Candidate for
School Board Member; Jefferson Elementary School District

Increase student enrollment:

In order to increase enrollment within our district we need to offer programs that families need or want. Such as providing either district ran centers or creating opportunities to develop partnerships within our community to open a center on a school site property. This can be an opportunity for the Jefferson Elementary School District to increase enrollment by offering affordable childcare for the families that may not qualify for State Preschool. This will give families an option to keep their children close to home and near siblings that may already be in our district's schools. This also provides an opportunity for the Kindergarten teachers to form partnerships with the preschool staff to work to help prepare the children to meet the state requirements for kindergarten.

Introduce programs to prepare our children for college:

One of the requirements to enter the University of California is completion of two years of a foreign language. Why should our children have to wait until high school to learn or even improve on a foreign language? Starting them off in middle school will make the transition to a high school level class smoother and would help set them up for success. The sooner we can prepare our children for college the better.

Attract and keep highly qualified teachers:

As we all know living in the Bay Area isn't cheap and if we can't provide for our teachers then we can't expect them to stay with our district. Our teachers need to be treated with respect and be compensated for the services they provide. This includes affordable healthcare that not only provides for them, but also allows them to provide for their families. Other districts should be losing teachers to ours and not the other way around.