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Community Corner

Katie Dexter: The Right Choice for San Diego County School Board

Alicia Munoz has insulted more than 25,000 residents of Lemon Grove with her recent hit piece attacking our 12-year, very effective Lemon Grove School Board member Katie Dexter.
Munoz and her supporters in the American Federation of Teachers Local 1931 trashed our school district and everyone who serves it past and present, and, by extension, our city as a whole.  She scorns Dexter's work in business (Sam's Club, GMAC) and casts herself as a "professor."  She works in the community college system where there is no such academic rank.  Her occasional, pinch-hit lectures at SDSU do not make her a "professor."  Thus has she also insulted the academic community with her fake title.
Munoz and her handlers are ignorant of Lemon Grove's stirring history and its successful efforts to educate a highly diverse population (some 22 languages and dialects spoken in our schools).  They are unaware that the Lemon Grove School District is in the vanguard of classroom technology, interdisciplinary learning and STEM curricula, art and music (we've had a music program since 1933), healthy diets for students and, not least, construction in 2013 of a beautiful, joint use library that is a runaway success story in the county library system.  
Munoz' absence of judgment, sensitivity and constituent research, and acceptance of her union's gutter tactics, make her a poor choice for County School Board.  She should withdraw from the race now.
By contrast, Dexter's widely-respected grasp of school financing, ability to forge public-private partnerships to help our schools, long-time service to local, county and state education organizations, volunteer service as a mother and board member in community groups, respect for teachers and classified employees alike, and managerial skills have won her a who's who of support -- Supervisor Dianne Jacob, La Mesa Mayor Art Madrid, Lemon Grove Mayor Mary Sessom, Brian Marshall, Superintendent of the La Mesa-Spring Valley School District, Kevin Ogden, Superintendent of the Julian School District, CSEA Chapter 568, Lemon Grove City Council members Howard Cook and Jerry Jones, and the list goes on to literally thousands of voters inside and outside of Lemon Grove.
We count ourselves among the latter.  Jack is an Emeritus Professor of Film and former Filmmaker in Residence at SDSU, and Fellow of the American Film Institute; Helen is a writer, member of the San Diego County Historic Site Board and president of the Lemon Grove Historical Society.  
Vote for quality and integrity:  Katie Dexter for San Diego County School Board!
Sincerely,
Jack and Helen Ofield

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