Table Talk: A La Mesa Podcast

Current mayor of La Mesa, Mark Arapostathis has termed out and its time to elect his replacement. As the race sits now, we have four candidates to choose from; two Democrats and two Republicans. After the election we will either have a Democratic monopoly or a single Republican vote among our four Democratic council members. Today, we are joined by one of those candidates, Democrat Quinn Reese.

quinn4mayor.com

instagram.com/quinn4lamesa.mayor

There are two city council seats open in the upcoming election in La Mesa. And only two people are in the running for those seats. So they are both guaranteed to become city council members. Still, we’d like to know what they have in mind for our city. Today, we're interviewing both of these city council candidates: Amanda-Dawn Natalia and Moana Alo.

Contact Info:

www.vote-amanda-dawn.now

[email protected]

moana4citycouncil.com

[email protected]

We interview three candidates who are running together for seats on the La Mesa-Spring Valley School Board: Rebecca Tweedle, Jennifer Littig and Brianna Coston. Depending on where you live in La Mesa, you might be able to vote for one of them. So what’s their vision for our students? Let’s find out.

Links:

https://rebeccatweedle.com/

https://jenniferlittig.com/

https://www.instagram.com/jenlittig/

https://www.facebook.com/jenlittig/

https://www.briannacoston.com/

https://www.instagram.com/brie_cheezie/

The elected board of the Grossmont Union High School District cut all nine librarians from their budget and let class sizes increase to 38 students. They also spent over a million dollars on video games and gave themselves a 373% raise. Today, we're interviewing the three candidates who have joined together to flip the school board. Now, we can't vote for any of them here in La Mesa - our area isn't up for election until 2028. But what happens in this election will directly affect La Mesa students, teachers, school staff and taxpayers. So we're excited to sit down and talk with Jeneé Littrell, Steve Mull and Pete Mergens.

What is ICE doing in our region? What can we do to speak out? For answers, we turn to a longtime community activist here in La Mesa, Mejgan Afshan of Borderlands for Equity.

Here are links to some of the organizations mentioned:

borderlandsequity.org

instagram.com/borderlandsequity

unipopular.org

uniondelbarrio.org

instagram.com/uniondelbarrio

instagram.com/sdbikebrigrade

After repeated attempts to help the Grossmont Union High School Board come to their senses and reconsider eliminating over 60 positions across the district, the board members persisted and finalized these cuts. Undeterred by the school board's resistance, community members - including the producers and host of this very podcast - have rallied and shifted their focus to recalling the four board members who put forward and followed through with these cuts. All of this came to a head when a bombshell dropped exposing the true nature and mindset of the board members in question.

To discuss the current path of recall and the new bombshell of information, we've reached out to our teacher librarian at large Stephanie Macceca.

To learn about the recall, visit RecalltheTrustees.com

If you have a child in the Grossmont Union High School District or just like staying in the know, you are probably aware of the recent uproar over cuts made by the school board. Parents and students alike showed up in full force to the March 11th board meeting to voice their concerns and plead with the board to reconsider their decision. In spite of this public outcry, the board appears to be hell bent on proceeding with the proposed budget cuts. Today we are very excited to continue our discussion of the GUHSD board's decision with local journalist Jakob McWhinney, the Voice of San Diego's education reporter.

Every librarian will be fired next year in the Grossmont Union High School District, along with 40 other teachers.  Over 600 concerned students, parents, faculty members, and citizens showed up to the school board meeting to oppose these cuts - the auditorium at El Cajon Valley High School was full to capacity and people were filling the overflow room and standing outside as well.  But still, without explanation from a single school board member speaking in support of these cuts - and a budget surplus of $46 million, roughly 4 times the amount required by the state - the board voted to approve the firings, with only 1 member, Chris Fite, voting in opposition to these cuts. 

So what exactly are our kids going to lose as a result of these job cuts?  And what can you do about it by showing up to the next meeting on March 11?  

To answer these questions, we're talking with a teacher librarian from the school district who is also the vice president of the Grossmont Education Association: Stephanie Macceca from Valhalla High School.

The next meeting you can attend is on Tuesday (March 11) at 4:30pm at Grossmont High School. For more details, visit bit.ly/save-guhsd-librarians

The Grossmont Union High School District is voting to make serious cuts to the budget - including cutting all nine teacher librarians in the district. We talk to Jay Steiger to find out what's going on.

There are two meetings you can attend on this issue - one tonight (February 27) at 4:30pm and the other on March 11. For more details, visit bit.ly/save-guhsd-librarians

As you may have heard, we have an election coming up.  Last episode, we interviewed City Council candidate Lauren Cazares.  And now, we’re joined by another candidate for City Council, Genevieve Suzuki.