Backers of a campaign to remake and expand the San Diego Unified school board plan to turn in roughly 133,000 signatures to the city clerk today, the first step toward letting voters weigh in on their plan.
San Diegans 4 Great Schools, the group of philanthropists, parents, business leaders and others behind the campaign, says it needs more than 93,000 valid signatures to move ahead. The city clerk needs to get the signatures verified with the registrar before the City Council could act to put it on the ballot.
Under the plan, the five elected school board members would be joined by four new ones, who would be appointed by a new committee of parent leaders, university chiefs and a business representative.
Besides expanding the school board, the plan would change the election system so that board members are elected exclusively by voters in the smaller subdistricts they represent, instead of voters across the district. And it would restrict how long school board members can serve, limiting them to twelve years.
Report: Schools Inconsistent in Choosing Companies
Posted: Friday, April 15, 2011 10:51 am | Updated: 5:39 pm, Fri Apr 15, 2011.
School districts in San Diego County are meeting most of their promises to voters when it comes to completing construction projects, delivering 93.4 percent of the projects that were planned when voters opted to approve the funding, a report by the San Diego County Taxpayers Association found.
But the taxpayer group is worried that inconsistent practices for choosing construction companies could open up school districts to favoritism or simply stop them from choosing the best company.
"Several school districts seem to have a system that is set up to benefit companies tha