Artificial intelligence has quickly made its way into virtually every sector in our society, and San Diego Unified School District is no exception.
Earlier this month, our Jakob McWhinney wrote that San Diego Unified teachers are already using AI platforms to grade student work. Even some district board members were surprised to learn that an AI product had already been approved in a contract last year.
District officials don’t currently have an AI policy in place, and after realizing just how widely used AI is throughout the district, they’re now working on one. Officials say they’re putting together a task force of school staff and community members to create a policy that they hope to implement by early next year.
In this month’s Progress Report, our effort to check in on schools trying new things, McWhinney writes that many teachers have already started integrating AI into their classrooms for lesson plans, grading or even lectures about AI itself.
This has also caused some concern.
Read the Progress Report here.
San Diego’s Water Gets (a Little) More Expensive
After hours of debate, San Diego’s water importer (because the region has to buy most of its water from outside the county) decided to raise rates just a smidgen – and put off the doom-iest part of its proposed water price spike until next month.
Why? Well, a lot of local water district representatives (there are 33) weren’t comfortable with how the city of San Diego (the region’s biggest and most powerful water buyer) wanted to try and stave off bigger rate increases. And the city, which has the power to ram through anything it wants, hit the pause button instead.
How we got here: Staff at the San Diego County Water Authority first proposed a 22 percent rate increase for Jan. 1 for a whole slew of reasons you can read about here. That was later negotiated down to 18 percent – still huge compared to water price increases over the past few decades. Actual water rates consumers pay at homes and businesses would not necessarily go up that much but local water districts would have to pay those rate increases somehow.
Then the Water Authority scrounged up a $19 million dollar grant from the federal government to help buy down that price spike to around 15 percent.
Not good enough: The city of San Diego, at the urging of Mayor Todd Gloria, still wasn’t happy with that. At Thursday’s Water Authority board meeting, vice chair and Gloria’s deputy chief of staff Nick Serrano asked the agency to try to make a 14 percent rate hike happen. That sent the Water Authority General Manager Dan Denham and his finance team back into the proverbial locker room to come up with a new play for how to get there.
Denham’s team told the full board later that afternoon the Water Authority could offer a 14 percent rate spike, but it’d have to use $9 million cash from its emergency coffers (there’s only $25 million left in there) to make it happen.
Rates and Debt Manager Pierce Rossum threw up a plan showcasing some scary red “x’s” indicating what less rate collections would mean for the agency’s future: That plan wouldn’t meet the board’s own cash-on-hand policy, it would take money out of the emergency fund, and further hurt the Water Authority’s already weakened credit rating.
It was enough to generate some cold feet. “Stop trying to make 14 percent happen. It’s not going to happen,” was the vibe of the room. The city of San Diego backed off their ask. The board went into recess.
When the board returned, San Diego’s Board Director Fern Steiner threw a proverbial flag on the city’s own play. She asked the board to instead approve a 4 percent increase so the Water Authority could pay its bills to the Metropolitan Water District of Southern California – San Diego’s lifeline to all of its major water sources. And then the board would deal with the rest later – at its July 25 meeting.
Another City, Another Homeless Camping Ban
Escondido city leaders approved a new camping ban on Wednesday to crack down on homeless encampments in public spaces.
The new restrictions make it illegal to camp on public property when shelter is available. It also bars camping near schools, shelters, transit hubs and trolley platforms regardless of shelter availability.
The ordinance might soon see some modifications depending on a highly anticipated ruling in the U.S. Supreme Court case brought by a small Oregon city that wants more leeway when clearing camps. The case is called Grants Pass v. Johnson, and a ruling is expected any day now.
Reminder: Escondido has the highest number of unsheltered homeless residents in North County with 401 people, according to this year’s point-in-time count. That’s a 32 percent year-over-year increase.
The city only has two homeless shelters; one with 49 beds and another family shelter that can accommodate 12 families at a time.
Around the Empire:
- The wildfire that started at Torrey Pines State Natural Reserve Tuesday reignited Thursday after firefighters thought it was contained. (FOX 5)
- San Diego County built more housing in 2023 than it had in the past 17 years, according to a study by the Construction Industry Research Board. Multifamily buildings like apartments, condos and townhomes make up the bulk of the building permits surveyed by the board. Accessory dwelling units or ADUs outpaced new single-family home construction. (Union-Tribune)
- Mpox, an infectious skin disease that generates rashes and blisters, is on the rise in San Diego County. The county’s public health department is aware of seven new cases of the disease spread by close personal contact with skin lesions and bodily fluids of someone who is infected. There is a vaccine called JYNNEOS that can reduce symptoms but not prevent the illness. (Union-Tribune)
- A male inmate at the downtown Men’s Central Jail died in custody, the sixth so far in 2024. Deputies found the man dead on the floor of a shower, according to the San Diego County Sheriff’s Department. He was a person believed to be experiencing homelessness and had been charged with intent to defraud, drug possession and possession of drug paraphernalia. (Union-Tribune)
- The North County Transit District got a grant from the U.S. Department of Transportation to help build out passenger rail between Palomar College and the Escondido Transit Center. The $65 million grant is part of President Joe Biden’s Rebuilding American Infrastructure with Sustainability and Equity Act. (Union-Tribune)
The Morning Report was written by MacKenzie Elmer and Tigist Layne. It was edited by Scott Lewis.