Candidate for
Board of Education; Santa Monica-Malibu Unified School District

I am very interested in early childhood and elementary school numeracy and verbal literacy programs as a way of boosting academic excellence and addressing the achievement gap. I want to help the Board and the School District be more proactive in reaching out to and cooperating openly and transparently with parents, teachers, our broader community, civic organizations, and our two City Councils. And I believe that my experience on several high-level executive search committees at the University (including the committee that chose the new UC system-wide President and the search committee for UC Riverside's new Chancellor) will be helpful as the District chooses its new Superintendent, probably the single-most important thing the Board can do. Among my goals as a school board member are to:

• Push the District to commit to transparency and increased public communication
• Focus on verbal, written, and numerical literacy and "multiple pathways" / expand elementary reading programs
• Address the achievement gap by promoting equity and access so that all our kids have a chance to shine regardless of background
• Recruit a superintendent of the highest caliber, then empower him/her to lead
• Stem teacher attrition / push to recruit and retain top-flight teachers, boost faculty morale, and better empower teachers on educational policy-making and school governance matters
• Push for academic excellence in our schools while working to strengthen the District's finances
• Push for more engaged outreach to government, civic groups, business, and alumni
• Help mold a more service-oriented School District that treats parents as partners
• Protect hard-working teachers and workers struggling to live in our community
• Expand parent-child reading programs at the elementary school level
• Bring focus to healthier eating and increasing exercise for our children
• Work in a collaborative, respectful, and caring way to improve our special education program
• Expand District partnerships with higher education--SMC, UCLA, and beyond
• Protect music, arts, athletics, early-childhood, and child care programs and our libraries
• Push for more environmentally-sustainable practices
• Take a holistic approach to the interplay between health care, housing, youth violence, and disparity
• Work to improve relations between Santa Monica and Malibu
• Promote greater community involvement and volunteerism for businesses and retirees in our schools