Marti Emerald is narrowly leading in her bid for a seat on the school board of the Sweetwater Union High School District, the third-largest secondary school district in California.
After the polls closed Nov. 8, she trailed by 13 votes but since has crawled ahead of her opponent, Dante Garcia Pamintuan. At the end of Friday’s count, she was ahead by 98 votes.
The name, Marti Emerald, is a familiar one in this region.
For 22 years, she was a dogged “troubleshooter” reporter and advocate for KGTV 10News, the local ABC . She retired from TV journalism and ran for San Diego City Council, serving for eight years.
Both candidates are pragmatic about the outcome.
Emerald says if she doesn’t win, she’ll continue to attend school board meetings and speak out on issues that stir her ion.
“I’m at peace with it. If I win that’s great. I have a new job and have to comb my hair and dress every day — darn it. And if not, at least I’ll be able to stand up for our schools.”
Pamintuan, a businessman who teaches classes at the private Ocean View Christian Academy, says that if he loses, he might run again for school board or other local office such as city council.
His wife, Sue, is a third-grade teacher in South Bay Union School District. They have two children, ages 11 and 12, who helped inspire his interest in running. “This is the first time I’ve ever entered any type of election,” Pamintuan says.
Meanwhile, Emerald continues doing her homework to get up to speed on district business and procedures, thanks to her friend Paula Hall, who is retiring from the board’s District 5 seat which serves Imperial Beach and parts of Chula Vista and San Diego.
Hall says she urged Emerald to run for the seat she is vacating because of her experience with big budgets and communicating with the public.
Emerald beat breast cancer in 2014 before retiring from the City Council in 2016. As with any life-threatening illness, she says it fueled her ion to make a difference.
“Once you’ve had a life-threatening disease, you take note of what you want to do going forward, and what’s important in life.”
With that in mind, she volunteered during American Red Cross disaster relief efforts, helping after Hurricane Irma hit Florida in 2017 and Arkansas flooding in 2019.
After moving to Imperial Beach in 2016, she helped charter the Imperial Beach Democratic Club to invigorate residents’ interest in politics and worked on getting out the vote.
It wasn’t until this year that she jumped back into the election arena — this time campaigning in the nonpartisan school board race. Her own daughter is 30, and this was not something Emerald had anticipated doing.
“I ed her more than once about running,” Hall says. “Her first answer was ‘no,” and I started getting a few other people to make that suggestion, and we finally convinced her.”
Emerald initially tried to convince other qualified candidates to enter the race. But school trustees are routinely under attack these days, and she encountered little interest.
“It’s been a nice retirement, but I’ve got more in me,” says Emerald, who turns 68 on Jan. 6. “The schools are under siege. Board are harangued and intimidated, not just here, but across the country by people who have agendas for what public education ought to do.”
Her platform prioritizes school safety, restoring public confidence in the district and helping students recover from pandemic-related social and academic struggles.
Pamintuan, who is active in the Imperial Beach Chamber of Commerce and in his church, says he would like to forge partnerships between parents and teachers to achieve greater success and direct principals to focus on core subjects.
The Sweetwater district has come a long way in restoring trust since a “pay for play” scandal came to light in 2011, in which four school board were accused of accepting unreported gifts. More recently, the district superintendent also was fired for misrepresenting finances.
The financial scandal prompted Hall, a career budget analyst and financial planner for the San Diego Unified School District, to step on the board to help guide the district, which has a $300 million annual budget.
She stresses the importance of the new District 5 representative having roots in the region’s beach community. None of the district school board live in Imperial Beach.
Emerald is quick to respond that her husband, Karl Bradley, s her run. “He thinks I need something to keep me busy,” she laughs.
Bradley is no stranger to the Sweetwater district politics. He helped build many of its schools, retiring four years ago as assistant superintendent in charge of facilities.
“He has schooled me in the ins and outs, the pitfalls and what questions to ask,” Emerald says.
In this era of school shootings, students are fearful for their safety and security. If elected, she wants to form stronger relationships with local police departments and utilize San Diego police school resource officers to rotate from school to school, identifying safety concerns.
She also wants to expand vocational education and aggressively respond to the effect of the pandemic, which increased anxiety and harmed students’ grades.
“This board is clawing its way out of a history of drama. I want to be part of helping the district recover from its past and build a stronger future.”
As for her current lead, Emerald says, “If it’s the will of the people, so be it. If not, maybe I’ll be one of the regulars who shows up and makes comments.”
