By Ian S. Port
Assistant Editor
Perkins holds a master’s degree in education from the University of Maryland and has served on numerous state education boards, as well as on the executive board of the San Diego County Taxpayer’s Association.
“I’m pretty excited — and humbled,” Perkins said after the meeting. “I felt bad for the board having so many good candidates to vet through. It was tough competition.”
Nominating Perkins for the temporary vacancy, trustee Katherine White said that among a strong field, he had exceptional experience shouldering fiduciary responsibilities.
“I don’t think any of our other candidates have that wealth of experience,” White said, pointing to Perkins’ years on various boards at the city and state level.
Perkins, a Del Mar resident for over 20 years, no longer has children in the Del Mar schools, but remains active in the community and — as with many of the other candidates — attended nearly all of the Del Mar board’s recent meetings. In responding to a question about school funding — a major issue with budget cuts looming this year — Perkins said it was key for school districts to form coalitions and pressure lawmakers in Sacramento to be lean on cuts, as well as to seek alternative sources of funding.
“We’re facing the worst budget in California since I’ve been here,” he said.
Perkins will serve during a crucial time in the district, when trustees will face the daunting tasks of hiring a new superintendent, wrestling with state budget cuts and other financial issues, and healing a school community that has again grown perilously divided.
He will fill the vacancy left by longtime trustee Linda Crawford, whose seat term expires in November. Perkins will have to run again at that point if he wishes to remain on the school board.
Crawford resigned in March over philosophical differences with the three-member board majority shortly after it voted to buy out former Superintendent Tom Bishop. Crawford and another longtime trustee, Janet Lamborghini, who remains on the board, supported Bishop and voted against the decision to oust him.
Bishop’s voluntary resignation brought to a head many prickly issues in the district, and the acrimony and divisiveness it wrought among staff and parents is now considered a major obstacle. Several prospective board members, including Perkins, indicated concerns about those divisions.
But the group will have to conduct any healing while also handling some hard decisions.
Looming large among them is the issue of enrichment program funding, which has dogged the district for nearly two years. The district is contractually obligated to provide its teachers with several hours per week of preparation time during the school day — hours that students now spend in enrichment classes with other certificated teachers.
The enrichment program, which provides art, music, science and technology education to students and allows schools to set their own curriculum and staffing levels, is adored by many district parents, who help fund the program through voluntary donations to the Del Mar Schools Education Foundation.
Without those donations from the DMSEF, the district essentially cannot afford its enrichment teachers — and its teachers’ prep-time hours. But it cannot fire them either, because the employees are fully certificated union members entitled to the same benefits as regular-curriculum teachers. And its contract with teachers guarantees certain levels of prep time.
The process essentially allows schools to fundraise for additional staff, which the district is then obligated to pay — even in years when donations do not support them.
Adding to the difficult situation is a heated political climate that has parents withholding their normal donations to the Foundation in protest of the decision to oust Bishop, according to DMSEF President Bob Gans.
Gans said in a recently letter to the school board that the Bishop controversy and a lack of clear direction from the district threatened the Foundation’s viability, and suggested that the organization consider suspending its operations until the situation becomes clearer.
The DMSEF Board of Directors chose not to do that at its May 6 meeting, with about half of its members saying that it’s too early to give up on the mission of the organization. About another half argued that without more direction and a business model that the community can support, the DMSEF can’t continue fundraising. The group decided to leave the decision to its next board of directors, which will be seated in June.
“If you don’t know what you’re fundraising for, you can’t send fundraising letters,” said board member and Sage Canyon parent Jeb Spencer. “This is the toughest money I’ve ever raised and I’ve raised a lot of money in Washington, D.C.”
At the meeting, Del Mar Trustee and ex-officio Foundation board member Janet Lamborghini acknowledged the difficulties facing both organizations, but said she wholly supported them.
“I’m optimistic for you all,” she told the DMSEF board. “I hope that you will go on.”
Enrichment and staffing levels are only one of many challenges facing the Del Mar School board. Its main task for the summer is finding a replacement for controversial superintendent.
The seven candidates who sought a temporary seat on the district board came with varying levels of familiarity with Del Mar schools, according to their application forms, but all said they wished to serve the mission of the district and help its students. One or more of them may chose to run again for the vacant seat in November.
Mary Slattery Johnson, also a Del Mar resident, has graduate training in education from Stanford University, where she studied the importance of video and multimedia in building literacy. She indicated strong support for the mission of the district’s enrichment program and cited the importance of influencing lawmakers to ensure adequate funding.
Kris Kissner sat on the Del Mar school board and served as its president, and also worked as a staff member for the Foundation. She promised not to run for the permanent seat in November.
Bob Gans is currently the president of the DMSEF and has essentially led the organization as a volunteer this year, in addition to serving in various other volunteer posts throughout the district. A former litigator, Gans cited his ability to make reasonable appeals and disagree respectfully — as well as his considerable knowledge of district matters — as key benefits he would bring to a board post.
Comischell Bradley-Rodriguez is a businesswoman with experience in international trade who has volunteered widely in the district since moving to Carmel Valley eight years ago. She served as PTA president at Sage Canyon for three years, helped run a letter-writing to convince state officials to let Del Mar keep its Basic Aid funding status, and has a knowledge of both music and Spanish.
Stephen Cochrane is a professor of education at Azusa Pacific University in the Special Education Department. Having lived five years in Carmel Valley, Cochrane said he wants to ensure the best possible future for the district his nine-month-old son will eventually attend. Cochrane also ran for a seat on the San Dieguito Union High School District Board in 2006.
Korey Sarokin is an attorney who moved to Carmel Valley about nine months ago. With experience volunteering at her children’s school in New Jersey, and working with underserved children at a community food bank, Sarokin hopes to help unify the community and bolster public education in the district.
