Three San Diego Unified schools trustees are up for re-election in 2012. One of them, Shelia Jackson, has decided not to run. Jackson represents southeastern San Diego and four potential successors are already starting to jockey for the post.
Find out more about them and check out a map of the areas each board member represents. Trustees John Lee Evans and Richard Barrera are up for reelection, putting more than half of the board’s five seats to be decided in 2012.
“The election will also be a referendum on Barrera and Evans, who shifted the school board towards the teachers union three years ago,” Emily Alpert writes. “So far no one has stepped forward to compete with them.”
The primary election is in June. Unlike City Council elections, all city residents have a say in each school trustee election. School board candidates run first in their neighborhoods. The top two finishers in the primary move on to a citywide vote in November.
One potential rival to Barrera told us that he decided not to run after weighing the likelihood that the job wouldn’t mean anything. After all, if the district reaches insolvency, the state would take over and trustees could become only advisers. Background: Here’s a good, and more complete, explanation of what happens with insolvency.
Deaf Refugee Revisited
Last year, we published a two-part series documenting the struggles of a deaf refugee from Burma who, when he arrived here, had no idea people who couldn’t hear could communicate at all. Reporter Adrian Florido told the story of how Har Sin discovered sign language.
A year later, Florido checked in with Har Sin. It’s not all roses. But optimism abounds as the outgoing and talkative 25-year-old becomes more engrained in the new culture.
“Har Sin isn’t sure what he wants to do. He’s never planned for the future, and now, his ambitions and thoughts about it seem to expand as his vocabulary does,” Florido writes.
Quick Hits
• Renter’s Advantage: It’s still cheaper to rent than to buy your home in San Diego according to this Wall Street Journal graphic.
• Border Fence at Sea: The LA Times profiles the project to extend the U.S./Mexico border fence 300 feet into the Pacific Ocean.
• New Union Tribune: Andrew Donohue and I finally had some time to discuss this on the weekly radio program. Listen to it here.
• Barrio Logan Art: Artists have begun restoring murals in Chicano Park.
• Combat Vet for Mayor: The U-T pulls excerpts from Assemblyman Nathan Fletcher’s official military records.
What Nancy Graham’s Up To
The Palm Beach Post looks at the latest exploits of Nancy Graham, the former redevelopment executive who left San Diego under the cloud of an ethics investigation, abruptly ending her tenure as head of the Centre City Development Corp.
It finds plenty of similarities between her time here and where she rose to prominence, West Palm Beach. In both places, her connections to developers she was doing business with have come under question. And in both places she said she left to tend to her ailing mother.
When Nancy Graham became the city’s first strong mayor 20 years ago, a perceived good-old- boy system gave way to an accountable government. Residents had a single political figure to either praise or blame, and Graham became a symbol of West Palm Beach’s promise and future.
Two decades later, Graham has become a political outsider, alienated from two cities she tried to develop.
Graham tells the paper it was stupid for her not to disclose her relationships to developers doing business downtown, but also said she’d been “railroaded” because she wasn’t from here.
On Sushi (the Art Thing)
Last week, our story about the city’s struggle to protect arts organizations in a gentrifying neighborhood provoked some good responses. We got a letter from a former board member of Sushi Performance and Visual Art, Vernon Franck. He calls the idea that Sushi’s provocative performance created tensions in East Village an insult.
Chargers Struggle
We have photos of the Chargers’ tough loss to the Broncos on a beautiful San Diego afternoon Sunday.
The game wasn’t so beautiful for Charger fans. ESPN NFL reporter Adam Schefter said Broncos QB Tim Tebow’s 22 runs were the most by an NFL quarterback since the NFL became the NFL. The QB is on an inverse trajectory than the Bolts. He started for the Broncos and now they’re winning. Meanwhile, the Chargers have lost six straight — the first time since 2001.
U-T Chargers writer Kevin Acee tweeted last night that it’s “all but been decided” that if the Chargers don’t make the playoffs, Head Coach Norv Turner will lose his job.
If you’re unsatisfied with his performance, you’ll have to all but decide whether that’s enough for you or not.
I’m Scott Lewis, the CEO of voiceofsandiego.org. Please contact me if you’d like at scott.lewis@voiceofsandiego.org or 619.325.0527 and follow me on Twitter (it’s a blast!):
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