to use for conferences or events. Boone agrees. “Part of making quality education an investment in our communities is to maintain and repair the facilities,” she said. “We’ve just got to do it, even though people are feeling that it’s hard economically, it will only get more costly. We have buildings in disrepair; I’ve heard tales of electrical wires hanging down and parts of ceilings falling down.” The bond will also provide capacity for career tech classes, which Urdahl describes as upgrades over vocational education. Students graduating from career tech classes will be guaranteed actual jobs with local companies or hospitals, he said. Jedynak called the bond measure a “waste of taxpayers money’ at a GUHSD candidate forum sponsored by the League of Women Voters and American Association of university Women. She also faulted Urdahl and Kelly for adding $65 million for building of an “unnecessary school” – a proposed high school for Alpine. The bond measure would also allow construction of a new high school in Alpine if district enrollment exceeds 23,000 students. District enrollment beat projections by 500 students this year “because we went door to door and talked to all the kids who dropped out,” said Superintendent Collins. “They said `There is nothing there for us.’ We can bring them back.” Career tech programs are crucial to bring drop-out students back into the schools, he believes. Jedynak and Woods oppose an Alpine High School, as well as the bond measure, based on cost. Kelly has called this the “worst time economically” for a tax increase. Boone, Schreiber and Urdahl have all voiced support for an Alpine High School. Alpine has actually been promised a high school several times and then the funds have been used for something else, Boone observed. “It’s a matter of fairness, and we do need a new high school. Granite Hills is overcrowded and a lot of students are coming down from alpine to go that school. It just makes sense to have them go to Alpine.” “I am absolutely committed to fight for Alpine High School if this bond passes,” said Schreiber. Urdahl, an Alpine resident, said inflation raised costs for other projects, preventing funds from being used for a new high school in Alpine. Grossmont High School, open since 1922, is one of several aging campuses in the district in need of upgrades, proponents of Proposition U argue. He expressed concerns over safety of students commuting from Alpine to other areas on Interstate 8. “We’ve already lost one student in the past year,” he said. “Somebody came across the freeway…a football player was killed who was going to San Miguel.” A year earlier, another student’s death in a traffic accident led to the proposed Zach’s Law, which would if approved would require schools go back to teaching driver training. Urdahl also noted that with rising gas prices, more students in Alpine are taking the bus—and missing out on after school activities. He predicts enrollment will increase, not decline, due in part to an influx in population including Chaldean Christians from Iraq when the war ends. “Our goal now is by 2010 we will have purchased land and had EIRs and grading done,” he said, adding that the new high school could be open by 2012 or 2013. “If the current makeup of the board remains the same and the bond passes, the timetable I gave you is very real,” he pledged. “The school in Alpine is part of the Superintendent’s vision.” But he added, “If there is a change this election, then the incoming board to vote to remove a high school altogether.” Miriam Raftery is a national award-winning writer and graduate of the GUHSD district. Both of her children also