Morning Report: Students South of 8 Feel Less Safe at School

Like many school districts across the state, San Diego Unified possesses a trove of information on how students perceive their educational environment. They’re asked a range of questions every year intended to figure out whether they feel safe and engaged. 

We took the responses to 11 key questions and created a searchable database. Will Huntsberry analyzed the results of the 2018-18 survey himself and found wide disparities among the district’s 100-plus schools in a number of categories.

For instance, at some elementary schools as many as 96 percent of students said they felt safe. At others, the percentage dropped to 54 percent and lower. Nearly three times as many schools where students felt less safe were located south of Interstate 8.

The number of students who reported seeing a gun or knife at school during the last 12 months also varied wildly. Zero percent said they’d not seen a weapon at some campuses, but elsewhere it was higher than 50 percent.

It’s not entirely clear how San Diego Unified uses the survey to improve schools. In fact, a district spokeswoman raised doubts about the significance of the responses. 

• There’s been a lot of education news lately, and to help break it all down, Will Huntsberry and Adriana Heldiz joined the podcast. They talked about San Diego Unified Trustee John Lee Evans’ decision not to run for re-election and school bus route cuts in San Ysidro and Oceanside.

High Drama in Sacramento

Friday was the last day to get bills onto Gov. Gavin Newsom’s desk. In the Sacramento Report, we rounded up several of the more high-profile pieces of legislation put forth by San Diego lawmakers and how they fared. Assemblywoman Marie Waldron also introduced language for a bill that would keep SANDAG from prioritizing public transit projects over freeway expansions.

The legislative session had quite an ending.

Then, after the deadline to pass bills came and went, Newsom released a statement signaling he plans to veto one of the only major pieces of legislation being pushed this year by state Senate Pro Tem Toni Atkins. SB 1 would block any environmental rollbacks enacted by the Trump administration.

In her own statement, Atkins praised Newsom but said “we respectfully disagree regarding SB 1… Not only must we work to push back against the roll backs that have already been made, we must start preparing now to push back against the next Trump assaults we know will be coming.”

• Lawmakers also passed a bill that’s largely a rebuke to San Diego prosecutors, reports the U-T.

More Politics

• In his bid for the Assembly, San Diego City Councilman Chris Ward enjoys the endorsement of the San Diego Police Officers Association. But he ruffled the feathers of a larger statewide coalition of police unions for officially supporting a bill lowered the threshold for prosecuting cops who use lethal force. 
• City Council President Georgette Gómez officially kicked off her congressional campaign over the weekend. (Union-Tribune)
• U-T columnist Michael Smolens identifies development fees as the next big housing policy fight at the state level. “While most everyone agrees fees are a big factor in housing costs, critics expressed concern that the legislation would force those costs onto the cities,” he writes. 

In Other News

• This New York Times piece on how Border Patrol agents wrestle with their jobs and their public image includes the perspectives of several agents in the El Centro sector.
• SANDAG will begin construction next summer on the crucial Barrio Logan section of the Bayshore Bikeway, a 24-mile protected path around San Diego Bay that aims to boost commuting by bicycle. (Union-Tribune) 
• A cybersecurity research firm says San Diego is the fifth-most surveilled city in America if you consider street light cameras and license plate readers. In its defense, SDPD says officers aren’t watching live feeds like some major cities do. (Union-Tribune) 

The Morning Report was written by Jesse Marx, and edited by Sara Libby.