League of Women Voters of California Education Fund
Santa Clara County, CA November 6, 2012 Election
	Steven "Steve" Taglio Answers Questions Candidate for Board Member; Los Altos School District

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

Questions & Answers

1. How would you determine that the schools are using federal, state and local funds wisely and fairly and how would you report your findings to the community?

LASD financial reporting has received annual commendations for its budgeting and reporting practices. These reports and processes provide the foundation for District monetary tracking. The District also gets input from the Citizen's Committee on Finance, which provides guidance on specific budget issues and long-term projections/budget assumptions. Per California regulation, the financial records for the District are audited annually. The board conducts monthly public financial reviews and copies of current budget documents are available on the District's web site and at the main office.

LASD receives less than 10% of its funding from federal or state sources. In the 2012/13 budget, the District has set aside the bulk of projected state revenues ($2 million) as pending per guidance from the CA State Budget Office in anticipation of propositions on the November ballot initiatives. If either Proposition 30 or 38 are passed, the District can move these funds into the general fund.

25% of LASD funding comes from local sources. LAEF alone provides approximately equivalent funding for District programs as state and federal sources. These funds are targeted toward specific programs and reported back to LAEF annually. Parcel tax revenues, which make up the next largest pool of local funding, are not allocated to specific programs and are tracked via the standard financial reporting.

2. Are the schools offering instruction appropriate to the diverse educational abilities of all the students?

LASD has three identifiable populations having specific educational instruction requirements. Two of the three have documented track records of successful delivery with either testing or evaluation data to document progress.

Special Needs: Special needs learning program has been refined over the years to provide the best blend of mainstream and individual instruction. Data on this population continue to show year-over-year improvement of student achievement in core curriculum.

English Language Learners: ELL program has been redesigned in the last few years. Three of our seven K-6 campuses support the majority of these students. The goal of the program is to move them to fluency before they enter the Junior High. There is continued support at the Junior High level for those needing additional support and new students. Last year, the District piloted a new model of ELL delivery and saw significant improvement in student achievement year-over-year. Since the population is relatively small, we are able to monitor students on a 1:1 basis, further supporting student success.

Economically Disadvantaged: This is a group the District has started monitoring over the last few years. Some overlap in populations does occur with the groups above. Again, the number of students in this group is sufficiently small that 1:1 support is available.

3. Where do you want the District to be five years from now? What steps should the District take to get there?

The last 5 years have seen evolutions in education program delivery. New math and writing curriculum delivery are producing measurable results. We need to continue this evolution in delivery to other aspects of the program, such as Science. The Living Garden curriculum helps support hands-on science delivery - we should be pursuing other ways to make science interesting and accessible. Introduction of Common Core Standards should be fully successfully implemented. We will need to continue looking at ways to support that implementation with program definition and faculty training to ensure successful adoption for both staff and students.

Over the last 10 years, LASD student population has grown approx. ten percent. With current urban development plans increasing housing density in the northern part of the district, we need to continue to look at ways to deliver services to this growing population. The District is launching a committee representing the key stakeholders to look at ways to support this growth without creating additional traffic/safety issues. Part of dealing with this issue will be resolution of the 10 campuses on 9 sites issue. We need to clarify the options and take that case to the community. This can only be done with full support from all parties involved in the process.

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Responses to questions asked of each candidate are reproduced as submitted to the League.  Candidates' statements are presented as submitted. Please answer each question in no more than 400 words. Direct references to opponents are not permitted.

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

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Created from information supplied by the candidate: October 1, 2012 10:43
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