It’s been a doozy of a year for San Diego Unified. The district’s grappling not only with a significant structural budget deficit but with the board’s firing of former Superintendent Lamont Jackson.
For the latest show, our hosts brought in board President Cody Petterson and former president Shana Hazan to help us make sense of what comes next.
Hazan and Petterson broke down their vision for how the district will deal with a budget deficit. Unlike Mayor Todd Gloria’s grim prognostications about austerity, the pair expressed confidence they can balance the books without significant impacts to programming or even layoffs.
The trustees dug into the new district initiatives – like its focus on kids who’ve fallen behind, whom they call spotlight students and efforts to build workforce housing and a safe sleeping site for homeless community members. On the latter issue, Hazan even threw some shade at leaders of the city of San Diego who’ve dragged their feet on opening a site on land the district offered up more than a year ago.
Finally, Hazan and Petterson spoke about Jackson’s firing and the pattern on sexual misconduct issues the district has seen. While they agreed his behavior was clearly troubling, they said they believed they now have systems in place to prevent some of the issues from recurring.
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