Candidate for
Board Member; San Diego Unified School District; District B

About Jeff Lee --

Jeff Lee is the father of two sons who are students at Scripps Ranch High School. He and his wife Mitz have worked for more than ten years to improve the public schools here in San Diego and to involve and inform other parents about the academic and financial workings of the 143,000-student billion-dollar district. Jeff is a candidate for San Diego School Board from District B that includes Allied Gardens, Del Cerro, Mira Mesa, Miramar Ranch North, Murphy Canyon, San Carlos, San Diego State College area, Scripps Ranch, and Tierrasanta.

As the son of a working single parent -- his mother died when he was a young child -- and one of five brothers and sisters, Jeff understands the challenges that single parent families face and he understands the value of a good public school education.

After earning a high school diploma from the public schools, Jeff attended the University of Wisconsin as part of the Navy ROTC program on an academic scholarship. He served 22 years as a commissioned officer in the United States Navy, including service as a commanding officer of a guided missile combatant vessel. He is a decorated combat veteran who saw service in Somalia and the Persian Gulf War for which he was awarded a Bronze Star.

While on active duty, Jeff earned post-graduate degrees from the University of Southern California, the Naval War College and Salve Regina College. He is also a graduate of Deming Management Training and Drucker Foundation Leader of the Future Training.

Jeff understands and has had experience with key issues in public school governance that will help him work effectively and democratically as a school board representative. Over the last six years, Jeff's focus has been standards-based academic reform in K-12 public schools. He was appointed by the state Board of Education to serve on the advisory panel for selecting instructional materials in English language arts and also served on the California State Performance Setting Panel for students' mathematics performance.

In San Diego Unified, Jeff has headed the Parent Involvement Task Force and been vice chairman of the Community Advisory Committee on the Budget. In addition, both he and his wife Mitz participated in the successful collaboration of San Diego Unified teachers, parents and administrators that produced detailed academic standards describing what children at each grade level need to know.

Jeff is devoted to his own family, yet gives his time and energy to other children in the community as well. He has coached geography and math Olympiad teams at Dingeman Elementary School, is a founding member of Dingeman's Family-Faculty Connection, served on Wangenheim Middle School's site council and acted as principal-for-a-day at Lee Elementary School. For the last nine years he has served as a volunteer adult leader and youth mentor for the Boy Scouts, in which his sons participate.