Candidate for
Board Member; Gilroy Unified School District

I was born in San Francisco and served in the US Marine Corps. I earned my Bachelor of Science degree from the University of San Francisco. I celebrated my 25th anniversary with IBM and Hitachi this year, and I work as a Senior Software Engineer and IT Project Manager.

My wife and I have been married for 35 years and have lived in Gilroy for 23 years. We raised six children who attended Gilroy schools. We have always supported local schools and the arts, and we continue to participate in fund raising activities. We have four grandchildren; Lucas started Kindergarten in Gilroy Unified this fall, and Marianna will start next year.

I worked with the Academic Alliance in 2002 in a successful bid to re-instate the Honors Program at the GHS and it was through that activity that I decided to run for -- and eventually win a seat on the Gilroy Board of Education.

The Board that I joined in 2002 had been focused on a comprehensive and much needed facilities improvement plan which included the planning of a second high school. The Board agendas were full, but there was little time actually devoted to a deep evaluation of the effectiveness of curriculum and instruction -- even though improvement of academic achievement was identified as a Board priority. As a Freshman Board member, I led an effort to allocate more time at Board of Education meetings to focus on the District's academic programs. Some of my proposals met resistance from the Board of four years ago; however the Superintendent had similar designs and actively supported the Board's evolution in becoming more focused on academic performance. The election two years ago brought two new faces to the Board + who also had strong interests in academic performance and strengthening curriculum and instruction.

Four years ago, I proposed that the Board schedule an additional meeting every month to focus solely on curriculum and instruction. My proposal was initially resisted, but eventually adopted. I also developed a Board meeting feedback process to drive alignment of the agenda with our stated priorities; this was adopted by the Board and is in use today.

I developed a Board self-evaluation process based on publications from the California and National School Board Associations. We exercise that process during Board retreats and we use the output to help us understand the scope of our responsibilities and to improve our working together as a governance team.

In 2003, I championed the adoption of a textbook based, English curriculum at GHS. Prior to that, Language Arts consisted of a novel based curriculum with no defined scope and sequence.

I proposed the creation of parent and teacher opinion surveys. I provided District staff with examples of surveys that other Districts used and provided feedback on the questions that would be used in our District.

I have been a strong voice for parent involvement -- as parent involvement has been shown to be a strong predictor of student success. I enthusiastically encouraged the formation of a standing Superintendent-Parent Advisory Committee to foster direct, two-way communication between parent leaders and the Superintendent. I have attended many of the meetings over the last three years.

In a controversial non-reelection of a teacher, my sole dissenting vote served as catalyst in the development of an improved, disciplined and documented staff evaluation process.

I have been a strong advocate for the District's accountability process and applaud the creation of the Community Accountability Task Force. This is new program and there have been bumps in the road. However, I believe the process will drive significant gains in student performance.