150th Anniversary :: San Diego City Schools

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Celebrating 150 Years
The Seventies

A surge in English language learner (ELL) awareness and sensitivity, characterized by numerous reform efforts to service this ever-growing population, typified the seventies' educational issues.

To guarantee all students equal opportunity, the Equity in Student Placement Oversight Committee (now the Student Equity Committee) was created in the seventies. Its reports, based on various aspects of the district including curriculum, student attendance and performance, helped lead the way for important district reforms.

The district also enforced earthquake standards for high school buildings and demolished several schools after declaring them unsafe according to earthquake regulations. Schools were rebuilt according to safer guidelines.

1971	The first Latino principal in SDCS, Herbert Ibarra, takes a position at Memorial Junior High School and later serves as principal at San Diego High School.
1972	California passes its first legislation involving school funding for English language learner services, which does not require districts to provide bilingual education, but allows for districts to apply for funds to develop bilingual programs.
1974	In the case Lau v. Nichols, the Supreme Court rules that "there is no equality of treatment merely by providing students (who do not understand English) with the same facilities, textbooks, teachers and curriculum," thus obligating districts to offer special help to English language learners.
1976	The Chacon-Moscone Bilingual-Bicultural Education Act passes as the first state legislation to mandate equal educational opportunities to language minority students.
1977	First large-scale teacher's strike in San Diego, following a sick-out at several district secondary schools, lasts for four days, with teachers asking for higher salaries and unions demanding greater bargaining power.
	A Superior Court judge ruling brings the decade-long Carlin v. Board of Education case to a close and requires San Diego City Schools to desegregate 23 schools found to be "racially isolated." This results in new districtwide programs aimed at diversification, such as voluntary busing.
1978	PSA flight 182 crashes into neighborhood houses after a collision with a smaller plane over North Park, killing 144 people and destroying 22 houses.
1979	Cleveland Elementary's principal and head custodian are killed when 16-year-old Brenda Spencer fires a rifle toward the school across the street from her home. Nine others are wounded during the six-hour siege.