NEW YORK TIMES 

Business Groups Spend Big in San Diego School Board Race

By BARBARA WHITAKER

In a heated race for the school board, a group of businesspeople are directing a $500,000 advertising campaign to oust one board member, Frances O'Neill Zimmerman, who has opposed the superintendent. --------------------------------------------------------------------------

SAN DIEGO -- The television advertisement opens on a school hallway, with a voice asking, "As our children pass through our schools are they learning all they should be?"

It then turns its attention to a school board member."Fran Zimmerman is leading the fight against San Diego's Back to Basics Reform Plan," the advertisement continues, detailing votes Ms. Zimmerman made against a school book drive, all-day kindergarten and extra math and reading classes. "Tell Fran Zimmerman to stop voting against back-to-basics school reform, because it's working."

The advertisement is part of a half-million-dollar campaign, financed largely by a handful of businesspeople, and directed mainly at one school board candidate, Frances O'Neill Zimmerman.

It is rare for a school board seat to be the focus of high-priced television commercials, but the race here is heated. Ms. Zimmerman is one of the most vocal opponents of the superintendent, Alan D. Bersin, a former United States attorney who has instituted aback-to-basics overhaul since he took over the troubled schools two years ago.

In the process, Mr. Bersin has alienated the teachers' union, which supports Ms. Zimmerman, with his strict top-down style and such measures as the elimination of 600 classroom aides. But Mr. Bersin, one of a number of noneducators who have been put in charge of large school systems, has wonapplause from the business community. The community feared that, with test scores low, the dropout rate high and schools deteriorating, it would not have a properly educated and trained work force in a booming economy.

Ms. Zimmerman says the business community, instrumental in hiring Mr. Bersin, is trying to buy control of the board so it will simply serve as a rubber stamp for Mr. Bersin. 

"It's not a question of a rubber stamp," Mr. Bersin said in an interview. "It's a question of a board engaging in high-quality discussion." 

Mike Griffith, a policy analyst with the Education Commission of the States, said he had never heard of such a large amount being spent in a local school board race. "It's a lot by any standard," he said. 

The advertisement, which actually says nothing about the Nov. 7 school board election, was paid for by the Partnership for Student and Achievement, a not-for-profit group that received large donations from businessmen such as John Moores, the San Diego Padres owner, John Walton, a Wal-Mart heir, and Irwin Jacobs, the head of Qualcomm. The group says the

advertisements were not meant to influence the election, but it does not dispute their message: get behind Mr. Bersin's school changes or get out of the way. 

"Originally, the ads were very generic," said John W. Johnson, chairman of the partnership and C.E.O. of the San Diego Urban League. "Then as people began to speak out against basic reform, speak out against supporting the superintendent, who we support wholeheartedly, I guess they got caught up in the maelstrom, but it is nothing personal." 

The race between Ms. Zimmerman and her opponent, Julie P. Dubick, is viewed as critical because on the superintendent's changes, the board has typically split 3-to-2 with Ms. Zimmerman and John de Beck, a trustee who is not up for re-election, voting against the measures. 

Ms. Zimmerman has raised more than $80,000 (compared with $40,000 to win four years ago), and Ms. Dubick, with the backing of business, including some of those donating to the partnership, has raised more than $110,000. 

Those figures, combined with the nearly $500,000 in television advertising by the Partnership for Student Achievement, have elevated the race to the point that many educators and residents are questioning the reasons behind the money. 

Mitch Mitchell, vice president of public policy for the San Diego Regional Chamber of Commerce, which has endorsed Ms. Dubick, said Mr. Bersin should have a chance to show whether his changes will work. 

But Ms. Zimmerman, noting that it takes a 4-1 vote to pass some land measures, said that what may be motivating the business community is the money that is to be made in contracts and real estate deals with the district.

Mr. Mitchell said this was an example of how Ms. Zimmerman's claims can be overblown. 

"The insinuation that this is about land is technically representative of the problem with this whole discussion," he said. 

Ms. Dubick, a lawyer, said she decided to run because she felt her district was being hurt by the personality clash between Ms. Zimmerman and Mr. Bersin. 

Ms. Zimmerman says she has been unfairly criticized. 

She said that while she voted against the book drive, as the advertisement says, she did so because it involved allocating $1 million to a private venture. She said she voted against full-day kindergarten because of concerns about specifics of the program. As for the superintendent's educational overhaul, Ms. Zimmerman said she believed it would re-segregate Latinos and African- Americans, who would be placed in in special literacy programs. 

Mr. Bersin's program has included expanding teacher training programs, increasing spending for books and extending the school day and school year for students needing extra attention. He has also added early childhood education programs, math specialists and enhanced literacy programs at eight of the lowest- performing elementary schools. 

Parents who were interviewed at underperforming schools expressed appreciation for some of the changes even if they took no stand on the election. 

Outside Kimbrough Elementary school, one parent, Danny Lopez, said he was impressed by the reading program. 

"As soon as all the kids go in, they go to the reading program," said Mr. Lopez, whose 6-year-old daughter, Adrianna, is in first grade. 

James T. Harris, whose granddaughter Tajisa Wallace is a kindergartner at King Elementary, said he liked the parenting program, which is now more integrated into the schools. He expressed concern about the campaign against Ms. Zimmerman, saying the race has become "too politicized." 

Gretchen Viehl, who has two children in the San Diego schools and is a former P.T.A. president, supports Mr. Bersin. "He's shaking things up," she said, "and that needs to be done." 

Mr. Harris, who escorted his granddaughter to King, said that while he supported Mr. Bersin, he planned to vote for Ms. Zimmerman. "I like the way she talks," he said. 
 
 
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