Candidate for
Member, Board of Trustees; Long Beach Community College District; Trustee Area 4

Education is the bedrock upon which a community must be built. This, participation in the governance of schools, in my opinion, one of the highest responsibilities and callings to which a member of our community can aspire. It is in this spirit that I offer myself as a candidate for the Board of Trustees of Long Beach City College and pledge myself to providing the kind of collegial leadership needed as we enter these early years of the 21st century and the challenges that these years will bring.

My belief in the value of education matches my belief in the value of family, and all that word means, in the life of the community. My partner/spouse shares those values and is also a strong believer in the necessity of education in both the individual family and the larger social context. She, too, is a product of Long Beach schools, (Cal State Long Beach, BA and MA) and a leader in the field of education (former Assistant Vice Chancellor of the California State University). And our children, too, are beneficiaries of the California public school system.

I have been fortunate to serve in numerous capacities of service locally: member and sometime Chair of the Long Beach Planning Commission; President of the Long Beach Bar Association; Chair of the "Dialogues on Freedom" Program, an educational program relating to law for all Long Beach public high school; Co-founder of Long Beach Heritage; Co-president of the Public Corporation for the Arts. I am also experienced in the classroom as a full adjunct professor of law at Southwestern University Law School.

I am prepared to focus all of this experience on the job of administering the $120 million budget of Long Beach City College in a way that will be of maximum educational benefit to the people of the district and the citizens of Long Beach, Signal Hill and Avalon within the district. Among the many issues to be addressed:

• Work with our Sacramento legislative delegation to insure full parity of the Long Beach District in the apportionment of property tax and other revenues;

• Encourage an ever growing awareness of the challenges and opportunities of serving a student body of growing diversity;

• Seek to improve the State/District financing structures so that District teachers and other employees can be compensated in a manner equal to the importance of the roles they fulfill in the community;

• Encourage fuller and increasing public participation in all levels of district governance including meetings of the Academic Senate;

• Pursue seamless liaison with all local schools to encourage full integration of Long Beach City College into the overall education system.