{"id":236148,"date":"2025-09-18T10:38:10","date_gmt":"2025-09-18T10:38:10","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/236148\/"},"modified":"2025-09-18T10:38:10","modified_gmt":"2025-09-18T10:38:10","slug":"morning-report-school-officials-may-curb-k-8-closures","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/236148\/","title":{"rendered":"Morning Report: School Officials May Curb K-8 Closures"},"content":{"rendered":"

San Diego Unified officials are now considering walking back their plan to close to middle school grades at some of their K-8 schools south of Interstate 8.\u00a0<\/p>\n

Last week, our Jakob McWhinney broke the news that officials planned to shutter the middle school portions of four K-8 schools. After the news, parents at Bethune K-8, one of the targeted schools, organized, went on local TV, wrote letters and generally raised an understandable ruckus.\u00a0<\/p>\n

Now, school officials are considering keeping the middle school grades at Bethune open. They claim part of the reason they want to shut down the middle school grades is because of poor performance at the targeted schools. Now, in retrospect, they are saying Bethune\u2019s performance issues haven\u2019t been as bad as the other schools.\u00a0<\/p>\n

Bethune initially wasn\u2019t planned to be part of the closures, Superintendent Fabiola Bagula told McWhinney. However, some officials convinced her it should be. Now, she has revisited data which shows Bethune students performed better than students at other schools slated to lose their 7th and 8th graders.<\/p>\n

Bagula said she plans to hold yet-to-be-scheduled community meetings before making her final decision.\u00a0<\/p>\n

Read the full story here<\/strong><\/a>.\u00a0<\/p>\n

New Hotel\/SeaWorld\/Petco Minimum Wage Will Stand<\/p>\n

Tuesday the San Diego City Council approved the new minimum wage for some workers in the hospitality industry. Up until Friday last week, various groups were negotiating with City Councilmember Sean Elo-Rivera and labor leaders to either get out of having to pay the higher minimum wage or see it phased in. <\/p>\n

Their leverage? A possible referendum. Residents can force any city ordinance that passes the Council to a referendum as they did in 2014 when the city passed its last minimum wage increase. The referendum failed but the referendum successfully delayed implementation of the higher required wage. <\/p>\n

Each of the entities, from the hotel groups to the Padres to SeaWorld agreed not to do a referendum and secured a phase in of the minimum wage they could accept. <\/p>\n

\u201cI\u2019m certainly not going to predict the actions of all human beings who could bring a referendum forward,\u201d said Elo-Rivera. \u201cBut I\u2019m confident the folks we have engaged with would not do that.\u201d<\/p>\n

But:<\/strong> There was buzz even Wednesday at City Hall that a referendum may still come.<\/p>\n

Not happening, unless someone makes it a personal pursuit. The industry actors that will have to deal with it are staying out. <\/p>\n

Robert Gleason, the chair of the San Diego County Lodging Association, reaffirmed his commitment to move on. <\/p>\n

\u201cThe City Council\u2019s $25 minimum wage mandate is a costly burden for San Diego\u2019s hospitality community as we face broader economic headwinds. Hotels and their partners engaged in good-faith negotiations to get the phased-in implementation that provides some breathing room and will mitigate the negative impacts of the immediate 45 percent initially proposed. Following the vote, we are focused on managing our hotels through current economic challenges and creating plans to implement the ordinance,\u201d he said in a written statement.<\/p>\n

New \u2018Fix It\u2019 Collective Opens Downtown to Reduce Landfill Waste<\/strong><\/p>\n

Zero Waste San Diego, a local nonprofit, is opening a \u201creuse and repair collective\u201d<\/a> next week in downtown San Diego. The point is to empower people to repair broken things that would otherwise be thrown into a landfill.<\/p>\n

At Zero Waste\u2019s clinics, retired trades people and otherwise handy folk teach others how to repair everything from small appliances, clothing and bicycles. Local governments contract with Zero Waste to host the clinics as part of cities\u2019 plans to combat climate change.\u00a0<\/p>\n

Now the nonprofit has a home in a former preparatory school building at 611 Beech Street. Some rooms are outfitted with sewing machines, while others have carpentry tools and work benches.<\/p>\n

It opens Thursday, Sept. 25 at 11 a.m.\u00a0<\/p>\n

Politifest: How Can We Make Electricity More Affordable?<\/strong><\/p>\n

San Diego has some of the highest electricity rates in the country but the region and state have also made commitments to use less natural gas and fossil fuels, get more of its power from renewable sources and reverse the trend of carbon emissions. What hope can we offer to people struggling with the cost of living that their power bill will be easier to pay?<\/p>\n

Hear more at Politifest. Get your tickets<\/a> today.<\/p>\n

In Other News\u00a0<\/strong><\/p>\n