The city’s growing number of GLBT youth and families with school-age children will finally have a greater opportunity to have a say in how they are represented in the San Diego School District. During the recent redistricting, members of the GLBT community — including members of the San Diego Democratic Club and representatives of The Center — all spoke in favor of establishing a district that consolidates the Hillcrest, North Park, University Heights, South Park and Golden Hills neighborhoods. The newly established District D does just that, giving the high concentration of GLBT community members in the area a strong voice in selecting a school board representative that will address their concerns.

Brian Poljes, a member of the primarily gay and lesbian San Diego Democratic Club and a labor advocate, had previously considered running for the District D school board seat, but announced this week that he would not enter the race.

“I am writing to let you know that I am withdrawing my candidacy for San Diego City School Board, District D,” Poljes wrote in an e-mail to friends and supporters. “As I have campaigned, I have realized that the demands of the campaign and the demands of the office, if I had been elected, would be incompatible with the demands of my employment….

“I want to thank all of you who encouraged me in this endeavor. I still care very much about our schools and will be watching the campaign for the three school board seats with great interest.

“I was involved in (the redistricting effort) with AJ Davis-Defeo from The Center and people from the San Diego Democratic Club,” Poljes told the Gay and Lesbian Times. “The Democratic Club was involved in the reapportionment of all the other levels of city council, the board of supervisors and state legislature, in an attempt to consolidate as much of the LGBT community [as possible] into one district so we would have as much of a voice as we could.”

The redistricting also gives the GLBT community the opportunity to elect a member of its own to the school board, much like what was done with Chris Kehoe when she ran for city council.

A part of getting the new district plan approved was explaining the importance of having strong representation for the GLBT community on the school board. More and more GLBT youth are coming out while still in school and more GLBT families are adopting or having children who are now school age.

“I think that having someone that is gay on a school board provides the opportunity for those youth to have a role model. That’s the simplest answer,” Poljes said of the need for GLBT representation. “There are several people on the school board now who are friendly to the community, but it’s one thing to be a friend or an ally, and another thing to actually be walking in those shoes and be in that community yourself.”

In his initial run for the board, Poljes cited the fiscal management of the district and the spending that goes into the Education Center, as opposed to going directly into school. These fiscal problems are only being magnified by the current state budget crisis, he said.

“It concerned me to see staff laid off at the school site level because that directly hurt the kids, so I wanted to see that changed,” he said.

In backing out of the race, Poljes, who works with Service Employees International Union local 535, leaves an opening for a new GLBT candidate to emerge.

“It’s almost a full-time position with part-time pay,” said Poljes. “I am very happy to help consolidate most of the community into one school district, which will help because whoever is elected from this district will have to be responsive to our concerns.”