Score one for diversity

Anisha Dalal
- Photo by John R. Lamb

Touchdown, Chargers!

The baritone voice of the public-address announcer at Qualcomm Stadium booms through the air, punctuated by the crack of pyrotechnics. Anisha Dalal smiles broadly.

Living literally a stone’s throw (OK, if Philip Rivers is doing the throwing) from the Chargers’ turf in the home her late father designed and built has its advantages for a diehard Bolts fan—when the local games aren’t blacked out, that is.

“The best part is,” she laughs, “when we’re watching on TV, there’s a time delay. So you hear that first and then you see the actual touchdown on television. Pretty cool!” “Pretty cool” describes to a T the newly selected chairwoman of the 2010 San Diego Redistricting Commission.

So does “whip-crack smart.” Toss in “driven” and you have what could be one of the more compelling story lines in San Diego for the coming year—if you’re sick and tired of the city’s back-and-forth budget drama.

Contrary to what the Union-Tribune reported last Friday, two—not three—retired Superior Court judges selected seven members and an equal number of alternates to serve on the commission, which, when it begins meeting Oct. 21, will be faced with the formidable task of carving out a ninth San Diego City Council district in a city currently composed of eight. (The third retired judge, Patricia Cowett, could not attend due to a family emergency.)

Although they wouldn’t say publicly, the judges were clearly impressed by the 40-year-old Dalal, principal of San Diego High’s School of Communication, one of six thematic schools that emerged from funding by the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation in 2004 that emphasizes “rigor, relevance and relationships” as the new “three Rs” of education.

The second of five children born to a hard-working, arranged-marriage couple that emigrated from Surat, India, in the ’60s, Dalal was the immediate choice of retired judges William Howatt Jr. and James Milliken to—at least temporarily—head the redistricting commission, although the commission itself will ultimately decide who serves as chairperson.

But another newly selected commissioner, attorney Frederick Kosmo Jr., told the judges that, although he had just met her minutes earlier, he felt confident that Dalal would serve well as commission head.

Dalal was flattered. “Just from my professional experience, I deal with students as well as adults, so I’ve always had to hear different viewpoints,” she told Spin Cycle. “So that is a definite strength I bring to this. I’m a very good listener and a really good collaborator. I love working on a team.”

What Dalal appears to lack is a political bone in her body.

Even her spunky, 70-year-old mom, Madhuri, mentioned this with some vigor.

Dalal didn’t disagree. “You know why? Because I’m in education,” she said. “Of course, as an educator, you don’t really talk about your political viewpoints. We are in a position of influence, and so we keep that out of it.”

She did describe herself as “sort of a liberal, grassroots kind of person” and a “diehard” believer in public education, primarily because she’s an incredible product of that system. A near-perfect student at Kearny High School—“I had a B in history,” she acknowledged—Dalal was accepted her senior year to an early-admission honors program at UCSD, where she studied calculus.

Dalal went on to earn a bachelor’s degree in structural engineering, hoping to follow in her engineer father’s footsteps. A stint in the city of Encinitas Engineering Department developing contour mapping and performing traffic counts led to work at a small engineering firm in Cerritos.

But by the mid-’90s, with the aerospace and construction industries in a freefall that left many engineers unemployed, Dalal decided to follow her heart into education.

A happenstance mention from her sister about an internship program in the Los Angeles Unified School District led to her first math-teaching job at South Gate High School, east of gritty Compton. “Challenging” would be an understatement, but she stuck with it for three years.

“I didn’t realize these were ninth-grade students who didn’t know their times tables,” Dalal recalled. It didn’t help that she was only 24 at the time. “I distinctly remember wearing business suits and heels to look older,” she added. “I also had to learn to be more assertive.”

That, she admits, wasn’t part of her nature. “Our parents instilled values and morals with us so they didn’t have to impose strict limits and consequences,” she said. “That’s probably true of most Asian families. There are expectations that your parents expect you to step up to, so you don’t have to be so regimented.”

A born challenge seeker, Dalal went on to teach at a junior high school for a year in the Bay Area before deciding to move back to San Diego, where she landed a job as math and computer instructor at Muirlands Middle School in La Jolla.

A return to school herself to earn a master’s degree convinced her that she wanted to become a vice principal. “I really enjoy being in leadership,” she said. Dalal realized that dream when she was hired at Montgomery Middle School in Linda Vista.

Then came her longest assignment, as principal of the school district’s ALBA program (Alternative learning for Behavior and Attitude) for students who run afoul of the district’s zero-tolerance policy. During those five years, she also earned her doctoral degree in education.

In 2008, she wanted to take what she had learned at ALBA to a smaller school setting, which led to her appointment as principal of San Diego High’s School of Communication.

So, now comes the challenge of the Redistricting Commission. Why? She began noticing few Asian people in leadership positions at the school district. “I’ve always advocated for the underserved, for populations that don’t always have a voice,” she explained.

“We need to have diverse representation, and as Asians, we have to stop taking a back seat,” she added. “We have a lot of brain power and tremendous financial influence. But what’s nice is I’ll be working with six other individuals. I’m going into this with an open mind. It’s not about any one person pushing their own agenda. That really has to stay out of this.”

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