Michael Allman, a trustee of the San Dieguito Union High School District, has been clear in his priorities from day one. He recognizes our schools’ top priority is to provide the best public education possible, which includes a balanced budget, fiscal responsibility, and support for classroom teachers. However, he also believes the district should listen to parents. In fact, to achieve the best outcomes, the district needs to partner with parents.
Allman is an unabashed advocate for all San Dieguito families and taxpayers, and that is why thousands of voters continue to support him in 2024. Parents want a seat at the table, and they deserve a seat at the table. After all, it is their children who attend and their taxes that fund our local schools.
In the fall of 2020, with no sign of schools reopening, thousands of parents in our community were desperate for an advocate to help open schools for their children. That is why we supported Allman for the San Dieguito Union High School board in 2020. Allman fought tirelessly to reopen schools against tremendous pressure from the union, including a lawsuit filed by the California Teachers Association on Christmas Eve to keep our schools completely closed. The attacks against him were personal and vicious, but Allman did not concede.
During COVID, our district became a test case of the power and influence of the teacher’s union. Parents were hopelessly trying to get their children back in school as quickly and safely as possible. They clearly saw the harm that social isolation and remote learning was causing. Every day schools were closed, the crisis for students got worse. Many teachers reached out to us in 2021 to affirm what we already knew — closing schools was not about safety, it was political.
We support and are grateful for every hardworking teacher who comes to work and maintains political neutrality in the classroom. Rank and file teachers are not usually political, but as members of the union they do benefit from collective bargaining, so they must toe the line. We understand that. Of course, there is a place for public employee unions in service to their members, within reason.
However, the California Teachers Association, known locally as the San Dieguito Faculty Association, is the most powerful well-funded labor union in the State. The political power they have is hard to overestimate. Local union operatives are nothing but political. The SDFA is, quite literally, the “politics in our schools.”
Dirty politics has no place in our public schools. Yet, that is exactly what happened when schools were kept closed for over a year and what is going on right now in the campaign for San Dieguito school board, Area 4. In 2021, Allman was relentless in pursuit of a solution to bring students and teachers safely back to the classroom with urgency; the union knives were out then, and they continue unabated to this day.
Do not be misled. The school board candidate endorsed by the SDFA in Area 4 of the San Dieguito Union High School District does not represent parents. He represents a powerful labor union that couldn’t care less what parents want or need. Kevin Sabellico is so unqualified to be an effective trustee that their only strategy is to run a vindictive negative campaign against Allman filled with lies.
Do not be deceived by their name calling and fabricated headlines. They, including the current board majority, Rimga Viskanta, Jane Lea Smith and Katrina Young, will do whatever it takes, up to and including allocating district resources to help Sabellico win and maintain their control of our school board. Shame on them.
Allman is an intelligent, experienced corporate executive who has served this district well by promoting a balanced budget, advocating for school improvements, and actively listening to and engaging with parents. He is not partisan and never has been in his term on the school board. Allman is dedicated to improving public education and being responsive to all the families who rely on their local public schools to deliver a high-quality educational experience for their children.
Visit Allman’s website to see the overwhelming support from hundreds of real parents, students, and teachers who praise his intellect, objectivity, fairness, and dedication to the district.
Re-elect trustee Michael Allman to the San Dieguito School Board.
Ginny Merrifield and Allison Stratton are co-founders of the the Parent Advocacy Center for Public Schools.
