Candidate for
Board Member; San Lorenzo Unified School District

There are many issues that must be addressed within Sal Lorenzo Unified School District. One of them is the fact of truancy and how it affects school funding. When a student isn't in class the school loses average daily attendance money's (ADA). It is a good start that the district has hired a person who is in charge of this problem. One idea is that instead of sending suspended students home, there should be a type of in school suspension. The district would still get the ADA and the students would not get to go home for what amounts to a vacation for them. The district also must continue to educate parents to the fact that students cant just be gone for a month or 2.

I am in support of Measure E. The funds generated by it will enable the district to renovate and update science labs in the middle schools and the high schools. It will also enable the district to expand and update our libraries. The list of projects is fairly extensive and will enable the district to make much needed improvements with out having to use money that is better spent on students. As a home owner within the school district I and my wife know how this will affect our taxes, but we also know how badly this is needed for our students. We must continue to try and increase parent involvement. We must become more creative in the ways we try and get parents involved. When you have their students performing or when you have free food you can always get parents to the school. The district must also continue to try and find ways to communicate with parents that are not English speakers. There are aprox. 92 different languages spoken with in our district. There has to be a strong sense of community to better the education of our students. As a wise person once said " It takes a village to raise a child". We must try to make education more relevant to real life for our students. SLzUSD has been working on this already. When you are able to not only capture a students interest in a subject but also teach them in the modality that they learn best in you have won most of the battle. Many different ideas are being looked at with in the district, to include something like a "magnet classroom" where students with the same style of learning can all be taught in the same way. Studies have shown that when you are in this type of learning environment a student learns much more, and at a faster rate.

The district must continue to forge ahead with the technology that has been put in place already and continue to move forward with new technology. The biggest roadblock to that is money. We have to continue to forge partnerships with businesses both big and small, to try and get donations of money and equipment. Also we must continue to search for and get grants to help with this as well. Our students are making progress on the state standardized testing, just not as much or as fast as the state wants. Our teachers are working very hard and it shows in the scores. But, there are many pieces to this puzzle . One of which is that the state ( API ) and the federal ( no child left behind ) programs cant even agree as to what the standards are. If they cant figure it out how are we to? The other big roadblock is that we have a very high transient rate in some of our schools (up to 50%) and the turn over of students who may or may not know the information is changing all the time. So the staff has to continuously play catch up.

As a parent of 2 students who have attended SLzUSD for their whole lives I have a very personal and vested interest in the quality of the education in our schools. Over the last 10 years I have done everything from PTA president to being a board member to being a music booster. During this time my wants and desires haven't changed. The Best Education Possible for our students. We must continue to forge a sense of community with the parents, employees as well as community members so the we all can work together for the students. They are our future and we cant give them any less than 100% of ourselves. My previous term on the board (1996-2000) has shown that I can do the job well. With my dedication, knowledge, experience, commitment, and heart I can lead our district into the future. Although I am in the last spot on the ballot I ALLWAYS put students First.