Mayoral hopeful Bonnie Dumanis has announced plans to develop a regional “Educational Leadership Summit” as part of her plans for reforming the San Diego Unified School District, which she calls her “Framework for America’s Finest Schools.”

“When schools succeed, students succeed. And when students succeed, cities succeed,” concludes Dumanis in a release on her website. “As Mayor, I’ll take a leadership role in ensuring San Diego City schools are utilizing best practices, making district finances transparent, and integrating partners such as AmeriCorps, cultural institutions, universities, businesses and government offices to expand the resources available to teachers and students.”

Dumanis also says she recently met with Sacramento mayor Kevin Johnson, chairman of the United States Conference of Mayors Education Reform Task Force. The task force has laid out an “Action Guide for Success,” elements of which have been incorporated by Dumanis into her “Framework.” Included is a call for mayors to take partial control of a school board by appointing board members — a similar proposal put forth by a group called San Diegans 4 Great Schools failed to gather enough signatures to be placed before voters.

Many active in the education community, however, have been critical of the Dumanis plan. The OB Rag’s Doug Porter laid out many of the arguments in a January article shortly after the initial “Framework” proposal was released.