Recently re-elected San Diego Unified School District Board of Education President Kevin Beiser was sworn in Monday night along with new Trustee Michael McQuary.
Beiser, a teacher in the Sweetwater Union High School District and a former county Math Teacher of the Year, was re-elected last month, receiving nearly two-thirds of the vote against challenger Amy Redding, a former biotech research associate who chairs a district advisory group.
“I look forward to rolling up my sleeves and continuing to fight to improve our schools,” Beiser said.
Beiser has served as board president for the past year. His tenure on the board includes balancing the budget for the current school year without resorting to laying off employees, reopening school libraries that fell victim to recent budget cuts, using an early teacher retirement incentive to save taxpayer money, banning Styrofoam lunch trays and spurring an effort to have air conditioning installed at more city schools.
“These and many other amazing accomplishments are a shining example of the state of San Diego public schools today,” Beiser said. “But we still have much work to do.”
McQuary is a retired teacher who ran unopposed to replace Scott Barnett, who opted not to seek re-election. His three-decade career in education also included work as an administrator and teaching math to children in Dharamsala, India.
McQuary said he came to San Diego to “begin to reach out and become an advocate for people who do not have a voice and to develop the capacity to allow them to speak, share their ideas and make a difference in their community.”
McQuary said he hopes to be able to bring to the board issues and concerns within the subdistrict he represents, ensure that each classroom is staffed with excellent instructors and that each neighborhood contained quality schools, to develop “one of the best districts in the world.”
“As we develop academic skills and career readiness skills and we encourage students to become engaged in their communities, I also hope that we develop students who are very active globally, that they have multiple languages, they are comfortable in multiple cultures and that we are establishing a future that will work for everyone here,” McQuary said.
A reception was held after the ceremony in the hallway outside the auditorium at the Eugene Brucker Education Center.
— City News Service
