SYCUAN FUNDS “SCARY” HALLOWEEN MAILER AGAINST GUHSD BOARD MEMBERS KELLY & SHIELD
View flyer here.
East County News Service
October 31, 2014 (San Diego’s East County) – A flyer that landed in mailboxes just in time for Halloween features images of a haunted house and a cemetery-–along wtih a message urging recipients to “Look inside…At the scary report on the Grossmont Union High School District Board Members Jim Kelly and Robert Shield, IF YOU DARE…”
The flyer supports challengers Shirley Anderson and Barbara Stevens in the election, which has six candidates running including incumbents Kelly and Shield. The mailer was paid for as an independent expenditure by the Sycuan Band of the Kumeyaay Nation.
Kelly and Shield drew the ire of the tribe by failing to build the long-promised Alpine High School, which voters twice approved bond measures to fund (Propositions H and U). Children from Sycuan are among those forced to travel long distances to attend high school.
The flyer faults Kelly and Shield for “deliberate misleading of voters” that led a Grand Jury to find the District violated its promise to voters, a reference to the district reneging on its agreement to build an Alpine High School despite two bond measures approved by voters that both listed the high school as a priority. The board was chastised by the County Grand Jury in a report titled “Fool me once, Fool me twice” yet defied the Grand Jury recommendations.
The mailer claims that 7 out of 11 district schools were ranked among the highest in the county for drugs and violence, citing a CBS report, but with print too small to read on the copy ECM was sent.
In addition, the flyer claims that the Grossmont district ranks below the California state average on standardized testing in seven subjects including English, math and history.
The candidates supported by Sycuan are:
Shirley Anderson, a retired financial executive and taxpayer in the district who says she wants to make the needs of students our number one priority.
Barbara Stevens, a parent of a Helix High Charter graduate in the district and is a graduate of the San Diego Taxpayers Association Pension Certificate Program. She wants to change the status quo to an active, involved board with students as top priority.
The other two candidates in the race are Steve Mettia, a law student at Thomas Jefferson School of Law, and Dr. Gary Woods, who was voted off of the Grossmont Board in the last election following the Grand Jury report’s release. Woods opposed both Propositions H and U and opposed the Alpine High School as well, along with Kelly and Shield.