Only one San Diego Unified trustee faces an election challenger this year: Sabrina Bazzo. She represents the district’s Area A, which runs from Linda Vista in the south to Scripps Ranch. Bazzo, who was first elected four years ago, got her start with the district as a parent volunteer when her two children attended Mira Mesa schools.
Bazzo has the support of the San Diego Unified’s teachers union, whose endorsement and fundraising has long played an outsized role in board elections.
A reckoning at the district: What seemed to be a pretty unremarkable election cycle for the district’s board gained much more importance last month when Bazzo, along with the rest of the board, voted to fire Superintendent Lamont Jackson after an investigation revealed he’d harassed female employees. A recent federal report slamming officials’ failures in handling sexual misconduct complaints also shook the community’s confidence.
With the community grappling with Jackson’s firing, questioning whether they can trust officials to be accountable and a budget deficit that’s projected to keep growing, board members will have tough decisions to make in the coming years.
Editor’s note: This interview has been edited for length and clarity.
Q: The district is in an unprecedented place right now. What do you feel the path moving forward looks like?
A: We need to do better as a district when it comes to making sure our students and our staff feel safe. Particularly around issues of sexual misconduct, which are some of the most serious issues that you can have.
I’m still wrapping my head around the fact that we had to terminate our superintendent. As soon as I was made aware by our legal counsel, with the rest of our board … we wanted to make sure we had a thorough investigation. And as soon as that came back, we decided to vote on termination.
Personally, I want to go back into some of the situations that have happened and determine were the gaps were and what were the mistakes being made so we can really make sure that those sexual harassment policies … are being carried out at every level, at every school and at every site in the district and that they’re not just like kind of written policies, but that they’re really being implemented.
We need to make sure we’re providing accountability and transparency, because that trust within our community is what’s important above all else. No misconduct should be tolerated (at) any level of leadership, regardless of where you work in the district.
A Conversation with San Diego Unified Board Candidate Crystal Trull
Q: Between Jackson’s firing and the recently released U.S. Department of Education report, I’ve heard a lot of people concerned that a culture of permissiveness of has developed at the district. Would you agree that there is this kind of culture that really needs fixing? And if so, how do you tackle that?
A: That report looked at the years 2017 through 2020, which is before I joined the board. It did reveal some serious gaps in how the district handled these cases. I think even since that time before the report was released, our legal department was already working on enhancing our Title XI attorneys and implementing more strict oversight.
I wouldn’t want to say there’s blanket issue everywhere, but what I want to find out is where the gaps are: is it a particular site, or the district office, or where was this falling through and not being followed? We have a great staff here at San Diego Unified, and a lot of people – the majority of people – are doing the right thing. But we need to investigate further and find out where we are having concerns and issues.
Q: Are you planning to share what you find about gaps in the process?
A: Yeah, absolutely. I think we need to be accountable. We need to make sure that we’re transparent. We need to make sure that all levels of leadership are aware of that. And I think the only way we can maintain that trust in our communities is to share information.
Q: Are you in support of keeping Fabiola Bagula on as the district’s new permanent superintendent?
Editor’s note: After this interview, Bazzo voted alongside her fellow trustees to promote Bagula from acting superintendent to interim superintendent.
A: I have not had the opportunity to really speak to my colleagues. Obviously [Bagula’s] in place for now … I think she’s a strong candidate, whether I think she would be good long term, I guess that still remains to be seen. My vote on that is undecided at the moment.
Q: Are you worried promoting from within could exacerbate a culture of unaccountability?
We have such a large school district, the second largest in the state. So, there’s a lot of strong, good people in our district. Some of them might be entrenched in some of that attitude.
I’d like to work with [Bagula] a bit more and get to know her better … She only came back to San Diego Unified (from the San Diego County Office of Education) two years ago, I think when [Jackson] was appointed, so she’s fairly new.
I don’t have that concern with her, because I feel like she has seen things from a different lens, outside of just San Diego Unified. I think she would do a good job … It’s more to me whether she has a complete knowledge of being able to be a superintendent.
Q: She was hired by the guy you all just fired.
A: Yeah, no, I get that. And I’m definitely angry and disappointed with Dr. Jackson. But he was with our school district for 30 years and did mentor a lot of people. He had a lot of strong leadership skills. Yes, of course, this clouds everything. But maybe not necessarily every person that was hired by him should be punished for that.
Q: San Diego Unified racked up a big deficit last year. This coming year the deficit will be even bigger. How are district officials approaching bringing down this deficit that continues to grow?
A: It’s a very difficult time for public education.
All of our focus will obviously be on protecting our classroom resources and keeping the cuts away from them as much as possible. But even if you’re not cutting at the classroom level, when you cut at a district level or anywhere else it is going to affect the classroom … I think programs that are going to help with our enrollment efforts, like UTK and our community school initiatives that are state funded will continue.
We’re going to be prioritizing around our essential services, protecting classroom instruction, advocating for stronger funding from all levels of government, and that will include a fight at the state level too.
Q: Do you foresee layoffs coming this year?
I can’t say no to that. I don’t know yet. I mean, obviously we don’t want that. I think a lot of (what we do) will also be if there’s a position where someone retires or leaves for whatever reason, not hiring for that position.
The enrollment numbers will play into that in terms of classroom teachers. Not to sugarcoat it. It’s not going to be easy.
Q: As you mentioned, there are two issues that have really exacerbated the district’s financial situation and those are chronic absenteeism and the long-term enrollment decline. What if anything can the district do to reverse the trend of enrollment decline?
