Candidate for
Board Member; San Carlos School District

Vision and Communication

As a member of the board of trustees, my first action will be to encourage the board to revisit the district's strategic plan and to discuss its vision. Why? At a school board meeting last year, there was a heated discussion surrounding the district's vision, where several school board members expressed their views. When talking with parents later, one father suggested that although the board of trustees seemed to feel strongly about the district's vision, they were not able to articulate it that night. Over the next several weeks, I began to wonder if the school board members really agreed on the vision. If one listened carefully that night, it appeared the trustees were saying different things. One trustee talked about individual schools and site control. Another mentioned doing more with little money. The discussion was long, but the messages didn't seem to be unified.

There is a clear mission statement associated with the district's strategic plan. It's a well-written plan, but I would argue that it has one fatal flaw. It was written before the $1.8 million budget deficit in 2003. I believe a healthy board is composed of people with different skills and talents. However, there cannot be different opinions on the vision of the district. The vision must be strong and clear during this challenging time for California's public schools. I will work hard to create a vision that includes moving up the tiers of a newly created district pyramid. Parents, administrators, teachers and community members want more for students. They want to be assured that the programs in place now will not be at risk. They also hope to add more to the district's current offerings.

I believe we should improve communication within the district and in the broader community. My background as a sales and marketing professional will help as we create a new form of communication for parents and others. Parents of school-aged children are busy. Many don't have time to attend school board meetings, read the district newsletter or attend the superintendent's coffee meetings. So we need to communicate in other ways to the parent community. First, we should use Topica, district newsletters and community meetings in a more effective way to disburse information. Topica is now the most common tool for communication. I will work to create a district communication tool that represents the voice of the entire school board. Second, we should be communicating more frequently to the broader community. Recently forwarded to me was a brilliant community report created by a Bay Area school district that celebrates what the school district can be proud of. The report is used to keep the taxpayers informed on how the parcel tax and bond money have been used as well as thank the taxpayers for their support of the local schools. I'd like to see a similar communication piece created for San Carlos. Third, I want to create a community advisory board. An active board will help with district communication and decisions that need to be made. We have truly talented parents and community members able and willing to help the district. It's so important to have civic engagement, and this can be accomplished through an active advisory body.

Fiscal Responsibility

My track record on the San Carlos Educational Foundation shows that I'm fiscally responsible. I worked to protect our donors' gifts to the foundation by keeping expenses as low as possible. Under my leadership, the SCEF board worked diligently to keep its expenses in line. Through generous underwriting by community members, most of the board's major communication pieces were entirely donated or severely discounted. I also helped to create an oversight body for the 2004-2005 Spring Fling event. Event leaders were asked to take extra care in securing competitive bids, reviewing budgets and monitoring expenses. I believe local organizations must have the highest possible standards when representing donors and taxpayers.

I believe the current school board members have worked well to create a more transparent district budget, and I'm grateful to them. I also believe the work on the district pyramid will help the parent community understand the current budget better.

Educational Excellence

Educational excellence is simple: It means more money NOW. We must work to be creative to find additional ways to bring more dollars to the school district. I'm proud of the work that has been done to improve the fundraising in this community, but we've only just begun. We must continue to fine-tune our effort to bring more private money to public schools. I believe the SCEF should be a $500,000-to-$800,000 foundation, and this goal can be reached by continuing to build the PTA-SCEF partnership. The school board needs to carefully monitor the fundraising progress in this district, and this needs to be part of the district's strategic plan. I would like to implement a more solid partnership between the board of trustees and the fundraising leaders in this district. I would also like to see more fundraising discussion and education at school board meetings.

Following is an example of what San Carlos students are not receiving in their school experience. I'm a parent in this district with children now enrolled in the first and sixth grades. A few days ago, I registered my oldest son at Tierra Linda Middle School and picked up his class assignments. Later that evening, I attended a dinner party at a friend's home in Menlo Park. Her son is also 11 and attends the Los Lomitas School District's public middle school. Her son's class list was posted on the refrigerator. I glanced at it and noticed her son was enrolled in High Math. I then asked my friend about the class sizes of the sixth graders, and she told me they max out at 24 students. This troubled me for the rest of the evening. Her son has a smaller class and advanced math. There are some who say we must not compare our district to other districts, but I say the opposite is true. We shouldn't have to settle for less but, instead, find creative ways to get what we want and need in this district for our children to enroll in any high school they wish, be it public or private.

In addition to private fundraising, I also believe we should continue to seek ways to maximize funding from the State. With constantly changing tax bases in a desirable community like San Carlos, it's possible we can change our district's designation from a revenue limit district to a basic aid district. Our neighbors in Belmont receive $2,000 more per child each year simply because they are basic aid. Think how much more that could buy our school with that additional money. Our board of trustees needs to study the issue to weigh the pros and cons of changing our status and they should do it immediately.

And in a similar vein, I believe we should have a very aggressive political advocacy effort here to lobby Sacramento and it should be organized through the PTA's. As long as I've been in this district there has not been an active advocacy campaign. A few months ago the California State PTA, organized a Caravan for Kids Campaign and hundreds of parents went to Sacramento. Our district was not a part of that effort. The California School Board Association, asked all local school districts to pass a resolution in support of Prop. 98 funding. Our district is not represented on the list now published by that organization. I believe we are currently disconnected from the statewide advocacy efforts now underway.

I have already begun advocacy discussions with several PTA presidents and I have recently organized an advocacy training session for the October PTA Coordinating Council meeting. I have a track record of "going for more". As a school board member, I will fight hard for additional state funding for our children.