Jane Lea Smith named president of San Dieguito Union High School District board

Closing out what was described as a tough and tumultuous last few months of 2025, the San Dieguito Union High School District board will start 2026 with new leadership. During the board’s organizational meeting, the board selected Jane Lea Smith to serve as the new board president, replacing Jodie Williams who served for the last year in her first year on the board.

Trustee Rimga Viskanta nominated Smith, while Trustee Phan Anderson nominated Michael Allman to serve as president. The board voted 3-2 for Smith, with Viskanta, Smith and Williams in favor and Anderson and Allman opposed.

“I’m very proud to nominate Jane Lea Smith,” Viskanta said. “I would like to follow leadership that is unifying, that elevates our teachers, supports our students and our schools, that celebrates them, that visits campuses, that speaks well of our district and, again, is a unifying voice.”

Viskanta said Smith is well-versed in governance matters, having worked on the board’s governance handbook and staying involved with the California School Boards Association. A Del Mar resident elected to the board in 2022, Smith’s professional background includes spending 16 years as a special education teacher and school administrator as well was serving as a consultant for medical device manufacturers. A longtime volunteer while her daughter attended San Dieguito schools, she was also a former member of the Canyon Crest Academy Foundation board.

Allman said he was close to voting for Smith, but he had questions about her ability to provide good governance. “Our governance has proven to be just terrible, tonight we saw it,” he said. Allman referenced earlier in the meeting during a lengthy discussion about approving an attorney contract when Williams did not allow a vote on his “valid” motion about allowing board members access to certain confidential information. A vote on another motion on the item had already passed.

This year he said the board also hasn’t followed its rules on board members requesting items be placed on the agenda. Smith said the protocol is that if two members request an item be placed on the agenda, it’s up to the board president and superintendent to make the determination about when and how that item is put on the agenda. Allman disagreed, stating that the item should go on the next available agenda.

Per the board’s governance handbook, If a proposed agenda item is requested by a board member in an email to the superintendent or at a board meeting and is supported by two or more board members, it will be added to an “upcoming” board agenda. However, a separate point uses different language, stating that if an item is properly submitted by a board member and gains the support of at least two members, it will be added to the “next available” board meeting agenda, “respecting that staff may need time to prepare necessary information for the board’s consideration.”

Smith said she would be open to having a governance discussion and revisiting the protocol as she has questions as well.

“I am 100% committed to good governance,” Smith said. “I always try to be calm when I’m up here… I think its important that we do our business in public. I’m very confident in my ability to maintain calm.”

For vice president, Anderson nominated herself again and Smith nominated Viskanta. Viskanta was selected in a 3-2 vote with Smith, Williams and herself in favor and Anderson and Allman opposed. Jodie Williams was unanimously voted board clerk.