It makes no difference who wins the East County seat on the San Diego County Office of Education board--Katie Dexter or Alicia Munoz

May 20, 2014 UPDATE: This post became deeply ironic one day after it was published.

See: Who's replacing the four corrupt Sweetwater trustees who were forced to resign? Four people who have controlled the legal shenanigans of Sweetwater for years

Four SDCOE board members are replacing the four members of the Sweetwater Union High School District board who were forced to resign due to corruption convictions. See all posts on South Bay Indictments.

Katie Dexter: The Right Choice for San Diego County School Board
by Jack & Helen Ofield
Patch
May 16, 2014

Alicia Munoz has insulted more than 25,000 residents of Lemon Grove with her recent hit piece attacking our 12-year, very effective Lemon Grove School Board member Katie Dexter. Munoz and her supporters in the American Federation of Teachers Local 1931 trashed our school district and everyone who serves it and, by extension, our city as a whole.

She scorns Dexter's work in business (Sam's Club, GMAC) and casts herself as a "professor." She works in the community college system where there is no such academic rank. Her occasional lecturing at SDSU does not make her a "professor." Thus has she also insulted the academic community with her fake title.

Because Munoz and her handlers are ignorant of Lemon Grove's stirring history and of its successful efforts to educate a highly diverse population (some 22 languages and dialects spoken in our schools), they are unaware that the Lemon Grove School District is in the vanguard of classroom technology, interdisciplinary learning and STEM curricula, art and music (we've had a music program since 1933), healthy diets for students and, not least, construction in 2013 of a beautiful, joint use library that is a runaway success story in the county library system.

Munoz' absence of judgment, sensitivity and community research, and acceptance of her union's gutter tactics make her a poor choice for County School Board. She should withdraw from the race now.

By contrast, Dexter's widely-respected grasp of school financing, ability to forge public-private partnerships to help our schools, long-time service to local, county and state education organizations, volunteer service as a mother and board member in community groups, respect for teachers and classified employees alike, and managerial skills have won her a who's who of support -- Supervisor Dianne Jacob, La Mesa Mayor Art Madrid, Lemon Grove Mayor Mary Sessom, Brian Marshall, Superintendent of the La Mesa-Spring Valley School District, Kevin Ogden, Superintendent of the Julian School District, CSEA Chapter 568, Lemon Grove City Council members Howard Cook and Jerry Jones, and the list goes on to literally thousands of voters inside and outside of Lemon Grove.

...Jack is an Emeritus Professor of Film and former Filmmaker in Residence at SDSU and Fellow of the American Film Institute, and Helen is a writer and member of the San Diego County Historic Site Board and president of the Lemon Grove Historical Society...

Sincerely,
Jack and Helen Ofield


Comments

Maura Larkins
No matter which one of these candidates wins, the SDCOE board (as well as the superintendent, Randy Ward) will continue to be a rubber stamp for Diane Crosier and her stable of lawyers.


Jack & Helen Ofield
Maura - They will have a fighter in Katie Dexter. Until we begin to place people of Katie's caliber on that board, it will be business as usual.


Maura Larkins
Hi Helen,
Public institutions in Lemon Grove exhibit higher integrity than most of the other public entities in San Diego County that I'm familiar with, but SDCOE (and SDCOE-JPA) are connected to powerful people--including the folks at AIG (the insurance company that got over $180 billion during the financial crisis).

No candidate would be able to make the slightest dent in the corruption.

Remember the MiraCosta College scandal? Remember board member Judy Stratton? No, of course you don't--because she resigned right after she spoke out about corruption.

You can't make the lawyers mad and remain on the board.

Maura Larkins

The AFT attack on a middle and working-class community reminds me of an attitude I've seen among many teachers. They prefer working in upscale areas where the kids are born on third base; the test scores make the teachers think that they themselves hit a triple! (I'd like to acknowledge the late, great Molly Ivins as the originator of the quip that I'm paraphrasing here.)