Candidate for
Governing Board Member; El Dorado Union High School District

First, I believe strongly in public education. My daughters both attended public schools from Kindergarten to Grade 12, and thanks to Buckeye's and EDUHSD's teachers, administrators, and classified staff, obtained an excellent and caring education. I believe that a public school board member has a duty to advocate for and protect public education, and to make it the best it can be. In EDUHSD, we have achieved the goal of creating an excellent public school district; one of the best in the state. Our current Board deserves considerable credit for creating and nurturing this excellent school district.

I also believe strongly in the value of experience and knowledge; you would not hire a doctor without a medical degree to perform surgery, or a lawyer who never went to law school to protect you legally, and you should not hire a person without experience to manage the complex and vital $65 million dollar education delivery business called the El Dorado Union High School District. I believe that experience, maturity, and knowledge are critical to intelligently and effectively manage a school district, and particularly one that has a record of proven excellence like the El Dorado Union High School District. Those without such experience and maturity may believe they can provide simplistic solutions to difficult problems, but I believe that the future of our children should not be trusted to those who do not have the experience and knowledge to manage an endeavor as complex as a high school district. Our ability as Board Members to properly manage the District's academic, fiscal, and facilities programs is critical to maintaining and accelerating the excellence that our community has come to expect in the high schools of the El Dorado Union High School District.

Personally, I have proved throughout my lengthy, sixteen year service as a school Board member that I can devise intelligent and creative solutions to difficult issues that meet the needs and interests of our students, our staff, and our community. I strongly believe in tolerance and in listening to what people say, rather than trying to forcing every situation into a preconceived ideological solution. I believe that people of good will can create new and better solutions to problems through reason. I think that solutions to school district issues need to be based on facts and information, coupled with and informed by a knowledge of the extremely complex world that is California school district governance.

I strongly believe in parental involvement in their childrens' education; educational research shows that high parental involvement is the strongest indicator of student success. Throughout my service as a school board member, first at Buckeye and now at EDUHSD, I have promoted, encouraged, and honored parental input. My telephone number has always been listed in the phone book, so that parents could reach me with comments or concerns, and I have intervened personally with school district administrators on countless occasions to assist parents who were concerned that the needs of their children were not being met by the school district. This is because I believe that nothing is more important than assuring that no student "falls through the cracks."

I am also strongly fiscally conservative. I believe in balanced budgets and managing programs so that they are always safely within their monetary means. School district fiscal management in California is a highly intricate business, in which one must be aware of a multitude of state and federal requirements; I am very conversant with these requirements, and with the intricate structure of California school finance, not only because of my sixteen years of Board service, but also because of my work as an education attorney. I represent school districts in negotiating labor contracts with employee unions, and with all other aspects of their educational and financial programs. I thus have the knowledge to help assure that our District's financial position is fiscally sound.

Providing educational leadership as an EDUHSD board member is a difficult and complex job, requiring maturity, experience, and knowledge. My experiences match these requirements and make me qualified to continue to provide leadership to the District.

Our students need an excellent education to face the challenges of an increasingly complex world. I am deeply committed to educational excellence in the El Dorado Union High School District, and I promise to work hard and use all my skills and experience to make our high schools the best they can be. I look forward to the challenge of continuing to lead EDUHSD, and I ask for your support.