‘Money isn’t the only criterion of success’
Is the San Diego Unified School District’s i21 initiative a model for other districts?
Probably not, says JoAnn Yee, CSBA’s assistant executive director for organizational development and urban affairs, who lauded San Diego Unified’s efforts but said what works in San Diego doesn’t necessarily apply elsewhere.
The biggest hurdle is the most obvious: cost. San Diego’s five-year technology initiative is expected to cost upwards of $400 million, with millions more to be spent on continuing professional development, maintenance and other expenses.
Like most school districts in the state, San Diego has suffered during this recession, trimming more than $145 million from this year’s budget through health care reductions, program eliminations, staff furloughs, bigger classroom sizes and some staffing cuts, primarily among central office personnel.
The district funded its technology project by successfully persuading local voters last year to extend an existing tax. Proposition S was a $2.1 billion bond measure to continue much-needed and long-deferred repairs, renovations and construction of district schools. It attracted 68 percent voter approval in November 2008, riding on the coattails of a similar $1.5 billion bond measure, Proposition MM, which passed in 1998.
Local observers say Proposition S passed because it was presented not as a new levy but the continuation of an old one. Proposition MM obligated local property owners to pay $95.75 annually for every $100,000 in assessed valuation. The fee, which was beginning to drop, would have ended 30 years after it began.
Proposition S extends that. Property owners will continue to pay the current levy until Proposition MM’s debt is retired in 2029, when the annual charge will drop slightly. Proposition S will be paid off in 2044.
“Every school district faces the problem of declining revenues in the face of rising expectations,” Yee acknowledges. “Every district has its own unique set of resources, and what works in one might not be possible in another.
“What San Diego has done and is doing is very interesting, and people will be watching closely to see if it works. They’re investing a lot of money. But money isn’t the only criterion of success. It’s important to ask how that money is being used. A district can do good things with less money if it knows how to spend it wisely.”
—Scott LaFee