Transgender equality rights in schools
By Marsha SuttonUpdate: It was announced today, Aug. 13, that the governor has signed this bill into law. — MSA bill some say is long overdue and others call controversial...
All Stories
‘Come pick up your camper’
By Marsha SuttonThe first call came at 7 p.m. Monday night.It was an automated announcement saying everything was fine and the fire was not affecting any camp activities.Fire? What fire?We...
More potpourri: local, statewide, national and international
By Marsha SuttonA journalism class at La Costa Canyon High School in Carlsbad that was threatened with closure was saved after students rallied to defend the class.Speaking before the San...
Education potpourri: Middle school, lawsuit battles, custody, and the sports obsessed
By Marsha SuttonAfter moving sixth grade into middle school beginning this fall, the Rancho Santa Fe School District will most other school districts nationally that group sixth-, seventh- and...
Saying goodbye to Ken Noah and hello to an interesting lawsuit
By Marsha SuttonThe saying goes that nice guys finish last. But in the case of this nice guy, retiring superintendent Ken Noah comes out on top.Noah, whose last day with...
Canyon Crest waitlist blues, Rancho Santa Fe stipends granted
By Marsha SuttonSuccess has its price. The increasing popularity of Canyon Crest Academy as a school of choice has resulted this year in more lottery applications for incoming ninth grade...
Kindergarten debate reignites old battles
By Marsha SuttonThe recent debate over full-day kindergarten in the Solana Beach School District had the same emotional ferocity I from 10 years ago when Del Mar Union School...
Solana Beach school board approves full day kindergarten for Global Education
By Marsha SuttonThe Solana Beach School District’s Board of Education stood firmly behind SBSD superintendent Nancy Lynch and her controversial decision to extend the kindergarten day in the district’s Global...
Snafus with AP Spanish test create a perfect storm
By Marsha SuttonTaking grueling Advanced Placement exams is never a walk in the park. But when a convergence of disasters hits, even the most well-prepared student can be reduced to...
Musical chairs at San Dieguito Union High School District
By Marsha SuttonAfter spending two months and $26,000 of taxpayer money on an executive search firm, the San Dieguito Union High School District’s Board of Education came around to the...
More Solana Beach – and an update on the high school superintendent search
By Marsha SuttonThe normally dormant Solana Beach School District suddenly roared to life with an explosive issue that attracted over 100 people to the April 25 school board meeting.As discussed...
Solana Beach parents protest full-day kindergarten
By Marsha SuttonAt first I thought I had taken a wrong turn and landed by mistake at a Del Mar school board meeting, given the crowd of people outside the...
Because hate feels so good
By Marsha SuttonHearing the words, “Hate feels so good,” is shocking in itself. But hearing those words uttered by a former neo-nazi skinhead turned equality and human rights advocate is...
San Dieguito grapples with bond restrictions
By Marsha SuttonI know, I know … you’re bemoaning another column about bonds and school finance.Although it may make your eyes glaze over, there’s a lot of money at stake...
Boardroom bondage: School districts wrestle with new regulations
By Marsha SuttonNew rules and restrictions make school district finance options for bonds seem more like bondage.Not the Shades of Grey bondage (naughty readers) but bond reform that tightens the...
The evolving vision of Canyon Crest Academy
By Marsha SuttonThe first project at Canyon Crest Academy using newly-approved bond money will take place this summer, to pay for athletic fields and stadium work. Over the next two...
New taxes and local bond won’t ease San Dieguito’s financial uncertainty
By Marsha SuttonEven after the age of California’s Proposition 30, which raises taxes primarily for education, the San Dieguito Union High School District still faces a financial crisis.And the age...
The link between donors and contracts at San Dieguito
By Marsha SuttonThe award to architectural firm Lionakis on Feb. 7 of two San Dieguito Union High School District contracts worth a combined $2.8 million makes Lionakis’ $25,000 donation to...
Overseers selected for San Dieguito schools bond
By Marsha SuttonAlthough board for the San Dieguito Union High School District expressed pleasure at the high quality of applicants for a seat on the district’s bond Oversight Committee,...
The spending begins
By Marsha SuttonThe current financing schedule for San Dieguito Union High School District’s $449 million Proposition AA bond shows that $160 million Series A bonds will be issued this April,...
Watchdogs wanted to monitor school bond money disbursements
By Marsha SuttonThis may be local education’s most boring, yet perhaps most important, lead in a column ever written:“Applications are now being accepted for those interested in serving on San...
Districts to pay millions for new county-wide education finance software
By Marsha SuttonA new Enterprise Resource Planning software system that the San Diego County Office of Education is proposing to install could cost as much as $63 million, half of...
A correction and a call for compromise
By Marsha SuttonMy Dec. 20, 2012 column titled “Twenty dead children have to matter” – about the Newtown tragedy and the renewed debate over gun control – elicited reactions across...
Twenty dead children have to matter
By Marsha SuttonYet again.Was there anyone who did not walk around in a daze last Friday, thinking about the children in their lives and how to protect them forever from...
