San Diego Unified School District (formerly known as San Diego City Schools) is the
school district
A school district is a special-purpose district that operates local public primary and secondary schools in various nations.
North America United States
In the U.S, most K–12 public schools function as units of local school districts, wh ...
based in
San Diego
San Diego ( , ; ) is a city on the Pacific Ocean coast of Southern California located immediately adjacent to the Mexico–United States border. With a 2020 population of 1,386,932, it is the List of United States cities by population, eigh ...
,
California
California is a U.S. state, state in the Western United States, located along the West Coast of the United States, Pacific Coast. With nearly 39.2million residents across a total area of approximately , it is the List of states and territori ...
, United States. It was founded in 1854. As of 2005 it represents over 200 institutions and has over 15,800 employees. The average teacher in the district makes around $67,000 a year, with a benefit package worth around $24,000 a year. The district includes 113
elementary school
A primary school (in Ireland, the United Kingdom, Australia, Trinidad and Tobago, Jamaica, and South Africa), junior school (in Australia), elementary school or grade school (in North America and the Philippines) is a school for primary ed ...
s, 24
middle school
A middle school (also known as intermediate school, junior high school, junior secondary school, or lower secondary school) is an educational stage which exists in some countries, providing education between primary school and secondary school. ...
s, 4 atypical schools, 10 alternative schools, 27
high schools
A secondary school describes an institution that provides secondary education and also usually includes the building where this takes place. Some secondary schools provide both '' lower secondary education'' (ages 11 to 14) and ''upper seconda ...
and 25
charter school
A charter school is a school that receives government funding but operates independently of the established state school system in which it is located. It is independent in the sense that it operates according to the basic principle of auto ...
s.
School board
The district is governed by a five-member elected board of education. Board members are elected by district for four-year terms.
Superintendent
The superintendent is appointed by the school board. From 2010 through 2013 the superintendent was Bill Kowba, a retired Navy rear admiral. On February 26, 2013, Kowba announced his retirement, effective June 30. The next day, February 27, the school board unanimously appointed elementary school principal
Cindy Marten
Cynthia Minette Marten is an American educator and government official who has served as the 11th United States Deputy Secretary of Education, United States deputy secretary of education since May 18, 2021. Marten previously served as the Superin ...
as the new superintendent. The quick appointment, without a search process or community input, was described as "highly unusual - virtually unheard of" by the ''
San Diego Union Tribune
''The San Diego Union-Tribune'' is a metropolitan daily newspaper published in San Diego, California, that has run since 1868.
Its name derives from a 1992 merger between the two major daily newspapers at the time, ''The San Diego Union'' and ...
''. On May 18, 2021, Marten left her job as superintendent to become the
United States deputy secretary of education
The deputy secretary of education oversees and manages the development of policies in the United States Department of Education. The deputy secretary focuses primarily on K–12 education policy, such as No Child Left Behind, the High School Initi ...
, with
Lamont Jackson replacing her as the interim superintendent.
Schools
List of primary and secondary schools in San Diego
This is a list of primary and secondary schools in San Diego, California, organized by school district.
The San Diego Unified School District, also known as San Diego City Schools, is the school district that serves the majority of the city, it ...
organized by district
Partnership with Ocean Discovery Institute
In 2017, the district partnered with the
Ocean Discovery Institute
The ocean (also the sea or the world ocean) is the body of salt water that covers approximately 70.8% of the surface of Earth and contains 97% of Earth's water. An ocean can also refer to any of the large bodies of water into which the worl ...
, a nonprofit that works to teach kids about science and conservation, to bring a $15 million tuition-free learning and research center to the
City Heights neighborhood. The building will be a permanent campus for the nonprofit and will include two laboratories, a garden, a community kitchen and a residence for a live-in staff member. The Living Lab allows the nonprofit to reach all 10,000 students that attend and feed into
Hoover High School.
Farm to School Program
In 2010, the district launched a
farm to school
A farm (also called an agricultural holding) is an area of land that is devoted primarily to agricultural processes with the primary objective of producing food and other crops; it is the basic facility in food production. The name is used fo ...
program in an effort to bring locally grown produce to schools. The program seeks to provide students access to as much local, regional, and California grown produce as possible. In addition to produce grown at farms, the district has a Garden to Café program which allows schools to be certified by the San Diego Department of Environmental Health allowing the school to grow and serve their own produce.
See also
San Diego Unified School district is the second largest school district in California and the largest in San Diego County. The district covers most of San Diego with the exception of
San Ysidro
San Ysidro (Spanish for " St. Isidore", ) is a district of the City of San Diego, immediately north of the Mexico–United States border. It neighbors Otay Mesa West to the north, Otay Mesa to the east, and Nestor and the Tijuana River Valley t ...
, which is served by
San Ysidro Elementary School District
The San Ysidro School District (SYSD) is a public school district in San Diego County, California, United States. It includes five elementary schools, one middle school, and several preschools in the San Ysidro community in San Diego, California ...
and
Sweetwater Union High School District
The Sweetwater Union High School District is a school district headquartered in Chula Vista, California. , the school district is the largest secondary school district in California.
The union high school district serves over 42,000 high schoo ...
.
References
External links
*
San Diego County Office of Education
{{Authority control
School districts in San Diego County, California
Education in San Diego
School districts established in 1854
1854 establishments in California