Adult sporting leagues out of Clairemont!

Taxpayers' generosity in approving property tax bonds Prop S and Prop Z has been abused by San Diego Unified School District. Taxpayers provided millions to improve the educational environment of SDUSD students but paint is peeling, restrooms smell with cracks in the walls and rusted sinks, and portable classrooms still sit on school sites and sites are not accessible to persons with disabilities. Instead, the district rammed through huge projects that commercial entities are using for big profits without regard for the quality of life for the taxpayers that opened their pocketbooks for the children. The splashy projects which benefit a small percentage of students was not the promise made by the school board in the proposition language which stated dilapidated facilities would be fixed up and in fact, listed the proposed projects. Instead, this government entity uses our tax money / legal services to impose its will on the citizens who are footing the bill and suffering from the constant use of school sites. It uses our tax money against its taxpayers! The commercial use of school sites means more taxpayer money will be needed to repair school sites sooner which have become cheap places for businesses to use and increase their profits. Schools were not situated in our communities for a commercial purpose but for educational purposes. Sadly, the children in San Diego Unified now will be paying off millions of dollars of bond money for decades and living in neighborhoods where neighborhood schools close for the day just to have the commercial businesses come in and take over for the night and weekends.
— February 22, 2015 11:32 a.m.

Adult sporting leagues out of Clairemont!

Additional supportive documentation regarding this story: Video interview with Clairemont residents - https://www.youtube.com/watch?feature=player_embe… 14 Jan 2015 - Letter to School Principal; limitations of night Field Use per their MND – http://www.tfasbs.org/uploads/Document_for_Claire… 15 Jan 2015 - E-Mail from District Council, Andre Donovan – http://www.tfasbs.org/uploads/E-mail_from_Andre_D… 11 Feb 2015 - Meeting recap between District, VAVi, and Clairemont Resident – http://www.tfasbs.org/uploads/SDUSD_Invites_For-P…
— February 21, 2015 1:44 p.m.

Dark times for Hoover High School football

Scott Barnett has totally missed the whole point of improper bond money expenditures. If the district was upfront with the voters and listed Field Lighting as a specific project in the bond measures for each of the high schools in both Prop S and Prop Z and those bonds passed with Field Lighting listed as a specific project, taxpayers would have no issues with the district spending bond money on Field Lighting. Prop 39 changed our California constitution and requires strict accountability of school bonds. Prop S and Prop Z are both Prop 39 bond measures. One of the advantages of Prop 39 school bonds, and why the school districts really like using them, is because they only require a 55% majority of votes rather then the previous requirement of 2/3 majority of votes. One of the strict accountability requirements of a Prop 39 bond measure is to include specific projects that the bond money will go toward so the voters are fully informed of what the money will be spent on when they go to the voter booth to cast their vote. The project that the district decided to include Field Lighting was a project in the Prop S bond measure under a heading labeled “Projects to Improve School Accessibility, Code Compliance Upgrades”. Under that heading is where you will find two projects related to the football field and stadium renovations; 1) Renovate/replace stadium bleachers, including press box. 2) Upgrade fields, track, and courts for accessibility compliance. Again, both of these projects were presented to the taxpayers as ADA compliance and Code compliance efforts. ADA compliance and Code compliance upgrades are a welcome improvement to all of the school facilities and also one of the reasons that voters cast their vote to approve Prop S and Prop Z. Here is the catch, Field lighting can not be tethered to any projects under that heading as an expense that was “incidental to and necessary for the completion of the listed projects”. Close to a ½ Million dollar expense at Hoover alone definitely fails the “incidental” requirement and Field Lighting is not required for a football field and stadium to be ADA compliant so it also fails the “necessary” requirement: http://www.ada.gov/stadium.txt From a SDUSD Declaration, in response to Judge Taylor's request, disclosed the following costs associated with field lighting using Prop S money: Clairemont - $408,431; Madison - $611,590; Morse - $302,154; University City - $803,030; Hoover - $490,968 Total - $2,616,173 The truth of the matter is that the District purposely didn’t include Field Lighting as a specific project because they knew that the controversial project would affect their chances of getting voter approval of both Prop S and Prop Z. The district took their chances and hid it in the fine print. But this time the fine print wasn’t fine enough and it has worked against them. Learn more at: http://www.tfasbs.org/ http://propointloma.wordpress.com/
— November 6, 2013 9:28 p.m.

San Diego Unified suffers another legal setback over installation of stadium lighting at Hoover High School

It is correct that the parties are now re-appearing before the Superior Court to get an appropriate order, injunction, and judgment consistent with the Court of Appeal decision that the decisions and actions of the District were illegal. The District decided to construct the project and took a risk doing so irrespective of the pending lawsuit, and did so at the risk a court would ultimately deem it illegal. TFASBS is confident that an appropriate injunctive order will be issued by the Superior Court in the next 30-40 days enjoining the District from using and/or ordering removal of the illegal aspects of the project, unless and until full compliance with California law environmental and Constructional can be obtained. TFASBS also believes a court is unlikely to allow and reward the District's illegal conduct and actions in any way by allowing continued maintenance and use without full legal compliance.
— August 8, 2013 5:48 p.m.

