Candidate for
Board Member; Chula Vista Elementary School District; Seat 5

Political Philosophy

I whole heartedly support adequate, long-term funding to accommodate California's accelerating student enrollment.

I whole heartedly support bond measures for deferred maintenance and new school construction to relieve overcrowding and to reduce class sizes.

I do not support school voucher programs because they take away precious little money that is greatly needed by our public schools.

I do support collective bargaining rights for employees at charter schools.

I strongly believe in involving employees, through their union, in coming up with creative ideas to improve the work place (employee empowerment).

I do not support the concept of privatization because we need to maintain and improve current wages and current health and welfare benefits for the current employees of the school district. Privatization would either displace those employees or force them to work for a lower wage and without proper health and welfare benefits.

I strongly support improving the economic conditions and job security of the people who work in the Chula Vista Elementary School District.

I strongly believe that it would be in our districts best interest to support equal pay and pro-rated benefits for part-time and temporary employees because they, in turn, would be more motivated to work more productively at their jobs.

I strongly believe that the teaching staff and our classified staff should be treated equally in salary negotiations.

Psychological disabilities are not always treated in the same way as physical disabilities. Yet despite the fact that many psychological disabilities are now commonly understood to be serious and can be judged on specific criteria, school district employees that suffer from these ailments cannot receive adequate disability benefits. I strongly support parity between psychological and physical disability benefits.

California's new workplace standard to prevent repetitive motion injuries leads the nation in combating one of the fastest growing occupational illnesses to afflict workers in a variety of occupations. I believe that strong ergonomic standards should be established to protect workers from repetitive motion injuries.

In addition, I strongly support the creation of a worker health and safety training program, possibly independent of the employer, and a requirement that each major facility of an employer must have at least one trained worker safety representative.