Candidate for
Board Member; Ventura Unified School District

Our children and teachers deserve school board members who are willing to spend the time and energy doing everything they can to maximize resources and opportunities for our school district.

We need vocal, visible and accessible champions of public education who are willing to represent this school district not only at the local level but at the state level as well.

We need school board members who have demonstrated an ability to get things done and to effectively collaborate with parents, teachers, students, administration, and the community at large.

For the past nine years, as a parent volunteer and a lawyer, I have been doing all of these things for our school district:

• As a five year board member with the Ventura Education Partnership and GrantSmart Committee member, I have worked to bring resources and opportunities into our classrooms.
• As a founding member of Save Our Schools, I have been a vocal and visible champion of public education in our community and have partnered with parents, teachers, administration and the community to help save programs threatened due to budget cuts.
• As a six year VUSD Parent Advisory Committee member, I meet monthly with the Superintendent and have become educated about the school district and the many issues facing our diverse student population.
• As a parent who is concerned about the environment in which all of our children are learning, I co-authored a policy for the district that protects children from exposure to toxic chemicals and I united parents and the community to protect children from pesticide drift. This work led to statewide protection for California's school children.

My efforts, thus, demonstrate a proven track record of getting things done and of effectively advocating for policies and statewide legislation that benefit all of our children.

It is the next logical step that I run for School Board.

If elected,
1. I will continue to work hard to bring resources into our classrooms; I will use my skills as a lawyer to research the issues and look at other school districts and models that have successfully accomplished maximization of resources. We should hire full time grant writers who will allow our school district to be first in line for foundational and other grants.
2. Using my legal background, I will advocate at the state level with the California School Board Association to push for education reform - we must protect education funding, reduce unnecessary education bureaucracy, and advocate for more local control of state funds.
3. I will promote academic excellence through effective teacher and staff support; their influence in our children's lives is immeasurable and they deserve nothing less than our full respect and support. We must provide them with competitive salaries and supply them with the resources they need to educate our students.
4. I will continue to advocate for strong and effective policies that address issues such as health, nutrition, and the arts. In addition, we should promote policies that focus on environmental stewardship and social responsibility.