Chris Moran
The San Diego Union - Tribune
Oct 28, 1998. pg. B.1
DEL MAR -- If test scores like this could be bottled and sold, the demand would make the Del Mar Union School District the second coming of Coca-Cola.
Del Mar's 2,130 students on average are doing better on standardized tests than about 80 percent of their peers nationally, in some cases better than 90 percent.
The good schools may never have been a secret, but now they're a certifiable craze. People are flocking to half-million-dollar homes in Carmel Valley in part to send their kids to the schools. Enrollment at the district's fourth school, full before it even opened in September, soared by 100 students in four months.
That's the curse of success, and it figures to be the major issue in November's school board election.
There's no discontent about the way things are going, just an undercurrent of apprehension about the way things might be. Growth has caused so much tension that when a parent suggested at a board meeting last year that the district wasn't doing enough to manage it, the superintendent responded by threatening to sue for defamation.
The superintendent, Robert Harriman, is gone for reasons that neither he nor the district have ever fully disclosed. He resigned as part of a settlement that will pay him as much as $166,420.
The parent, Sonja Erion, 41, is one of six candidates for three seats in the November school board election. Others are incumbent Mindy Disraeli, 40, lobbyist Jim Lantry, 45, parent Barbara Myers, 47, teacher David Smiley, 49, and incumbent board president Jeanne Waite, 47.
Growth has so overwhelmed the district that children from new homes are being bused to older schools, shut out by overcrowding at their neighborhood schools.
"There's a certain lack of stability when you're expanding at that rate," Erion said.
And from Erion's perspective, her children could be making friends at Del Mar Heights School only to lose them when they get transferred east as slots open in schools on the other side of Interstate 5.
"By drawing (attendance) boundaries in a different way, perhaps we could generate some amount of stability," Erion said. "I don't know if that's possible."
Erion said her credentials for a school board position include her years of volunteering in the schools and her willingness to speak up for change.
Challenger Jim Lantry also questioned the district's management of growth. He said when he moved to Harwick Lane in Carmel Valley, children on his block attended three different schools. He decried the busing of children from his neighborhood to the other side of I- 5.
"Funds that should be going to teaching our children will be used to transport them out of their neighborhoods instead," he wrote in his candidate statement. "We need to build schools when our children need them, not afterward."
Last year Del Mar bused about 200 children from Carmel Valley to Del Mar. With the opening of Ashley Falls School in September, only about 30 students are being bused, said Superintendent Tom Bishop.
Lantry is a lobbyist who has negotiated with developers and cities. He said he's willing and qualified to negotiate on the district's behalf with the city of San Diego over the joint-use park space at school sites. Because part of the Del Mar Union School District is within San Diego city limits, the two jurisdictions have to strike land-use deals for new school openings.
Lantry proposes more music and arts programs for district schools, which he said could be paid for partially through cuts in transportation under a neighborhood school plan.
Appointed incumbents Waite and Disraeli have served on a board that's opened a new school and planned another, hired a new superintendent and presided over state-funded reduction of class sizes.
Waite explained that Del Mar has planned well for growth but that the convergence of a sudden economic boom that's fueled rapid construction in Carmel Valley and class-size reduction has created a sudden space crunch. Not only that, she said, but the crunch has been concentrated east of I-5.
She answered criticisms of busing with a hypothetical question: "Where do you cut the quality for not busing the kids over to this (west) side of the freeway?" Busing distributes students evenly throughout the schools and prevents overcrowding that could detract from learning, she said.
State mandates on planning, design and construction limit how soon the district can build new schools, she said.
She pledges continued quality teaching, new school construction and smart money management in the next four years.
Disraeli said the district deserves credit for planning the new Ashley Falls School years before the economic boom. She said in answer to critics of the pace at which Del Mar is proceeding that if the economy had suddenly suffered, Ashley Falls could be opening with only 300 students instead of its 550 capacity.
She said board members, teachers, administrators and parents will convene a three-day retreat in October to draw up the district's first five-year plan. Also, the board has hired the architect for the district's fifth school with a goal of opening it in two years.
Disraeli said her goal for the next four years is to "have this tremendous growth without compromising our education." She also hopes that eventually all children in the district will be able to attend their neighborhood school.
Myers has volunteered as a classroom aide, PTA president and school site council member. She said she offers a familiarity with district schools and administrators but does not intend to introduce new policies.
"If you have something good, why change it?" she said.
She said she thought the current board had prepared well for the growth spurt, and that in any case there's not much the district can do about the rate of new construction. She also praised the board members for their professionalism and for not leaking to the public information about sensitive issues.
Myers, Waite and Disraeli are running as a slate.
"Under the leadership of Jeanne Waite, Mindy Disraeli and the school board members, the Del Mar district continues to earn its reputation as one of the finest in California. I share their commitment," Myers said in released statement.
Erion responded to the slate announcement by saying, "While I admire Myers for her volunteer work, I feel she lacks the willingness to openly face critical issues in the district." Erion brought up the September 1997 meeting at which she criticized the district and produced a tape of the discussion in which Myers said, "If people don't like it they should go somewhere else."
Smiley, a teacher at Earl Warren Junior High School in Solana Beach, also praised the board's performance and students' test scores as an indicator that they are mastering reading, writing and math. But he would like to expand the schools' offerings.
"I would like to add an element of culture to the schools, music appreciation and drama," Smiley said.
He said he'd also like to implement a more explicit policy to handle cases of harassment of students, either by teachers or by other students, to help ensure school safety. He advocates more teaching of tolerance and diversity utilizing curriculum such as that devised by the Anti-Defamation League, an organization that honored him with a teacher-appreciation award this year.
"Living in a predominantly white community (last year the school population was 87.6 percent white), that can be an issue -- appreciating others," Smiley said.
Finally, Smiley said his experience as a junior high school teacher gives him insight into what students need to do in elementary school to prepare for later grades.
Credit: STAFF WRITER
