In June, San Diego Unified officials announced the district was projecting big deficits in the coming years. The expiration of hundreds of millions of federal Covid dollars, declining enrollment leading to a decline in funding and a ballooning state budget deficit were all pressing down on the district. Those factors combined to create a massive deficit that officials said could rise to $182 million by the 2025-26 school year.
Still, some district officials said they were confident they’d be able to balance the books without resorting to the layoffs they’d turned to in previous years.
At the time, board member Richard Barrera told Voice of San Diego, “If we need to reduce staff to maintain sort of the same ratios as enrollment and [average daily attendance] decline the district is very, very skilled at figuring out how to do that without laying people off.”
But one board member struck a more gloomy tone. “This is a roadmap for sweating. We’re going to have to sweat a bit,” board Vice President Cody Petterson said in June.
Last week, Petterson got a little more explicit at a La Jolla cluster meeting. According to the La Jolla Light, he told attendees that teachers will begin to receive layoff notices in the coming months.
San Diego Unified officials did not respond to requests for comment, but in a Tuesday night phone call, Petterson said while there certainly would be layoffs, the scale is still yet to be determined. The board will be voting on the actual number during its March 5 meeting.
The 101 on the Guv’s Behavioral Health Ballot Measure
Gov. Gavin Newsom is championing a proposition on the March primary ballot he believes will dramatically improve behavioral health services throughout the state.
Proposition 1 aims to rejigger a tax on people who make more than $1 million annually that’s been a major source of funding for mental-health programs for the past two decades to reflect the current realities of the state’s homelessness and addiction crises. It also calls for a $6.4 billion bond measure to deliver thousands of new beds and housing units for people in need.
So what could Proposition 1 mean for San Diego? Our Lisa Halverstadt broke down the basics of the two-part ballot measure and what it could mean for San Diego County.
Spoiler alert: It will offer both opportunities to bolster local behavioral health services and challenges, including possible cuts for existing programs that now rely on millionaire tax funds.
More News from Newsom: The governor announced Friday that the San Diego Housing Commission has been awarded $35 million in state Homekey funds to convert a 161-unit hotel in Mission Valley into housing for formerly homeless residents.
Wednesday Politics Brief
Mayoral candidate and police officer Larry Turner has a new lawyer: former City Attorney Mike Aguirre represented Turner in court Monday to defend Turner’s eligibility to run for mayor. A citizen working with Mayor Todd Gloria’s allies sued alleging that Turner had not established residency in the city before running for mayor.
The news: Judge James Mangione decided that the trial on the lawsuit would not occur until March 29, three weeks after the primary election. A lawyer representing the city told the court that, should Turner make the runoff election and be disqualified after the trial, the candidate placing third in the primary would move on to the runoff in his place.
Parks tax: A year ago, the San Diego Parks Foundation and the Library Foundation, in partnership with the Municipal Employees’ Association, the largest union of city employees, learned that they had not collected enough signatures to qualify a measure for the ballot that would add a parcel tax to San Diego properties to support libraries and parks. They sued claiming the county and city were improperly rejecting signatures because addresses were slightly different than officially recognized and dates on petitions were confused – an array of technicalities the supporters felt had gone too far.
San Diego Superior Court Judge Marcella McLaughlin issued a tentative ruling that rejected those claims. At a hearing Monday, she agreed to consider their arguments and release a final ruling as soon as possible.
Song of the Week
Kimmi Bitter, “My Grass Is Blue”: Bitter’s sugary sweet voice is the stuff of classic country legends. It’s the kind of voice that seems more apt to spill out of a dusty jukebox in a 1960s country saloon than to be prompted by pressing play on Spotify. Bitter’s compositions are simple, delicate and timeless, eschewing the empty bravado of modern country for the gentle croon of the genre’s past.
“My Grass Is Blue,” which was nominated for “Song of the Year” at the 2023 San Diego Music Awards, is a testament to those traits. In it, Bitter laments a love lost, as a lap steel guitar glides tremulously and a chorus of voices “ooh,” plaintively. It’s an old recipe, but one that’s earnestness is still refreshing.
Like what you hear? Check out Kimmi Bitter at Kensington Club on Friday, Feb. 23.
Do you have a “Song of the Week” suggestion? Shoot us an email and a sentence or two about why you’ve been bumping this song lately. Friendly reminder: all songs should be by local artists.
Read more about this week’s song here.
In Other News
- The Otay Mesa Detention Center put prisoners in solitary confinement 723 times from 2018 to September 2023, according to a new study by Harvard University and Physicians for Human Rights. Data obtained by a freedom of information request and lawsuit also revealed that detainees with serious mental illness were put in solitary confinement for 106 days on average at the detention center. One woman was put in isolation for 759 days. (ABC 10)
- The city of San Diego has reached a settlement in a lawsuit brought by two environmental nonprofits that sought to bring more accountability to the city’s climate action plan. As part of the settlement, the city will release yearly reports documenting whether it’s made enough progress toward its 2030 and 2035 goals, and develop new plans if it falls behind. (KPBS)
- One day after Andrea Cardenas resigned her seat on Chula Vista’s city council amid charges she and her brother had defrauded California’s Employment Development Department, the embattled duo were hit with another criminal charge. (Union-Tribune)
The Morning Report was written by Jakob McWhinney, Scott Lewis and Lisa Halverstadt. It was edited by Andrea Lopez-Villafaña.
Leave a comment