League of Women Voters of California Education Fund
Santa Clara County, CA November 4, 2014 Election
	Fiona Walter Answers Questions Candidate for Board Member; Mountain View-Los Altos Union High 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?

[Apologies - formatting isn't coming through from my word doc. There should be paragraph breaks!]

The budget and its details are truly the best tools for answering this question. The budget is presented three times a year + in June for approval for the next fiscal year, in December for the First Interim check/adjustment, and again in March/April for the Second Interim check/adjustment. All three of these public presentations inform the board and allow the general community to learn how the district's money is being spent.

As a basic aid district, we are heavily dependent on local property tax revenues to support our schools. Additional local funding comes in the form of the Measure A facilities bond (projects are nearing conclusion at this point in time) and contributions from the MVLA Education Foundation. The Locally Controlled Funding Formula (LCFF) determines additional state monies coming to our district while the Locally Controlled Accountability Plan (LCAP) is the governing document for how these funds will be spent.

Currently, 84% of MVLA's budget is being spent on personnel, perfectly within the California School Boards Association recommended range of 80-85%. This leaves the remaining 16% for books and supplies, programming, athletics, extracurriculars, professional development, and other critical items that round out a quality education.

Ensuring that money is being spent appropriately can be determined by linking the various budget line items back to their sources and intended purposes. An example of this would be money received from the Foundation. Foundation monies for 14-15 should be spent on smaller freshmen class sizes, chrome books, and college and career centers (to name a few items). These expenditures are easily confirmed in the budget reports. Discretionary funds should be used to support ongoing district goals as part of the current six year strategic plan (again, easily confirmed by comparing the expense to the goals). The board can and should ask questions about the budget during these major presentations (and in between should something come up) as should the greater community.

The CFO for MVLA is highly qualified for his current position and has been well trained by his recently retired predecessor. In addition, the district has always earned the highest budget ratings available as a result of their annual audits.

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

[Apologies for formatting issues. "One final comment..." below should be a new paragraph.] The short answer to this is yes. The longer answer is that we can be doing more. We currently provide courses with the intention of helping every child be successful in school with the goal being as many options as possible upon graduation. I'll provide a few comments regarding the upper, middle/core, struggling populations, and STEAM:

• Higher achieving students: MVLA offers many AP/Honors courses available to any student at our schools. These course offerings continually expand, most recently adding AP Civics/Econ at MVHS (was already offered at LAHS).
• Middle/core instruction: Electives fall into this category and MVLA is very good about providing a wide variety of options to our students ranging from engineering to photography to music and foreign language. "Regular" versions of AP/Honors courses also fall into this category and here is where I have some concerns. I want to be sure that we are not eliminating strong core offerings when an AP/Honors version of the class is offered. This occurred with regular physics at LAHS this year. While the AP Physics that was added is accessible to algebra/geometry students, not everyone wants an AP Physics class. The added workload can simply be too much in an already loaded schedule.
• Struggling students: These students often include our second language learners as well as special needs children. We have highly trained teachers to help us in these areas along with upwards of 30 specific programs directly targeting second language students. The district is gradually closing the achievement gap between these kids and their native English speaking colleagues. This is an area where even more can be done to impact students. One example is through targeted professional development tools such as EL Achieve.

One final comment centers on STEM education. I am not willing to let go of the arts. We should be saying STEAM. MVLA supports STEAM throughout its programming with amazing high school bands, choirs, photography classes, visual arts classes, and of course Freestyle Academy. I am pleased with the current offerings and do not want to lose these in the future. While I am an engineer by training, I have enough units for a minor in music and was actually on a small music scholarship sponsored by an engineering alumni. If you query current students, arts are why many of them come to school each day and I will continue to support these if elected.

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

Five years from now, I hope that:

• ...the transition to Common Core Instruction has been successfully managed. This transition requires support for our teachers via professional development, collaboration time with each other, and collaboration time with the feeder districts. The district will need to provide time for these three items along the way. It is off to a great start with its four Teachers on Special Assignment directly supporting the four core subject areas.
• ...fiscal solvency has been maintained. After eight years on the elementary board, I have a deep understanding of school district finance. MVLA currently employs conservative budgeting practices to remain financially sound. Weathering financial ups and downs depends upon this careful approach. Budget factors such as enrollment trends, property taxes, and health care expenses all must be carefully accounted for when planning for the future. I want to make sure we are maximizing our limited resources.
• ...academic excellence has permeated all classrooms in the district. As mentioned above, our district is academically solid and continues to add AP and honors courses. We also do a tremendous amount of work with our struggling students. I want to continue to add courses when possible, with the assurance that we are not eliminating strong core offerings.
• ...technology management and enhancement has occurred across all campuses. Much work was done this past summer to improve wifi across both high school campuses. However, there is still a lot to do. Specifics include: the new website (Fall of 2013) is difficult to use, parent forms can be greatly improved, and online purchasing carries a hefty usage fee. Revisiting and learning from the Bring Your Own Device program will also be critical for its future success.

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Responses to questions asked of each candidate are reproduced as submitted to the League.  Candidates' statements are presented as submitted. The answer to each question should be limited to 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 22, 2014 20:22
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