Michael Allman, an energy industry executive and incumbent school board member, is running for re-election to the Area 4 seat on the San Dieguito Union High School District board of trustees. The San Diego Union-Tribune asked all the candidates running for school board in districts around San Diego County about their policies, plans and priorities. Here’s what Allman told us about his. Why are you running for school board? What makes you a good candidate? After a 40-year successful business career, I was elected to the school board in 2020 to represent parents, students and taxpayers. My guideposts include transparency, a focus on academic achievement and financial management of taxpayer funds. Michael Allman (Courtesy Michael Allman) As a board trustee, I focus on improving student performance and college acceptance rates, increasing student safety and better board governance. I sponsored several initiatives, including hiring an “ombudsman” who is successfully advocating for parents and students, passing an anti-discrimination resolution to protect all students and leading the initiative to build the first swimming pool in the 88-year history of our district. In addition, our budget is balanced for the first time in many years! In this nonpartisan position, we need to keep our focus on what our students need and keep politics out. I have never mentioned a political party in the boardroom in four years, and it should remain that way. What is the most important issue currently facing your school district? The most important issue in our district is how to increase transparency for the benefit of all of our stakeholders. When we are open and honest with parents and the general public, we build their trust and create better outcomes. For example, I insisted that the development of our new required course, ethnic studies, take place with substantial input and review from the public. This ensures that we have the right course for our community and minimizes unnecessary divisiveness. We also increased financial transparency, so that taxpayers can understand exactly how our money is spent. I believe we should also be more transparent and open with our special ed parents. With transparency comes accountability, which is the only way we can institute change so that our district can move from good to great. What are the top three specific things you would seek to accomplish on the school board? My primary focus is fostering academic excellence for all students. We need to improve proficiency across the district in core subjects such as math and English and provide more help to those students who wish to continue their education and gain acceptance to colleges and universities of their choice. Our main objective is to provide students with the best education possible and instill in them a life-long love of learning so that they may lead productive lives. Secondly, and related to our primary focus, we will not reach our academic goals without attracting, retaining, and supporting the best teachers. Our dedicated staff and teachers work hard to foster a welcoming learning environment, and the board is supportive of those ongoing efforts. Finally, we must ensure that we spend taxpayer money wisely and efficiently. District finances are complicated, and my financial background has been essential in understanding budget nuances and issues. What would your approach be to district budget planning and spending? What would you do if your district had a budget shortfall? We have been in a budget shortfall several times since I have been on the board, so this is not a theoretical question. Our board needs trustees with financial expertise, but as an organization we have not always focused on solving our financial management issues. Along with my background in finance and our new superintendent and CFO at the district, we are turning things around, and we will end this last school year with an operating surplus for the first time in years. Greater financial experience on our board would be welcomed, and I hope we will see that after this election. School districts suffer from boom and bust cycles and must contend with funding resources that are generally beyond our control. We need to be diligent about keeping our reserves at a healthy level so that we can weather down cycles. How should your school district raise student academic achievement, and what would you do as a school board member to accomplish that? Improving student achievement includes measuring student progress more fully. Although we have limited standardized testing from the state of California, we need to have our own learning assessments to obtain a complete picture of each student’s performance, strengths and weaknesses. Then we can develop more individualized learning plans to match the needs of each student. Improved use of technology can help ensure that each student learns at an appropriate pace. The old paradigm required the entire class to learn at the same pace, causing boredom in some students while others lacked a necessary understanding of fundamentals. Empowering teachers to think and act creatively can dramatically improve student academic achievement. Teachers know their at-risk students. A robust feedback mechanism and giving teachers the needed tools and resources for improvement will raise academic achievement. Do you think anything currently offered in school curricula or libraries should be removed? If yes, what, and why? If no, why not? No. The controversies other school districts have seen over possible age-inappropriate books have generally been in K-6 schools. Our school district consists of grades 7-12 where students can and should be introduced to more nuanced topics. In over three years that I’ve been on our school board, we have not taken even a single vote to remove any course or book anywhere in our district. If parents have a concern over any materials in libraries or classrooms, we have a well established process of review by our administration. Additionally, we have a Parent Curriculum Advisory Committee that oversees curriculum choices, and all new textbooks are available for public review before adoption. Teachers and the administrative staff continuously make curriculum decisions about what students read or watch, and this process generally works smoothly. What do you think is driving student absenteeism in your district, and what would you as a school board member do to reduce it? Student absenteeism has been a statewide issue since the COVID pandemic, and many schools are still grappling with the problem. Statewide, 24.3 percent of students are chronically absent. San Diego Unified is worse at 27.1 percent absenteeism. Even neighboring districts like Poway have a 14.7 percent absenteeism rate. Our district reports a lower number at 11.2 percent absenteeism, and we expect that to fall below 10 percent this year. But we don’t want even one child to fall through the cracks. It takes a strong commitment to reduce absenteeism even further. This can be done through improved family outreach and a better understanding about what is happening with each individual child. We need to know what the barriers and challenges are in each case and thoughtfully craft a solution that works for that family. It is a solvable problem, but it takes resources and commitment to follow through. Do you think schools should notify parents if their child’s gender identity or presentation at school changes? Why or why not? This is another controversy that may exist elsewhere that we don’t see in our district. We have over 12,000 students in San Dieguito, and I am unaware of even a single case where a parent did not know that their child was changing their gender identity or presentation while at school. We are already a welcoming district, and respect all of our students as individuals. I sponsored an anti-discrimination resolution that reinforced the belief that discrimination against any student is unacceptable and will not be tolerated. But more than just words, I backed it up with action by sponsoring the first “ombudsman” in a public school district in San Diego County. If any student feels they have suffered from discrimination, they now have a confidential advocate whom they know they can trust. Nothing is more important to learning than having a safe and welcoming school environment.