With local schools seeking more autonomy from the San Diego Unified School District (SDUSD), many options are on the table. One of those options is district trustee John de Beck’s Coastal School District idea, which would break schools in coastal communities away from SDUSD. “It’s a group of people who have common interests that want to make their schools better and believe that the kids should be in a school system that has equity,” de Beck said. De Beck has presented the idea to the Point Loma Cluster Schools Foundation (PLCSF) on two separate occasions, most recently last fall. PLCSF President Christy Scadden said the Peninsula community is lukewarm to the idea so far. “We’re not currently looking at this one solution,” Scadden said. “This isn’t where all of our effort is going. We’re looking at some different styles of governance.” Scadden said the PLCSF is doing outreach with schools in the cluster to get their input into the process. She said the foundation is focusing on what can be improved if local schools had more power. “The temperature of the community is that nobody is content with the way things are happening now,” Scadden said. “It’s kind of a one size fits all. We’re looking for more relevant, meaningful capacity in the community and hope that the budget and governance structure would support that.” De Beck’s presentation includes three options for a proposed district, all of which include schools in Point Loma, La Jolla and Pacific Beach. One scenario included just those three areas, one included schools in the Kearny Mesa area and another included schools in the Mira Mesa and Scripps Ranch area. “It’s not like we’re rebelling against the school district,” de Beck said. “It’s like we’re creating a positive and well thought out subset of the district.” Other ideas for increased autonomy among Point Loma cluster schools are creating charter schools and simply gaining more of a voice within SDUSD. Scadden said any solution the PLCSF came up with would need to be beneficial in the short and long term. “Nothing is off the table at this point,” Scadden said. “We’re in the middle of our work, so I don’t know where we’ll be at the end of this. Signatures from 25 percent of the registered voters in the proposed district would be required in order to put the measure on the city ballot, de Beck said. For more information, e-mail de Beck at [email protected].
