‘A Big Glass Taj Mahal’?
San Diego Unified is slated to build a new data center at Serra High School to store information, which will double as an educational opportunity for high schoolers who can visit it to learn about...
View ArticleGrowing Bill Looms for School Repairs
Leaky roofs. Frayed wiring. Broken ramps. Three years ago San Diego Unified had a long list of needed repairs. It estimated it would need $755 million to tackle all of them over the next decade. The...
View ArticleWhy S.D. Unified Might Avoid Hot Water Over Pool Construction
Last November, voters OK’d San Diego Unified’s bid to borrow $2.8 billion to “repair neighborhood schools and charter schools with funding the state cannot take away.” Prop. Z — the “San Diego...
View ArticleExplainer: When Principals Go on ‘Special Assignment’
You won’t see a job description for “principal on special assignment” on the San Diego Unified School District website. But that’s not to say the job doesn’t exist. The special assignment position...
View ArticleWhere Prop. Z Money Has Gone So Far
One year ago this week, San Diegans voted on what would become the largest public works project in the city’s history: Proposition Z. The construction bond promised to pump $2.8 billion into the San...
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The School District’s ‘Bait and Switch’ Bond Problem
In the beginning, there was light. And Talmadge neighborhood residents said it was really annoying. The neighbors formed a group and called it Taxpayers for Accountable School Bond Spending. Their...
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Asbestos Is No Longer San Diego Unified’s Public Enemy No. 1
Just because there’s asbestos lurking under flooring tile in San Diego classrooms doesn’t mean it’s dangerous. In fact, all schools in San Diego Unified are safe for kids, the districts says. They were...
View ArticleThe Next Bond Money Fight: Swimming Pools
San Diego Unified is still in the midst of a court battle over millions of bond dollars spent improperly on stadium lights, but that’s not stopping officials from plunging into a similar endeavor:...
View ArticleSan Diego Unified Got Rid of Portable Classrooms Then Bought New Ones
Four years ago, school officials destroyed a dozen portable classrooms at San Diego High School to make way for a new two-story building that would ease overcrowding on the congested campus. Now...
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Stadiums In, Asbestos O̶u̶t̶ Still In: A Guide to San Diego Unified’s School...
Let’s cut to the chase: Many of the projects San Diego Unified has spent bond money on in the last couple years haven’t been quite what taxpayers expected. All told, money from Propositions S and Z...
View ArticleCourt: San Diego Unified Doesn’t Have to Pay Back the Millions it Illegally...
San Diego Unified won’t have to refund its bond account for the $2.6 million illegally spent on stadium lights at five high schools, the Fourth District Court of Appeal ruled Thursday. Taxpayers for...
View ArticleSan Diego Unified Eyes New CABs – ‘Heartburn or Heartbreak’ Not Included
A local school district needs a $100 million loan for construction projects, but doesn’t want to pay off the debt for decades as interest compounds in order to keep its tax rate pledge to voters. Sound...
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The Learning Curve: How San Diego Unified Defends Stadiums Over Air Conditioning
On the second day of the school year, Superintendent Cindy Marten let me tag along with her on a visit to San Diego High School. It was still early in the day, just after 10, and already the classrooms...
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Lobbying Public Agencies by Day, Guarding Public Dollars by Night
Last fall, a disagreement arose between officials at San Diego Unified and Southland Electric, one of the district’s contractors. The district was being audited and had concerns about the pay rate of a...
View ArticleSan Diego Explained: Watching the Watchers of Millions of Taxpayer Dollars
School districts like San Diego Unified rely on bonds to fund things like the installation of air conditioning units or the purchase of iPads for use in the classroom. Proposition 39 made it easier for...
View ArticleWhy San Diego Unified Can Use Bond Money to Build New Schools
Voters were told Memorial Preparatory Middle School in Logan Heights would get remodeled with bond money. Instead, the campus will get demolished and entirely rebuilt to serve middle- and...
View ArticleNew School Bond Spending Plan Still Carves Out Money for Stadiums, Tech
A whopping $1 billion in school bond funds has been spent on facility construction, repairs, renovations and other upgrades at San Diego city schools since voters approved the first of two...
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Several Years and $1 Billion Later, San Diego Schools Are Actually in Worse...
After a tax hike, two ballot propositions and $1 billion in spending, San Diego’s city schools are in worse condition today than they were eight years ago, according to new data the district handed...
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San Diego Unified’s Local Hiring Goals Are Falling Further Out of Reach
San Diego residents are still not building most of the local school district’s large construction projects as hoped, and a goal for hiring local residents to build 70 percent of large jobs is now...
View ArticleDistrict Says It’ll Take Millions More on Top of Multibillion-Dollar Bonds to...
San Diego Unified officials expect the average condition of school buildings to improve from poor to fair by July 2024, but they’ll need more money than what two existing multibillion-dollar bond...
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