League of Women Voters of California Education Fund
Alameda County, CA June 3, 2008 Election
	Brian Rogers Answers Questions Candidate for School Director; Oakland Unified School District; District 1

The questions were prepared by the the League of Women Voters of Oakland and asked of all candidates for this office.
Read the answers from all candidates (who have responded).

Questions & Answers

1. How do you assess truancy in the School District; what changes would you advocate?

Truancy is an extremely important issue for the Oakland Unified School District. If students are not in school, they cannnot learn. Also, if students are not in school, the district suffers financially. Therefore, we must find ways to encourage students to stay in school. I believe that putting an emphasis on bringning Arts and Music back into schools is one way that we can do this. We must continue to offer electives that are going to keep students engaged in their own learning. We also need to support our teachers so that the curriculum and learning plans that they are teaching are relevant and fresh for the students. Finally, I believe that truancy is a community effort. We need to be sure that everyone - parents, family members, business owners, school security officers, Oakland police - is working together to ensure that kids are staying on campus and are attending class.

2. What is your opinion of the District's School Success program?

I believe that the Oakland Unified School District Expect Success effort is beginning to show some positive results. OUSD has had the largest amount of API growth in California over the past three years (59 Points). OUSD has also increased the rate of students graduating prepared to enroll in a CSU or UC from 20.1% to 37.1% in the last three years. In my work with the district, I have seen a more focused, accountible district emerge. I beleive that this is in large part to the School Success program. That all being said, I beleive that we still have a tremendous amount of work to do - Expect Success has just begun the positive momentum.

3. How might the School District work more effectively with the City?

I would like to see a partnership between the City and the School District that helps to create wrap around services for all students. The City and the District should be finding ways to create programs after school that integrate with what is going on in school. For example, the City of Oakland has a great deal of funding being given out to youth development groups through the Oakland Fund for Children and Youth. I would like to see much more coordination between the OFCY grantees and the Oakland Unified School District so that we can be sure that an all day, whole child approach to education and development can be created for every single Oakland student.

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Responses to questions asked of each candidate are reproduced as submitted to the League.  Candidates' answers are presented as submitted.

Read the answers from all candidates (who have responded).

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Created from information supplied by the candidate: April 9, 2008 08:01
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