Amy Flicker and David Ray Miyashiro are competing for the San Dieguito Union High School District Board of Trustees Area 1 seat on the Nov. 3 ballot. The winner will help set policy at Torrey Pines High School and other campuses serving La Jolla families.

The seat is open because current Trustee Rimga Viskanta is running for Encinitas mayor. All three SDUHSD incumbents are departing, according to the San Diego Union-Tribune, leaving the five-member board with a wave of new leadership.

Flicker, vice president of legislation for California State PTA's ninth district, has deep roots in SDUHSD committees. She served roughly six years on the district's Citizens' Bond Oversight Committee and sat on its Special Education Committee and Local Control and Accountability Plan (LCAP) committee, she told The Falconer, Torrey Pines High School's student newspaper.

She was also a parent liaison for the North Coastal Consortium of Special Education, which oversees 14 school districts. She served as an Encinitas planning commissioner and environmental commissioner.

This is her second run. In 2018, she lost to Maureen Muir by 195 votes.

Her platform centers on fiscal responsibility, responsible AI integration and student-centered education. She cited figures showing 69% of students now use AI for homework and said the board must update its AI policies every six months or sooner.

Flicker told The Falconer that anyone claiming to be ahead of the AI curve "is either a fool or they're lying because it is racing at such a pace that it's hard to remain literate in it."

Miyashiro, superintendent of Cajon Valley Union School District since 2013, brings a different profile. He has taught at the kindergarten, middle school and high school levels and served as principal at two schools.

His East County district's students speak more than 50 languages. In 2020, the district opened its first high school, Bostonia Global, which requires students to spend 40% of their day on work-based learning starting freshman year.

His candidacy is unusual. The Union-Tribune reported in August that a San Diego County Office of Education spokesperson said she was unaware of any sitting superintendent running for a school board seat in her decade on the job. Miyashiro has said he would not leave his superintendent role if elected.

His 2024 compensation at Cajon Valley totaled $592,416 including benefits, making him the highest-paid superintendent in San Diego County, according to Transparent California data cited by the Union-Tribune. If elected, his income would rise by more than $14,000 after the SDUHSD board in March 2026 raised trustee pay from $400 to $1,200 per month.

Sean McMorris, a program manager at Common Cause California focused on transparency and ethics, told the Union-Tribune that constituents could view the dual role "cynically, given the amount of power and influence one person would have over school systems in two distinct jurisdictions." Others, McMorris said, may see it as an asset.

On teacher pay, the SDUHSD board unanimously approved a 4% raise for teachers at its Sept. 10 meeting. Miyashiro told The Falconer that if the district faces a budget deficit, boards that "give raises, raises, raises, then all of a sudden they're having to cut, cut, cut" are being irresponsible.

Flicker stressed that every tax dollar should reach the classroom and called for full transparency in how the district manages its budget.

The Nov. 3 election will seat three new trustees on the SDUHSD board, with board President Jane Lea Smith and Trustee Phan Anderson also departing.