La Mesa

Ken Overstreet, a trustee of the Grossmont Union High School District for 17 years, announced Thursday that he will not run for a fifth term and will take a job as consultant to the district’s fund-raising foundation.

Overstreet will earn $25,000 a year as head of the year-old Grossmont Education Fund, which has raised about $50,000 to assist with programs in the 19,000-student East County school district, he said.

The deadline to register for the November school board election would have been today, but Overstreet said it will be extended five days because of his withdrawal from the race. Three seats on the five-member board are up for election.

Overstreet, who has conducted a variety of fund-raising campaigns during the past 25 years, served as development director of the San Diego Symphony for about nine months dating back to last fall. He produced a telethon in March that raised $250,000 during the drive to save the symphony.

Overstreet said a top priority will be to raise money to combat the district’s dropout problem. He said spending money on extracurricular activities eliminated after Proposition 13 budget cuts, such as freshman athletics, will help.

“A lot of people think the lottery (revenue) is going to meet all the needs of education,” Overstreet said. “It’s going to help, but there’s still a lot of programs that need help.”