School Board Choices

Three at-large seats are up on the five-person Del Mar Union School Board.  Current trustees Katherine Fitzpatrick, Doug Rafner, and Alan Kholos are all running for re-election, along with challenger Stephen Cochrane, a special education attorney who seeks a return to the role.

Katherine Fitzpatrick is running for her third term, has children attending DMUSD schools, and has been steadfast in her quest to bring transitional kindergarten to the district.  But what motivates Kholos, Rafner, or Cochrane to serve? Kholos is running for a new four-year term after his 2024 election to fulfill Steve Wooden’s former slot. On his campaign website, Kholos touts his accomplishments related to special education in the District.  Cochrane previously served on the Del Mar Union School District board from 2017 to 2019. He resigned in 2019 when he moved out of the district boundaries. Presumably he is also running to address special education needs, as he was quoted in a recent July 22nd Voice of San Diego article: “This isn’t specific to Del Mar, but in many school districts I see a general lack of accountability in administrators running the district.” Rafner’s decision to run for a fifth term is perhaps the most perplexing. Compared to Fitzpatrick and Kholos, Rafner seems less interested in DMUSD activities other than his role chairing the North City West School Facilities Financing Authority. 

Board of Trustees positions are not well paid, but they are also not volunteer positions.  Trustees get a base pay just under $3k along with medical, dental, and vision benefits valued at over $13k, bringing their annual compensation to around $16k each.  As all the candidates have served, or are currently serving on the school board, the public should be able to evaluate their relative strengths and weaknesses but that is impossible with the information currently provided by DMUSD.  Unlike other districts in our area, DMUSD does not maintain an archive of video or audio recordings of prior school board meetings. DMUSD also does not capture detailed information about specific Trustee performance in the meeting minutes, only noting “Staff responded to clarifying questions from the Board.”