A: I think the UTK program, that’s going to be one of the areas we’re really going to focus on. We found that the great majority of students who actually attend their neighborhood schools at the UTK level end up staying at that school. This will also greatly increase the chance that their parents will start their younger siblings at the program when they’re old enough as well.
Another area that needs to be focused on … is increasing the strength of our neighborhood schools.
There are several neighborhoods where kids are getting in cars and having to drive across the district to completely different schools. If it’s a specialty school and something that they’re really focused on, that’s great, but if it’s just because they feel that their neighborhood school is not strong enough, that’s an area that we need to continue to emphasize.
Student absenteeism is driven by a lot of our socioeconomic challenges. Our families that have the most challenges in that area also lack of engagement and mental health concerns and our families that struggle with housing insecurity and financial stress. We do have strong partnerships with the county to kind of reach out to these families and we’ll continue to do that work.
Where my daughters went to school, at Mira Mesa High School, with the funding that was provided during Covid, they hired one of the football coaches at the school who a lot of the kids just know and they respect to visit students at home. Just knowing someone cared and wanted to come out and see what’s going on … that alone, in some cases, was enough to help … get them back in school.
Another thing … is just making things fun for the kids.
Really making it more about, not like disciplinary, but like there’s reasons you want to come to school.
The 2023 dashboard actually showed a 9.5 percent decline in the chronic absentee rate … in every group … a higher level than many of our counterparts that are also urban school districts in California. So yes, it’s still a problem. We can’t let up on it, but we’re making some headway in that area.
Q: If this enrollment decline continues, do you think there will be a need for closing schools?
A: That’s a possibility. I know that’s something that the district is watching very closely. I think we’re doing a good job of maintaining where we are at right now, especially when you compare us to places. But it is a challenge, and we want to make sure that we’re not having to close schools.
But along those same lines, some of it is kind of also exciting. I’m not saying that I want schools to close, but where we have had district property that’s no longer being utilized for schools one thing that I think is a real bright spot is the fact that we’re doing the housing for our staff … that’s one of the things that we’re going to be able to expand. Because that is also an issue, the lack of affordable housing here.
Q: One issue that’s long afflicted education is the achievement gap. Socioeconomic issues like poverty almost always show up in the classroom and kids from poor backgrounds tend to underperform kids from richer backgrounds. What do you think the district can do to lessen that divide?
A: In addition to focusing on really strong instructional quality, student well being, I think is also a very important component, because if our students aren’t doing well from a mental health standpoint, it’s going to impact … everything in their lives, including their school performance. So, I think the two are intertwined.
It’s very important to make sure we’re always centered around student focused outcomes. And what I mean by that is needing to expand our mental health resources, our early intervention programs to really find those kids early on that are having issues and offering tutoring and enrichment opportunities.
All of these are going to impact our student success. And one of the things from a board standpoint, we are working with the Council of Great City Schools on a program called student outcome focused governance. One of the really important things there is setting specific, measurable goals, and using a data dashboard that our teachers can really track over time. In the past, there haven’t really been, like, specific, measurable goals. It was like, ‘oh yeah, we want to get our literacy rates up.’ But this way it’s going to be much more tied to … specific, hard data. So, it’s a more evidence-based type of program.
Q: What made you decide to run for board in the first place?
A: Both my parents were public school teachers, and they chose to work in urban school settings, and especially in like low income areas … that was really their passion. They were really committed to public education and trying to make sure all students had got a quality education. And I think they really instilled that in me.
My oldest daughter is now 27 I can’t believe it. When she started kindergarten, I just jumped in and got really involved as a parent.
I became PTA president at the grade school, middle school, and then Foundation President at Mira Mesa High School for several years, and I took on more and more responsibility as a volunteer leader.
Initially, when I … was a mom for the classroom, I wanted to be that person that was there for all of our students, not just for my kids.
I wanted to make sure that all of our kids were being reached and helped and supported. And I just really love that work. And now I’m excited, because not only am I doing it at Mira Mesa schools, but I’m able to represent students from all over the district.
Q: What are you most proud of over your tenure as board member?
A: We’re part of an organization … called the Council of Great City Schools. And we put together the student outcomes focused governance framework that we are now working on, and … setting goals and guardrails for that. The foundation of that that’s really going to tie in with our local control accountability plan.
Student outcomes focused governance is trying to help us really focus and put a deeper analysis on our students. Not only working for students to increase their performance, but also working with our students. One of the big things is having more measurable and specific goals that we’re putting in place. And as President, last year, in 2023 I started the process of us getting on board with this process,
We’re going to have a dashboard with all schools to really zero in and also using the site plan for student achievement at each different school level, really be able to personalize that. Not only are we going to look at those goals and try to be really data driven, but also, if there’s something that’s not working, what if we, you know, we find that some of the goals are maybe too lofty or unachievable, or vice versa, they might be, you know, too easy, hopefully, so continually trying to address that, making sure that that’s like a working document.
Q: Why do you think voters should elect you back to the board?
I have a proven track record of supporting our students, supporting our communities, helping to put in place better, more measurable and more specific ways to track student improvement.
I’m doing this for the right reasons as a parent, starting as a volunteer, putting our students first and their needs. And I have a lot of experience in doing so.
I’ve also taken on leadership positions at the district. I’m part of what’s called the Visual and Performing Arts Foundation, and that group, again, tries to make sure that all of our students are getting VAPA programming, particularly in schools where maybe that is not provided … So we’ve been able to increase the amount of VAPA funding. We’ve also been able to pass several propositions around the VAPA funding
That’s not only going to be good for our current students, but also for future generations of students.
