Candidates backed by teachers union are

Out front in early tally

Incumbents appear to be taking the lead in the San Diego Unified School Board races, according to early returns.

Current board members Richard Barrera and Sharon Whitehurst-Payne, as well as board candidate Sabrina Bazzo, have sizable leads over their opponents, early returns show.

All three were backed by the teachers union and have been supportive of current district leadership.

Two newcomers, UC San Diego organizational development manager LaWana Richmond and college professor Camille Harris, challenged Whitehurst-Payne and Barrera, respectively. Whitehurst-Payne represents District E, which is southeast San Diego, and Barrera represents District D, which is south central San Diego.

Meanwhile, nonprofit consultant Crystal Trull is facing off against Bazzo, a health educator, to represent District A, which is north central San Diego.

Bazzo, Barrera and Whitehurst-Payne have expressed suppor t of San Diego Unif ied and the current board’s progress on issues such as reopening.

Challengers Trull, Richmond and Harris have voiced discontent with San Diego Unif ied leadership, saying that the district has not been doing enough to communicate about issues such as reopening with parents, many of whom are desperate to return their children to in-person learning.

The district has taken a slow pace in reopening because of the COVID-19 pandemic and won’t reopen for all students until at least 2021, saying that it’s not yet safe enough to do so. San Diego Unified is one of a minority of school districts in the county that has not reopened yet.

Voters’ choices in this school board election were probably at least par tly inf luenced by San Diego Unified’s decisions regarding the pandemic and reopening.

San Diego Unif ied i s California’s second-largest school district, with about 100,000 students and a $1.5 billion budget.

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