With a new school board and fresh perspectives, perhaps San Dieguito Union High School District constituents can look forward to greater transparency, more fiscal responsibility and an emphasis on the interests of students ahead of adults.

The race for San Dieguito Union High School District’s Area 4 seat offers voters stark choices. With three candidates hoping to replace retiring school board member Joyce Dalessandro, the election could turn the tables on a union-dominated school board. Although school board races are technically nonpartisan, this one, as with many others, is decidedly not.

Is it the last act of sitting school board members to recruit and select their replacements? The idea of retiring and letting anyone run who wants to is apparently not something San Dieguito Union High School District board members do.

Of all the issues that have arisen recently in the San Dieguito Union High School District, it’s fair to say the grading policy was one of considerable importance to the community. On this issue, the public was denied its right to address the board in a fair and transparent manner.

The San Dieguito Union High School District’s Board of Trustees, students and parents should have been involved in the district’s credit/no credit grading discussion from the beginning, rather than the superintendent rolling it out without seeking more feedback from stakeholders.

By violating the basic rules of California’s Brown Act in its ill-advised attempt to control the number of public speakers, the San Dieguito Union High School District board has taken away the public’s right to address its elected officials.

For decades, students have been helped along their life paths thanks to Sunset High School, a continuation campus in the San Dieguito Union High School District. Teens at the Encinitas school didn’t necessarily expect any fluff treatment, nor did educators expect to give it. Fluff treatment is what the school is getting, however, with its administration’s call for a new name.