As San Diego schools’ first Black and first female leader, Bertha Pendleton showed ‘willingness to share with everybody’
By Jemma Stephenson & Jeff McDonald, The San Diego Union Tribune
Pendleton, who spent more than four decades serving the San Diego Unified School District, steadily climbing the ranks and becoming the first Black person and the first woman to lead what was then the eighth-largest school district in America, died this week in Las Vegas. She was 92.
“She mentored an awful lot of people without bragging about it and without anybody knowing that she was doing it, other than the person she was helping,” said Shirley Weber, the California secretary of state, who served on the school board that promoted Pendleton to superintendent.
Earlier this year, the district honored Pendleton by renaming a campus after the groundbreaking administrator.
“Bertha Pendleton created the space and opportunity for a young Latina girl who dreamed of being a schoolteacher to believe she too could one day lead this district,” Superintendent Fabi Bagula said at the unveiling of the marquee outside what is now Dr. Bertha O. Pendleton Elementary School in Rolando.
“I am proud that our community and district has chosen to honor Dr. Pendleton’s legacy by renaming this school in her honor,” Bagula said.
Trustee Sharon Whitehurst-Payne said Pendleton’s leadership style was to mentor people of all races.
“She kept her own in mind, but she also looked out for everybody,” said Whitehurst-Payne, who is also Black. “I think that people saw that in her, her willingness to share with everybody.”
Read more from the Union Tribune: https://www.sandiegouniontribune.com/2025/09/25/as-san-diego-schools-first-black-and-first-female-leader-bertha-pendleton-showed-willingness-to-share-with-everybody/?clearUserState=true