The Wrap-Up
By Marsha SuttonThe defeat of Proposition CC, Del Mar Union School District’s bond measure, was so close to a victory, thanks to the valiant efforts of ers, that it can...
Standing in a bucket
By Marsha SuttonAlthough results are not yet finalized, it appears that the San Dieguito Union High School District has sured the required 55 percent needed by voters to approve its...
Education Matters/Opinion: Campaign contributions received for local bond measures
By Marsha SuttonThe second filing period for disclosure of campaign contributions to November ballot measures closed Oct. 25. Of those donors contributing $1,000 or more to Propositions AA and CC,...
Five reasons to oppose the Del Mar school bond
By Marsha SuttonProposition CC, a $76.8 million General Obligation bond measure sponsored by the Del Mar Union School District, asks homeowners on Nov. 6 to approve taxing themselves $8.44 per...
Changing lives click by click
By Marsha SuttonI never expected tears. But without warning my eyes began to well up when I heard her speak about social justice, the endless fight for gender equality, and...
Driving home a point
By Marsha SuttonAccompanying my son to a two-hour presentation on safe driving was not my idea of a good time, but attendance is required by the San Dieguito Union High...
There they go again…
By Marsha SuttonA direct-mail piece was sent out two weeks ago to many residents of the 92014 and 92130 zip codes, about the $76.8 million General Obligation bond initiative the...
Education Matters: The cost of special education: Part Two
By Marsha SuttonThe cost of providing special education services can be up to 20 percent of a school district’s entire budget, as discussed in last week’s column. In the San...
The cost of special education
By Marsha SuttonTalking about the cost to public school districts of providing special education services is tricky. No one argues that the need to serve all kids, regardless of their...
State mandate providing separate class for ‘young fives’ takes effect
By Marsha SuttonNo waivers, no exceptions. Every elementary school district in California must offer a “Transitional Kindergarten” program this fall for students turning 5 years old between Nov. 2 and...
Del Mar’s ‘secret plan’ to spend your money
By Marsha SuttonThe Del Mar Union School District’s bid for voter approval of its $76.8 million General Obligation bond measure is reminiscent of President Richard Nixon’s “secret plan” in 1968...
Bringing down the towers: Cell antenna misstep causes district to backtrack on project
By Marsha SuttonSan Dieguito Union High School District’s plan – and the school board’s initial approval – to place cellular antennas at Canyon Crest Academy stunned many in the CCA...
Some call it ‘Israel Hate Week’ on college campuses
By Marsha SuttonGet ready for hate.Next week, the University of California San Diego will present, with great fanfare, Israel Hate Week – also known as Israel Apartheid Week, Justice in...
Education Matters: Surviving ‘The Hunger Games’
By Marsha SuttonThe Hunger Games, by Suzanne Collins, makes me lose my lunch. Never one to pan a book adored by young readers, I say this with a heavy heart....
Education Matters: ADHD going back centuries
By Marsha SuttonHow many parents have watched their children, more often boys, bouncing off the walls and running wild, unable to sit still or focus on a task for more...
Del Mar school board strikes a blow against kids
By Marsha SuttonTrustees for the Del Mar Union School District voted last week to cancel a fully funded Spanish program that was up and running, loved by students, and taught...
Education Matters: At the intersection of life
By Marsha SuttonThere is great irony at the intersection of contrasting worlds.As children approach the end of college and face their future with the whole world before them, we have...
Education Matters: Rate my teachers
Education writer Marsha Sullivan writes about the website RateMyTeachers.com and encourages parents to rate their children's teachers, be they good or bad, now that one-quarter of the school year has...
Helpless no more: Rate those teachers
By Marsha SuttonNow that one-quarter of the school year has ed, parents and students are quite familiar with their teachers and know who’s good, bad, average or outstanding.In most cases,...
Del Mar Union’s legal battles
By Marsha SuttonSenior Education WriterBowing to the Great Bureaucracy, I reluctantly paid the San Diego County Office of Education $1.52 to receive a piece of paper listing all the legal...
Depriving our children of 9/11’s vital lessons
By Marsha SuttonThose of us out of high school will never forget Sept. 11, 2001. But what of those 18 years and under, who were at most 8 years old...
Fiscal doves at Del Mar’s bargaining table
By Marsha SuttonMy reason for attending my first Del Mar Union School District board meeting in nearly a year last week was an item on the Aug. 24 agenda to...
Education Matters: Many La Jolla teens still need whooping cough booster
By Marsha SuttonAs students in the San Diego Unified School District prepare to return to school on Sept. 6, a new requirement for ittance still needs to be met by...
Where’s the outrage?
By Marsha SuttonWhat happened to the contentious critics who attended all those Del Mar Union School District board meetings the past four years to lambast previous board , three in...
The end of Harry Potter … again
By Marsha SuttonWith the release July 15 of the last Harry Potter movie in J.K. Rowling’s sensational seven-book series, the media are churning the story with self-generated intensity, showcasing despondent...