Librarians are pretty underappreciated school employees. They don’t necessarily have the flash of a classroom teacher, the face time of a coach or even the intimate insight into students’ lives that school nurses and psychologists do. But last year, what started as an insular fight over the fate of librarians at Grossmont Union High School District exploded into a high-stakes political battle that roped in teachers, board members and residents.
Raucous, packed board meetings, calls for resignation and recall efforts ensued and now, a slate of challengers have stepped up to try to unseat a trio of trustees who have formed the conservative backbone of the district’s board for a combined 60 years.
One of the biggest backers of those challengers endorsed the incumbents just four years ago – Grossmont’s teachers union.
The backstory: Tension, frequently fueled by the culture wars, had been bubbling up at Grossmont Union for years. In 2023, for example, the board canceled a contract with San Diego Youth Services to provide mental health support to students – because of disapproval with other, unrelated services the organization offered to trans youth. A recent Grand Jury report slammed that decision, writing that it may have harmed district students.
Then there were decisions to fire staff in the district’s education services and special education departments. One of the administrators fired during that period sued the district, claiming she was fired for being a lesbian. She ultimately won $700,000.
But it wasn’t until last year, when plans to fire nearly 50 staff members – including all of the district’s full-time librarians – became public, that opposition really started to mount. Community members packed board meetings.
Reporting from Kristen Taketa over at the Union-Tribune and myself revealed just how political the board had become – from sketchy deals to hire a chief of staff to strategic firing of perceived enemies to trash talking constituents.
“Those layoffs weren’t just to save money; it was to create absolute chaos in our district and demoralize everyone,” said Stephanie Macceca, one of the librarians who was on the chopping block. She’s since been elected the new president of Grossmont’s teachers union.
The union’s turn
A person holds a sign reading “No Layoffs! Librarians & Special Ed + Support Staff are Essential” at the Grossmont Union High School District board meeting on April 24, 2025, in Grossmont. / Ariana Drehsler for Voice of San Diego
Ultimately, the librarians and their supporters were unsuccessful in trying to save their positions. While they didn’t get outright fired, they were moved to other positions. That hasn’t calmed their anger.
Community members tried, unsuccessfully, to mount a recall campaign against longtime incumbents Jim Kelly, Gary Woods and Rob Shield. After that failed, Grossmont’s teachers union began mobilizing to help mount opposition candidates.
Over a period of months the union interviewed 17 candidate hopefuls. They were looking for folks with a “healthy concern and reservation” about charter schools and their impact on school enrollment, an understanding of fields like special education and career technical education, support for mental health services and a willingness to work with the union itself. They eventually endorsed three former educators who all worked in East County schools.
“What school districts need is the mindset of someone who’s been in the trenches in a public school and knows what students need and what families need,” Macceca said.
While that process took place before Macceca was elected president, it fits with a larger strategy she’s pushed – becoming a more muscular union interested in building coalitions.
“I really felt like the union had room to grow stronger and leadership felt very disassociated from the work,” Macceca said.
For example, Macceca pushed the union to build coalitions with other labor organizations, leading her union to join the San Diego Imperial Valley Labor Council, a sort of union of local unions. Those relationships have already paid off, she said, with commitments from labor organizations to help fund mailers for candidates and take part in door knocking.
Many of the people who packed board meetings last year have also lent a hand to these campaigns. Macceca said they already have a list of about 100 volunteers.
When it comes to its former backing of the conservative incumbents just four years ago, she explained it as a case of “the devil you know.” For many years, the union’s relationship with the conservative incumbents had been OK, and since the chance of unseating them was low, union leaders reasoned they might as well back the winning horses so they would have some sort of pull with their decision making.
But now that’s all changed, Macceca said. She’s not convinced the current board really knows East County anymore.
“I don’t think that the board represents East County values. I think they represent a small fraction of East County,” Macceca said. “East County is a very diverse place with many different perspectives and experiences, and a wide range of economic levels as well. It’s not all rich white guys.”
There and back again
In 2001, Jeneé Littrell began working as a parent liaison with Grossmont Union. Her job was not only to build relationships between families and schools, but to help the district heal from the tragic shooting at Santana High School the same year. But it wasn’t her first exposure to the district. She was actually born and raised in El Cajon, but dropped out of Monte Vista High School before she could earn her diploma.
“Fortunately, because I had such strong teachers at Monte Vista who believed in me, I was able to find my way back to education and wanted to be some of those anchors for students as well,” Littrell said.
Twenty-five years later and she has two bachelor’s degrees, two master’s degrees and has worked as a mental health counselor, an assistant principal at Grossmont and an associate superintendent at San Mateo County Office of Education. Now Littrell is running for a board seat against Woods.
She’s hit the campaign trail hard, making frequent Instagram reels and consistently showing up to community events. She said she’s found a receptive audience to her message and she’s even picked up endorsements from some surprising organizations, like the El Cajon Police Department.
“I spent my entire career dedicated to supporting students and making sure education was a pathway that everybody could use to launch them into the best future,” Littrell said. “The three board members up for re‑election, they’ve been in office over 62 years. I think they have lost their way and that it’s time for them to move on, and it’s time for politics to get out of our school system.”
Free Mission Trails Program Exposes High Schoolers to Nature-Centric Learning
Are you more interested in traipsing through sprawling chaparral than doomscrolling on Instagram? Are you curious about a nature-oriented career? Are you a local high schooler?
If you answered “yes” to those questions, the Mission Trails Regional Park’s Eco Ambassadors program may be a dream come true.
The program puts 30 high schoolers in direct contact with one of San Diego’s most beautiful natural gems. It consists not only of a slew of nature-related activities, from hiking through the park and replanting native plant species, but also guided talks from local professionals working in outdoor-related careers. That includes a guy who runs the city of San Diego’s biology department as well as a San Diego State University herpetology expert who comes armed with rattlesnakes.
For Jonathan Serna, the education and outreach coordinator at Mission Trails Regional Park, this is exactly the kind of program he wishes he had access to as a young, budding naturalist.
“We’re all over the place, outside, inside, in the dirt, up in the mountains,” Serna told me. “I like to lead the program with a sense of fulfilling what I lacked and making sure students from all backgrounds are able to get outside, get out in the wild, and connect with nature.”
The Eco Ambassadors program is accepting applications from local high schoolers through Aug. 14.
Science Scores Join California’s Accountability Pantheon
For years, scores on standardized science tests have occupied a sort of gray area in California’s educational metrics. They’re listed next to scores on English and math tests, but they haven’t really played a role in determining whether schools are meeting kids’ needs. That changed this year, when state leaders officially decided to incorporate the scores into the educational accountability dashboard they publish each year, as EdSource reported last week.
The fight was an uphill battle, particularly after the pandemic. For years, education officials have prioritized math and English over science, both in raw funding amounts and when it came to how students were performing.
“We’ve always run up against sort of administrative indifference to science and to putting investment into science and professional learning in science because it hasn’t been one of the tested metrics,” Peter A’Hearn, past president of the state science educators association told EdSource.
Even given enthusiasm among some science educators, some advocates aren’t sold on the change.
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