Dr. Cody Petterson
for School Board
Get to know
Cody Petterson
Cody is a native San Diegan, born at University Hospital (now UCSD Hillcrest) and brought home to UCSD's Mesa Grad Student Apartments. Raised in La Jolla, California, he attended La Jolla Elementary, Muirlands, and La Jolla High, did his undergraduate degree at UC Berkeley, and came home to do his Ph.D. in Anthropology at UCSD.
Cody is the father of two children—Sequoia, 6, and Bardot, 8—both of whom attend Torrey Pines Elementary, where he serves on the School Site Council and Site Governance Team. He also serves on the La Jolla Town Council, as well as numerous local boards, including the San Diego River Conservancy, San Diego International Sister Cities Association, and Volcan Mountain Foundation. He is a former member of the Executive Committee of Sierra Club San Diego and the Board of the Resource Conservation District of Greater San Diego.
Cody has spent the last 5 years helping to organize and moderate workshops and trainings for school board trustees, educators, and community members across the County, on issues like learning loss recovery, community schools, science-based closure and re-opening, social and emotional learning, Board-Superintendent dynamics, Special Education, and district budgeting.
Dr. Petterson is Senior Advisor for Land Use, Education, and Environment and manages Intergovernmental Affairs for San Diego County Supervisor Terra Lawson-Remer. He’s also a Lecturer in the UCSD Anthropology Department, where he’s wrestled with lesson planning, remote learning, grading, and maintaining student motivation and engagement in the context of the pandemic.When he isn’t working, teaching, or doing common core math with his kids, Cody is an ocean swimmer, avid hiker, and California native plant enthusiast.
Cody Petterson
Platform
Secure the state and federal funding that our students deserve to learn and thrive.
Improve District transparency and communication with parents and the community.
Invest in programs like GATE, STEAM, and Dual Enrollment to align instruction with San Diego’s thriving tech and biotech industries.
Foster greater participation of students, parents, teachers, and staff in District decision-making.
Pandemic support to help students, teachers, and families recover from two years of COVID pandemic.
Community Schools, so that schools are adequately staffed, trained, and resourced to address the whole child, whole family, and whole community needs that are essential to closing the achievement gap.
Universal preschool and transitional kindergarten, so that all children can have the essential benefit of early childhood education and working parents can be confident that their children are in an enriching cognitive environment during the work day.
Obtain the Special Education funding that Congress has promised for years but failed to deliver.
Improve the Principal Pipeline, so San Diego Unified educators have the opportunity to rise into leadership positions within the District and our schools and administration have the benefit of high quality, well-prepared leadership with intimate knowledge of and relationships with our neighborhoods and communities.
Ethnic Studies, so that students can receive a culturally responsive education from teachers with whom they can identify.
Comprehensive climate curriculum, to give students the tools they need to lead the effort to confront climate change.
Completion of Climate Action Plan to make San Diego Unified a national leader in establishing and achieving a zero carbon target.
