The election for the Encinitas Union School District board of trustees offers voters a clear choice. We are Monica Lee and Aimee Sproul, and we are running against incumbent trustees, one of whom was appointed by the district.
From the beginning, we discussed policy. In response, they have avoided policy and gone personal. It is incredible that in a race that involves important issues like declining enrollment and chronic absenteeism, the incumbents’ primary talking points default to name-calling and insults.
Aimee and Monica both have children in the district and are deeply involved with their kids’ schools. Monica is the ONLY actual teacher running for school board. She has 17-plus years of experience as a credentialed teacher, with three of those years teaching right here in Encinitas.
Aimee has been actively engaged for several years with her local elementary school, Ocean Knoll, as a member of the PTA and a regular volunteer.
When the district stonewalled her questions about policies that should have been public and were not, she persisted in bringing them to light. The incumbents attacked her for being an engaged parent, but they should have been asking these same questions. They prefer to conduct district business behind a veil of secrecy.
Our election campaign has focused on three primary issues: excellence in education, partnering with parents to help their children get the best possible education, and supporting our teachers by advocating for smaller class sizes. Our overriding goal has been to cultivate trust in the community for our school district leadership and our teachers.
We fear that an erosion of that trust has been a significant contributing factor to the declining enrollment in our schools. For the good of our community, that trend must be reversed.
Our opponents have run a different sort of campaign. Instead of engaging to find common ground or discussing district issues, their response to two moms running for school board has been to attack us personally as racists and bigots.
Do we need to respond to such attacks? No, and we won’t. They are, at the same time, both silly and repugnant.
The fact that merely questioning certain district policies is met with name-calling instead of an engaged discussion demonstrates the fundamental problem with the current board: The board has been setting life-altering policies for kids and families with no parental input and no discussion with community members for too long.
We have talked to families and Encinitas community members. They want their schools to focus on academics and they want to keep letter grades. They want smaller class sizes and fewer combo classes. They want their voices heard as part of their neighborhood public school. We will be the voices for ALL families. We are the only two independent school board candidates, and we humbly ask for your votes.
Monica Lee and Aimee Sproul
Independent candidates for EUSD board of trustees
