Candidate for
Board Member; Gilroy Unified School District

1. Academic Excellence

Academic excellence is both my top priority and my vision for the Gilroy Unified School District. With rigorous classroom experiences and equal opportunities for excellence, Gilroy graduates will leave with the skills needed to be successful in college and in the work force.

The highest standards must be set for all factors impacting student achievement, especially those closest to the classroom. These include curriculum, instructional materials, adequate supplies, teachers, teacher support, student preparedness and conduct, parent involvement and support, academic culture, student wellness, and professional development. Everyone involved in the education of our students - teachers, parents, administrators, classified staff, paraprofessionals, school board trustees, and students themselves - must be held accountable.

2. Impacts of No Child Left Behind

No Child Left Behind (NCLB) is the federal act which reflects this nation's commitment to a standards-based curriculum and has been heralded as a way to help disadvantaged children in underperforming schools. It has become the driving force in public school education. Though its underlying premise is a worthy one, there are unintended consequences that need to be addressed.

NCLB is an unfunded mandate. District dollars are stretched thin by the efforts that are needed to comply with NCLB' s requirements and goals of making all students proficient in math and language arts by 2014.

Growth is not rewarded under NCLB, and a school may find itself in "Program Improvement," as has happened to several Gilroy schools even though they have had considerable improvement in their standardized test results. Under NCLB, parents are given the option to transfer to a school in a district that is not in program improvement. One of the most dramatic results of this has been that many families have chosen to move their students to Solorsano Middle School, resulting in a very crowded middle school and staff at the other sites making every effort not to be demoralized by transfers. The District had to pay for additional portable classrooms to accommodate the transfers, using funds that could have been spent elsewhere.

NCLB has also had a major impact on actual instruction. With only so many school days and only so many hours in the school day, there is little flexibility in the daily schedule. There is insufficient time for other important areas of the curriculum, such as physical education, music and science. I believe in teaching to the whole child, and NCLB has made this more difficult to achieve.

3. Teacher Recruitment and Retention

Quality instruction remains the key to student success, and no group is more important to our schools than our teachers. The rest of us have important jobs, but our purpose is to ensure that the teacher is provided every opportunity to do his/her job, namely teach. Over the past few years, the district has shown in many ways how much it values its teaching staff and those who support them, but teaching remains a comparatively low-paying job for a college graduate. We must continue to find ways to make GUSD a district of choice for teachers and improve salaries and benefits.

Of great alarm is the number of teachers nearing retirement, and the great need there will be in the upcoming years to replace them. We are already experiencing difficulties in hiring qualified staff in certain areas, such as special education, math and science. As a society, we need to find ways to make teaching a more attractive profession. In Gilroy, we need to both retain teachers who have chosen GUSD and "grow" teachers within our own community by exploring strategies that will attract students to the teaching profession.