Fact Sheet

Trustees cut student resources, refused to listen to constituents

Kelly, Shield, Woods and Eckert eliminated every librarian position in the school district.
Despite thousands of petition signatures and hundreds of people repeatedly showing up at board meetings, these four trustees ignored the public and refused to even discuss rescinding the cuts.

In early 2025, despite claiming a budget deficit, the trustees created a new “Chief of Staff” position, and hired Jerry Hobbs for the job without a single interview.
The San Diego Union-Tribune reported that the Trustees were aware that a “Statement of Charges” had been brought against Hobbs in 2018. The statement details how Hobbs “repeatedly made racist and sexist slurs and comments to both students and staff at REACH Academy,” while he was a GUHSD special education teacher.
Voice of San Diego also found that the trustees had been working closely with a law firm, JW Howard Attorneys, which was Hobbs’ former employer. At the time, this law firm had a lucrative contract with the school district. The law firm assigned Hobbs to investigate his own former supervisor at GUHSD’s REACH Academy and prepare a settlement clearing his own name.
Hobbs resigned in May 2025, and the board approved a severance of $186,500.

Kelly, Shield and Woods accepted a campaign contribution of $2,000 from Attorney John Howard in 2022. Less that a year later, all three voted to approve a school district contract with John Howard’s law firm, JW Howard Attorneys.
Eckert accepted a campaign contribution of $2,500 from John Howard in 2024. A few months later, Eckert voted in favor of continuing the contract with JW Howard Attorneys.

An investigation by the San Diego Union-Tribune shows that Jim Kelly, Robert Shield, Gary C. Woods, and Scott Eckert planned district policy in private text conversations. This appears to be a violation of the Brown Act.
The San Diego Union-Tribune published an archive of Trustee text messages and emails that show the Trustees planned to eliminate teacher-librarians positions as a way to control book purchases in the district. Another article states that, “The group’s members plotted against staff they considered their political enemies and arranged promotions of their allies.”
In their private messages, the Trustees also single out an individual librarian who gave a small personal donation to Scott Eckert’s campaign opponent. The Trustees planned to “keep that in mind when it comes time to RIF the librarians.” The term “RIF” stands for “reduction in force.”

An investigation by the San Diego Union-Tribune found that the group had ties to candidates who appear to have been placed on the November 2024 ballot solely to siphon votes away from their political opponents.
The campaign statements for these three candidates were all paid for by JW Howard Attorneys.
In an email to Trustee Robert Shield and Attorney John W. Howard, Jerry Hobbs refers to the “campaign statements of our candidates (all 5 of them)” and describes the campaign statement of Debra Harrington, one of the ghost candidates.

Shield, Woods, and Eckert all hold jobs connected to private school education.
Shield is a teacher at a private high school that charges $8,000/year.
Woods’ employer runs a private school that charges $13,000/year for high school students.
Eckert runs a business teaching math to home school students.
These Trustees or their employers benefit financially when kids drop out of public school and enroll in private or home school.

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