The hot mic revelations keep coming at the Grossmont Union High School District.
On a recording of a recent school board meeting shared with Voice of San Diego, Grossmont Trustee Robert Shield can be heard dissing on the district’s librarians, calling them “overpaid” and saying they don’t work as hard as teachers.
“When it comes to the librarians, they don’t have as big a role,” Shields says in the recording. “They don’t do lesson plans, they don’t grade papers but they get a 10 percent bump in their pay because they don’t have a prep period.”
Why it Matters: The comments are sure to inflame already simmering tensions in the district, where angry protesters packed a school board meeting last week to oppose board-approved layoffs of more than 60 school employees, including assistant principals, teachers – and nearly every single one of the district’s librarians.
Conflicting Motives: In public, board members express remorse over the cuts, calling them heartbreaking but necessary to close a budget deficit. Shield’s hot mic moment, along with private comments from another board member revealed last week by Voice of San Diego, suggest other motives may be involved.
Shield’s voice downplaying the work of district librarians is off-camera in the video recording of last week’s board meeting. But three district employees who spoke anonymously for fear of retribution identified the voice as that of Shield.
Shield did not respond to a request for comment.
Sacramento Report: Meet Darshana Patel
State Assemblymember Darshana Patel is already busy in Sacramento after winning election to represent Escondido and surrounding communities in the California Legislature. But she says she learned many of her most valuable political lessons in the far less high-profile role of Poway Unified School District trustee.
Patel, a Democrat from Rancho Penasquitos, served on the Poway school board for eight years before moving to the Legislature.
“The school board is an excellent microcosm of the challenges, opportunities and joys of a community,” she told our Deborah Sullivan in a recent interview. “It taught me some of the nuts and bolts about being in elected office (and) how politics at the state level impact us on the ground.”
Her legislative agenda reflects her education background. One bill she proposed would close a loophole on violent threats against schools, making such threats a crime. Another would streamline the process for earning dual credentials in special education. She also wants the state to offer health insurance for adjunct instructors at community colleges.
Another priority: The financial crisis at Palomar Health, a North County public healthcare district that recently has lost tens of millions of dollars and faces scrutiny for its contract with a private non-profit healthcare company.
Also in the Sacramento Report: How local notification and evacuation systems fell short in recent wildfires, leaving elderly, disabled and non-English speaking people in danger.
Read the full Sacramento Report here.
Politics Report: Water Authority Threat
We pulled the following from the Politics Report. That’s our politics newsletter available exclusively to Voice of San Diego members. Become a member today.
For 30 years, there has been a consensus in San Diego’s power circles that the relentless push for diversified sources of water was unquestionably important – a priority for a region still traumatized from the mid 1990s when the Metropolitan Water District threatened to cut back our allocations.
That consensus led to a historic deal to purchase water rights from the Imperial Valley. It led to the construction of a seawater desalination plant. It led to the construction of wastewater recycling and countless other projects to build up our supplies.
That consensus, thus, led to massive debt. It led to more water than we need. And now, it’s leading to big bills.
That consensus may be breaking. Last week, the San Diego City Council voted, barely, to approve a water rate increase of 5.5 percent. It’s the first rate hike of many to come in the next four years and it was a pass through of a 14 percent rate increase charged to the city by the San Diego County Water Authority. That 14 percent hike was double what the city expected and city staff said they had no choice but to raise rates too.
But while several City Councilmembers balked, one of them suggested the previously unthinkable: Maybe it was time for the city of San Diego to secede from the County Water Authority.
Read more in the Politics Report here.
VOSD Podcast: On the latest episode, our hosts nerd out about politics and sports with Darren Smith, a mainstay of sports talk radio for many years in San Diego.
Listen to the full episode here.
In Other News
- A winter storm late last week dropped several inches of snow on local mountains, drenched coastal communities, flooded roadways and kept California Highway Patrol officers busy with “just a ton of crashes.” Clearer skies are expected this week. (Union-Tribune)
- Four of seven candidates seeking an open seat on the County Board of Supervisors debated Thursday at a forum hosted by the Chula Vista Chamber of Commerce. The candidates discussed homelessness, housing and the Tijuana River sewage crisis. (Union-Tribune)
- KPBS took an in-depth look at a new Escondido drug and alcohol detox program that opened earlier this month. Advocates say a shortage of such programs makes it harder to help people experiencing homelessness and substance abuse.
- The San Diego International Airport now accepts mobile drivers licenses, including on a smart watch, to get through security. (KPBS)
- San Diego County District Attorney Summer Stephan declined to file criminal charges in the 2023 death of a man who died in sheriff’s custody after being denied life-saving insulin. Prosecutors said they were unlikely to prove that a crime had been committed. (Union-Tribune)