San Diego Unified suffers another legal setback over installation of stadium lighting at Hoover High School

This is not just happening in Talmadge. Other communities such as El Cerrito and Point Loma are also negatively affected because the district plans to install permanent field lighting at Crawford and Point Loma High Schools as well. Unlike other schools in the district Hoover, Crawford, and Point Loma High School reside within dense residential communities with narrow streets where school onsite parking is almost non-existent. Permanent lights installed at these schools will forever change those communities. Learn more at: http://www.tfasbs.org http://propointloma.wordpress.com/home/
— August 8, 2013 4:59 p.m.

Grand Jury dings San Diego Unified for not having a policy in place to address adult-on-student bullying

Finally, the SDUSD is being held accountable for their inaction in this area. Thanks for your persistence in bringing this form of child abuse to light.
— May 16, 2013 2:58 p.m.

Talmadge: A Place to Tailgate

Quit focusing on the picture and take notice of text. All are facts and reference an agreement letter sent from the San Diego Unified School District Superintendent Terry Grier. Evidently some don't know how to play by their own rules.
— July 27, 2009 8:35 p.m.

Friday Night Lights

Actually I got my facts wrong SubBass49. I just came across an article that was published in the Evening Tribune on Aug 17th, 1972 titled 'Quake Law Prompts Hoover Land Plan' that was written by Donald Coleman about the school prior to the demolition of the pre-existing field, bleachers, and school buildings in the early '70s. Tribune staff photo provided by photographer Thane McIntosh. The article included an aerial of the area and showed that there were not only existing homes along Monroe Ave that got purchased by the school district and demolished to make way for Hoover expansion, but there were also homes all along Highland Ave that stretched from Monroe Ave to just short of El Cajon Blvd. I believe the article stated that there were 18 homes in all that were purchased and demolished by the school district to make way for the new earthquake proofed school classrooms and the newly located field with bleachers.
— March 24, 2009 4:19 p.m.

Trick Play

No one from our community is against sports. We have never said it nor implied it. Just like the previous commenter states, there are many life long lessons that can be gained by participating in sports. The community’s main concern is with the installation of permanent lights. Once installed there is no stopping the school district from renting out the field to outside organizations which means they could potentially host an event at the football field every night of the week. I’m not saying that would happen, mind you, but the potential is there and the impact to the community would be devastating. We are a very close knit community and know the ins and outs of the neighborhood very well. We know the traffic patterns, parking issues, where graffiti occurs, where some students jump the fence during school hours, etc, etc. We also know the impact school events have on the community at various times of the day, evenings, or week-ends. The community really didn’t start having issues with Hoover High until after the artificial field was installed back in 2001 and the school started renting it to other organizations shortly there after. The events themselves were fine, but the administration either does not have field use policies in place or doesn’t have the resources to enforce them. For instance, visitors that came to the events had their own little drinking parties going on outside the field and on community members’ private property without their permission. The inconsideration of the folks that attended these events was appalling. Illegally parked cars in and across driveways, dumping of trash on our lawns and streets, showing very little respect to the community which is taking the blunt of the abuse. Hardly the role models for a youth sporting event don’t you think. When we heard that the school was willing to get rid of the week-end youth events just to get the lights approved we were not only surprised but amazed and appalled at the same time. Why is it that the administration is willing to get rid of a popular week-end youth event that occurs during the day just to make way for lights to be installed which opens the door to night events? They could not even handle the day events and enforce the rules that should have been in place when the other organizations leased the field. Who knows, perhaps it was just a matter of not having enough authority over the perpetrators. Maybe they would have more control over Hoover school events which I hope is the case. I, for one, am willing to give it a chance but only with the follow through of plan changes to date and an enforceable document detailing what the principal has stated in the last few community meetings – no more than 15 night events per school year, no leasing of the field for night events, and listing all of the policies that would be enforced by the school and district to ensure that night events are executed smoothly and safely for all parties affected.
— March 23, 2009 9:29 p.m.

Visit from the Mayor, Sort of

Interesting...I thought the Ken/Tal was an official planning group that represented both Kensington and Talmadge. From what I just read above, the HoK is all about themselves and nothing about serving the people that they are supposed to represent. Why is it that only Kensington folk are being placed on the Ken/Tal board. No wonder there were rumors of voting irregularities. Well here we are again, a year later with elections being held tonight. 12 people running for 8 open seats with 3 of those running from Talmadge. Let us see how crooked the voting appears this year when the results are announced...
— March 11, 2009 1:55 p.m.