Candidate for
Member, Board of Education; Long Beach Unified School District; District 1

Our children have an absolute right to a quality education in safe and secure environment + one that encourages them to learn, achieve, and excel. Working together, parents, teachers and students of this large and diverse district have accomplished great things in the face of even greater odds.

Despite lean times and drastic cuts in state funding, student achievement has increased. We've set high, rigorous, standards for achievement and our teachers and students not only meet them, they continue to excel and exceed our expectations.

We now have more award winning teachers than ever and we are working to triple the number of nationally certified teachers in our schools by 2010. Our schools are setting record highs for attendance and record lows for suspensions.

Test scores posted by Long Beach students consistently best those scores posted by their peers across the county and state. Attendance is at an all time high, while suspensions are at all time lows.

However, it is my leadership in the fight to restore instrumental and vocal music classes to all middle schools of which I am most proud + and I will continue to make the protection of music and the arts in our schools my top priority.

Student performance involves reading, writing, math and much more. To neglect music and the arts when they not only inspire our children, but when it has been proven they directly contribute to all around scholastic achievement is a serious mistake.

We can be proud of the fact that Long Beach schools are among the finest urban schools in the nation but we still have much work to do. Far too many of our children do not take full advantage of the opportunities we offer and there is still far too much violence in our homes, on our streets and in our schools.

For many of us, the Long Beach we grew up in is far different than the city we know today. Our schools are filled with a vast variety of children with different backgrounds, languages and abilities. For our community to grow and thrive we cannot rest until every child who is willing to work hard and sacrifice receives the finest education we can provide.