Reduce energy costs and carbon emissions by increasing our solar energy and battery storage capacity
Ensure collaboration with SANDAG to secure funding to improve the ease and safety of bike and walking routes between local communities and neighborhood schools
Cody Petterson
Endorsements
San Diego Education Association
San Diego County Democratic Party
San Diego Union-Tribune
American Federation of Teachers, Local 1931
Planned Parenthood Action Fund of the Pacific Southwest
Sierra Club
California League of Conservation Voters
Moms Demand Action
San Diegans for Gun Violence Prevention
San Diego Democratic Education Alliance
San Diego County Young Democrats
UCSD College Democrats
San Diego County Democrats for Environmental Action
San Diego Democrats for Equality
Democratic Woman's Club of San Diego County
San Diego Labor Democratic Club
AAPI Democratic Club
La Jolla Democratic Club
University City Democratic Club
Pacific Beach Democratic Club
Point Loma-Ocean Beach Democratic Club
Progressive Democrats of America
San Diego & Imperial Counties Labor Council
Administrators Association San Diego City Schools
Palomar Faculty Federation
Carpenters Local 619
LiUNA Local 89
Toni Atkins, State Senate President Pro Tempore
Chris Ward, Assemblymember
Tasha Boerner-Horvath, Assemblymember
Nathan Fletcher, San Diego County Supervisor
Nora Vargas, San Diego County Supervisor
Terra Lawson-Remer, San Diego County Supervisor
Sean Elo-Rivera, San Diego City Council President
Joe LaCava, San Diego City Councilmember
Monica Montgomery, San Diego City Councilmember
Raul Campillo, San Diego City Councilmember
Marni von Wilpert, San Diego City Councilmember
Jack Shu, La Mesa City Councilmember
Lily Higman, Public Education Advocate/SDUSD Parent
Tammy Reina, California Teacher of the Year
Gregg Robinson, San Diego County Board of Education Trustee
Rick Shea, San Diego County Board of Education Trustee
Richard Barrera, San Diego Unified Trustee
Sabrina Bazzo, San Diego Unified Trustee
Michael McQuary, San Diego Unified Trustee
John Lee Evans, Former San Diego Unified Trustee
Cheryl Robertson, Lemon Grove School District Trustee
Eric Joyce, Oceanside Unified Trustee
Paula Hall, Sweetwater Union Trustee
Cipriano Vargas, Vista Unified Trustee
Debbie Justeson, Grossmont-Cuyamaca Community College Trustee
Maria Nieto-Senour, San Diego Community College Trustee
Cody Petterson
Experience
Manager of Intergovernmental Affairs/Senior Advisor for Land Use, Education, and Environment, Office of San Diego County Supervisor Terra Lawson-Remer
Lecturer, University of California, San Diego, Department of Anthropology
Governing Board Member, San Diego River Conservancy
Secretary, Site Governance Team, Torrey Pines Elementary School
Secretary, Board of Directors, San Diego International Sister Cities Association
Trustee, La Jolla Town Council
Board Member, Volcan Mountain Foundation
Member, Educate for the Future
Member, San Diego Progressive School Board Coalition
Member, UC-AFT 1474
Immediate Past President, San Diego County Democrats for Environmental Action
Former Board Member, Resource Conservation District of Greater San Diego
Former Member, Executive Committee, Sierra Club San Diego
Co-founder, Public Power San Diego
Member, Build Better San Diego
ADEM Delegate, California Democratic State Central Committee
County Central Committee Delegate, California Democratic State Central Committee
Cody Petterson
News
“In his interview, Petterson often didn’t sound like an establishment voice at all…he showed a fluency on the issues, starting with the achievement gap and the need for the district to practice “maximum openness” in dealing with the public. He seems more likely to effect change than Williams. The San Diego Union-Tribune Editorial Board endorses Cody Petterson in Sub-District C.
“What a school board does is bring to bear the values and interests of the constituents that support the district and ensure that the district is guided by those values and interests.”
— Dr. Cody Petterson
“I have a fierce commitment to the district and to public education more broadly. I am the only active educator in the race, and I wrestle daily with remote learning, pedagogy, lesson planning, grading, and maintaining student engagement and motivation.”
— Dr. Cody Petterson
"I was born and raised in this district. I grew up a block from La Jolla Elementary, my mom was a PTA president, the teachers of San Diego Unified were really my extended family."
— Dr. Cody Petterson
“I am going to take an opportunity to help guide this generation that is going to have to pick up the pieces and build a new world, and not to indoctrinate them,” he said, “but to give them those first principles that allow them to figure out what that new world’s going to look like.”
— Dr. Cody Petterson
“I’ve spent my entire life growing roots in the district and have served its residents in many volunteer and professional capacities…I am running to address the concrete needs and concerns of the thousands of students, parents, teachers, classified employees, administrators and local community members I know and have known over nearly five decades in the district, like declining enrollment; class size; combo classes; transitional kindergarten; district communication; human resource issues; teacher recruitment, retention, and training; career and technical education; dual enrollment; early literacy; and improved special education.”
— Dr. Cody Petterson
Media Resources
