Candidate for
Trustee; San Diego Unified School District; Trustee Area A

Mitz Lee Biography

Mitz Lee is running for re-election to the Board of Education of San Diego Unified School District in the November 2008 General election. She won by 60% in the June 2008 Primary election.

Mitz Lee was first elected to the Board of Education in 2004 -- when she won 94% of all precincts citywide and nearly 166,000 votes. Mitz came to the Board of Education with a mandate to return common sense to academics; to restore civility to Board deliberations; to find an educator for Superintendent; to require fiscal restraint and district accountability and to increase parent involvement in the public education of children. These goals were accomplished.

Mitz Lee also called for an end to extravagant use of expensive extraneous curriculum consultants; for strengthening the district's own fraud investigation capability (including a fraud-reporting hotline); for auditing the former Superintendent's slush funds; for effective use of charter schools as vehicles for parent choice, innovation and competition; for securing public school sites where Girl Scouts and Boy Scouts may meet. Additionally, Mitz's work to improve San Diego City Schools' science program was recognized in a Page One Wall Street Journal article (4/13/06.)

Mitz Lee has served as vice president of the Board of Education for two years. She is a member of the San Diego County School Boards Association; represents San Diego as a delegate to the assembly of the California School Board Association and completed that organization's Masters in Governance program. She has participated in conferences of the National School Boards Association and in legislative action conferences for the Council of Great City Schools in Washington, D.C.

Mitz Lee is a member of the Mira Mesa Town Council; a public member of the City Heights Community Development Corporation; a member of Clairemont Hills Kiwanis and a member of the San Diego North Chamber of Commerce. Mitz's earliest civic contributions began as part of her children's lives + Cub Scouts, Little League, Youth Soccer + and then, identifying an unfilled need at her son's school, Mitz stepped in and organized parent volunteers for classroom and established a parent center. Soon, her involvement grew to include service on school councils, governance teams, a charter school Board and PTA as well as dealing with broader concerns with education, public policy and politics.

Mitz Lee is fifty-three years old and was born in the Republic of the Philippines. Mitz became an American citizen in 1988. She and her family have been San Diegans for 22 years. She holds a Master's Degree in Business Administration with an emphasis in financial management from National University.

Mitz is married to retired U.S. Navy Commander Jeff Lee. Together they have raised two sons, Scott and Jeff, both of whom were educated in San Diego public schools, became Eagle Scouts, and now attend colleges in California.