STATEMENT OF PURPOSE

By Joel S. Wyenn

When an investigation is required into a matter of alleged wrong doing on the part of a teacher or administrator, involved students and their parents in addition to other relevant witnesses must be contacted and interviewed and that information must be reviewed. Receiving only the information provided by the party accused of the alleged wrong doing and their supervisor, which I found to be the current practice, does not provide enough information to use as the basis for taking or not taking action.

We need to investigate the possibility of creating a homework period at the end of the school day so students may be able to complete their homework at school. In addition the creation of a program for parents to assist their children with their homework using a parent subject guide.

I believe it would be significant to develop a Life Skills seminar for all students starting in middle and completing in high school. The purpose of the program is to offer a foundation of real life skills for future use. The seminars would include such topics as how to obtain health care for you and your family, how to rent or buy a place to live, how to manage a bank account, how and why to provide good nutrition to you and your family, what are your civil legal rights and how to protect them, how not to violate the law, what are your legal rights in the workplace, stopping spousal and significant-other mental and physical abuse, stopping child abuse, how to purchase an automobile, how to establish and use credit wisely, how to understand world events as they relate to you, what voting means and how it works, how to obtain a job, how to find help when you need it and if necessary, how the government assisted benefits programs work.

The sports programs in both the middle and high schools need oversight in their set up, management and selection of coaching staff. Our sports programs should be set up to include students and not exclude them. Coaching Staff should never run their teams as if they were not accountable to anyone. The cost to participate in sports in the high schools is prohibitive and clearly excludes some students.

The costs for these programs should have outside funding and we need to find those sources in order to reduce the burden on the students and their families.

It should never be the practice, as it currently is, for the Board of Education to discourage the identification of a person or persons who a public speaker wishes to identify and make a negative statement about (please see Baca vs. Moreno Valley Unified School District). The Board should encourage free and open speech within the bounds of good taste and with absolute regard for defamation of character. If the speaker is factually wrong in what they are expressing, he or she will lose the argument and find themself without support for their cause.

We need to create a program within the school system that gives as many of the students as possible, 'a reason' why not to use illegal drugs or alcohol. It is my firm belief based upon conducting thousands of pre-employment background interviews for private sector jobs, jobs within law enforcement and the fire fighting service, that kids don't use illegal drugs or alcohol if they have 'a reason' not to. Those kids who do not have 'this reason' continue to use illegal drugs or alcohol and suffer the consequences.

I made the decision to run for the position of Board Member because I believe the present Board has not been as effective as it could be. If elected I will raise my voice to insure that the students' best interests are considered with plain speech and not legalese. I look forward to your comments on issues important to you. If you have confidence that I will perform at my very best I ask you to vote for me, Joel S. Wyenn, for Board of Education. Thank you.