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Los Angeles County, CA | March 8, 2005 Election |
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Responses to Realtors QuestionnaireBy Susan KaneCandidate for Board Member; Pasadena Unified School District; Seat 3 |
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The Pasadena-Foothills Association of Realtors interviewed all candidates and endorsed my candidacy for re-election. These are my written responses to their questions.Q1. Successes and failures of the school district over the past four years and possible remedies. Successes:
We need to get our budget process and our spending under control. We must move away from rollover budgets to a program- and needs-based, budget-building process that allocates resources to areas of greatest need. We should continue to seek other financial support through foundations, donations, and appropriate grant programs. My spending priorities are in areas that impact academics the most -- competitive teacher and principal salaries to attract and retain the highest quality personnel at those levels; resources for development, implementation, and dissemination of high-quality curriculum and instructional programs; classroom materials to support those programs; support personnel in schools of greatest need to impact adult-to-student ratios and improve out-of-classroom student services. Q3. Increasing parent participation. I propose implementing a program called The Parent Project, founded and based at UCLA. I am seeking ways to pilot this program in the district next year, taking advantage of a contact at Cal State LA who was one of the program's originators. The fundamental objective of the program is to bring parents from diverse ethnic backgrounds together to learn about and share their experiences with the public school system in California. Parents question principals, visit classrooms, delve into assessment practices and standards, all in an interactive and collaborative way. In the end, participants develop action plans to implement change at their schools in a way that will improve the school experience for all children. Q4. Protecting Measure Y modernization. We should continue to fund the deferred maintenance fund at the maximum required level. We should continue to seek funding (e-rate and other state or federal programs) for an adequate security system on all campuses. We should consider slowing down on the final projects in Measure Y to make sure that current projects are not shortchanged and to re-evaluate fund status for possible future needs. We should make sure to set aside an appropriate percentage of new capital funds for ongoing maintenance and improvement needs. Q5. Attracting more Pasadena families to the district. I believe we need to continue to focus on academics and student achievement. We are already having successes at enrolling new students at schools that are showing the biggest improvements in achievement. We need to move beyond language arts and math to a full and robust curriculum in the sciences, social science, and the arts. Importantly, we need to give the kind of attention to middle schools that we have given to elementary schools over the past four years. Middle schools represent the critical transition period for sustaining and building on students' elementary school successes so that they can be fully prepared for a productive high school experience aimed at their post-secondary goals. Moreover, parents currently considering enrollment in a strong elementary school perceive few middle school options and view this as a deterrent to starting their children in PUSD today. We need to reverse that trend. |
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Created from information supplied by the candidate: February 28, 2005 16:17
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