150th Anniversary :: San Diego City Schools

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Celebrating 150 Years
Remembrances

The district would like to thank all contributors for their submissions, which have been compiled here.
•	Board of Education Members
•	Superintendents
•	District Staff
•	Community Members

Quotes from Board Members

My greatest contribution as a Board Member of SDCS has been "diligence, independence, honesty and informed skepticism on matters of education direction. In the last six years there has been a radical philosophical shift in educational point of view and process- from humanist model to capitalist/business-model in which CEO and managers know best and all decisions are made without consulting the elected Board of Education, the community of teachers, the workforce or the students."

The most significant change in the public education system in the past 150 years has been "the invention of television, and the assault on public schools from private interests and their well-compensated representatives. I remember beautiful weather on the day in early March 1998 when our Board of Education, led by perennial Board President Ron Ottinger, succumbed to secret pressure from San Diego's business establishment and appointed- without unanimous agreement among colleagues- litigator Alan Bersin as the superintendent of public instruction."

--Frances O'Neill Zimmerman, Board Member 1996-2004.

Quotes from Superintendents

"The district has responded to major changes in technology, from electric typewriters in the early 1980s, to computers and huge noisy printers a few years later, to networked computers and email in the 1990s. Bringing technology to the 100-plus schools in the district was a challenge. It changed faster than schools were able to purchase and install the equipment."

"The ethnic composition of the district's student body changed rapidly, from a majority-white population to a very diverse one, including immigrants and refugees from all over the world. Changes in demographic makeup called for changes in teaching and support, with increasing demand for programs for English language learners."

"During my tenure, innovation and change were ongoing and sustained because of continuity of governance and executive leadership. The stability that occurred required an honest, open, inclusive, respectful relationship among the Board, community, staff and me, a relationship made possible because we worked hard to nurture and sustain it during times of agreement and disagreement. The Board was never a rubber stamp for me and decisions did not always come easily. Unlike most other urban districts, the Board members and I served in our respective roles long enough to initiate, implement, sustain and be accountable for policies that had coherence, were understood and led to continuous improvement. When I left San Diego, I was the longest serving superintendent in an urban school district in the United States."

--Thomas W. Payzant, Superintendent of San Diego City Schools from 1982 to 1993 and recipient of the national McGraw Prize for his leadership in San Diego.

Quotes from Staff

"The most significant change in public education in the past 50 years is the focus on English language learners. I love the fact that the National Board Certification in this topic area is available for teachers. I know it has certainly made me a better, more aware, evaluative and reflective teacher with these special students."

"A special memory for me was when I won Teacher of the Year in 2003-2004 and my school held a special congratulatory ceremony for me with special guests. My most special guest was a student named Irena Kasiokinsky, who came to America from Russia in 1995, speaking no English. I was a first year teacher, and she was assigned to my class. She now speaks beautiful English and credited me with providing her with a warm and safe environment in which she spoke her first English words. She is now in high school and an all-honors student."

--Joan Boyle, teacher at La Jolla Elementary and 2003-2004 District Teacher of the Year at the Elementary Level

"(Board member) Reverend Smith, a dominant presence in the African-American community in San Diego, deserves major credit for his efforts in providing leadership to address the educational issues of the Civil Rights revolution in San Diego within a climate of reasonable racial peace."

"A primary force for change that emerged hand-in-hand with the Civil Rights revolution was the radical change in student rights. Students, the courts increasingly held, were entitled to rights of general citizenship. The legal concept of in loco parentis, in which school authorities stood before the law in the same position as parents, was essentially eviscerated."

"The positive result of the district's loss in the Carlin case was that it sharply focused the attention of the community and the school board administration on the complex problem that was bedeviling school districts throughout the country: How to balance racially diverse student populations at schools with the support and commitment of the entire district community. It is this question that school boards and their superintendents continue to wrestle with today, and San Diego has been no exception."

--Thomas A. Shannon, SDCS Attorney from 1962-1973; Deputy Superintendent of Administration and General Counsel until 1977; Executive Director of the National School Boards Association until 1997. View complete document submitted.

Superintendent Payzant's administration and the K-12 structure were "very innovative at that time as elementary and secondary principals in feeder groups were able to meet together as a group to discuss curriculum in the feeder cluster. (This) brought the people together, and they were able to discuss the problems they were having. Before that, they were really separate."

Because of earthquake-proof regulations, "the old San Diego high school had to be destroyed and rebuilt, but it was built so well they had to get a bigger (wrecking) ball."

"Bill Hoover sent a memo saying that we were allowed to wear pantsuits. We all went out and bought pantsuits. Back then it meant so much to us girls. It is history, it's women's rights."

"We all feared the computer. The thing that came true is that everyone has a computer now. The thing that didn't come true is that they told us we'd have no paper."

--Sandra Allen, Crawford High graduate in 1959, district employee starting in 1968, retiree in 1999, currently working in Board of Education Office

The PSA plane crash occurred on "a hot September morning. I was a detective at the time for the juvenile district. It was a complete destruction of both planes. Saint Augustine (High School, a private all-boys school) was a command post and a temporary morgue."

During the shooting at Cleveland Elementary, "I was involved in the peripheral response. (Brenda Spencer) was a disenchanted youngster. She shot the principal and others. San Diego police officers drove a truck into the line of fire in order to protect the students."

--Rick Roda, City of San Diego Police Officer from 1969-1995, currently School Police Services Lieutenant

"When you hear teachers talk about (the 1977 teacher's strike), they talk about how those days really impacted the relationships in many schools. There were a lot of hurt feelings between teachers who walked and those who didn't, and it caused a split at some sites. Many teachers have talked about how hard it was. After the last strike, principals had help to prepare them to welcome back staff and heal. Emotions run high during situations like this and people do things out of character. People may come back after a strike, regretting things they did, and (others) come back angry. Some principals and teachers were hurt because people they felt close to had acted in ways that really surprised them. There was a lot done to try to help people heal."

--Mariam True, Extended Learning Opportunities Executive Director

"When LA was having their riots, there was some impact down here. We had no riots that I knew of, but there was more protection. There was little more unrest. I can remember teaching summer school at Baker Elementary and I can remember police escorts."

--Kathy Ford

Quotes from the Community

"When I was just a kid attending public school, I remember we were instructed to insert "under God" into the Pledge of Allegiance. I did wonder even then about the separation of church and state."

--Marceline Clausen