League of Women Voters of California Education Fund
Santa Clara County, CA November 6, 2007 Election
	Claude Ezran Answers Questions Candidate for Board Member; Palo Alto Unified School District

The questions were prepared by the the League of Women Voters of Palo Alto and asked of all candidates for this office.
Read the answers from all candidates (who have responded).

Questions & Answers

1. What problems do you see facing the school district and how do you propose to address them?

The most pressing issues are enrollment growth and facilities planning. Over the past six years enrollment has grown consistently by 2% a year. Many of our schools are at full capacity. I will work collaboratively with the Board, the new Superintendent and the community to develop a long-term vision for school sites, and a roadmap on how to get there over the next 10-15 years. We also need to restore a sense of trust in the School Board leadership. I will use my business experience managing people, project teams and budgets to promote teamwork on the Board and help it function with great effectiveness.

2. What steps need to be taken to foster better communication among the school board, superintendent's office, and local school management?

If I had been on the Board when the management crisis happened, I would have talked to the local school management immediately in order to defuse the situation. I will encourage the Board to operate more at the leadership and policy level and focus less on operational details. It is also important to have common goals that are clearly understood and shared by everybody. I will work with my colleagues on the Board to improve the strategic planning process with fewer, clearer and more measurable objectives. Finally, I will encourage transparency in the decision making process.

3. What approaches would you support to help all students achieve their educational goals, whether they are college bound or not?

It is critical to our future in California that we have a well-educated workforce and population. Therefore, we need to support all our children, not just the ones who are college bound. Gunn and Paly are heavily focused on college admission, but we might soon need to plan for the opening of a third (smaller) high school; this will present an excellent opportunity to offer alternative programs such as education in the arts, or a preparation to vocational education. We also need to reinforce our efforts to close the achievement gap by offering optional tutoring classes and developing a mentoring program.

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Responses to questions asked of each candidate are reproduced as submitted to the League.  Candidates in this race must limit their answers to 300 words total so that a paper Voters Guide may be published by LWV Palo Alto. After 8 p.m. on Sept. 12 word limits will no longer apply. Candidates' responses are not edited or corrected by the League.

Read the answers from all candidates (who have responded).

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Created from information supplied by the candidate: October 22, 2007 12:01
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