Candidate for
Board Member; Lammersville School District

Why Run for the School Board?

Our family plans are to stay here in Mountain House for a long, long time and I want to have an active role in the development of the school district that my children will be attending.

To quote from two pop culture sources: "Knowledge is Power" ABC's Schoolhouse Rock and "With great power there must also come great responsibility." Stan Lee, Amazing Stories #15 + The first Spiderman story.

I have spent the whole of my adult career in education, acquiring knowledge to be a leader in my profession. With this knowledge comes a responsibility to serve.

How can I impact our district's goal for educational excellence? By knowing what educational excellence really is and how it can be measured. I can help direct discussions on which curriculum, programs or services to choose based on sound educational research and the latest peer reviewed journals on the topic. I am required to keep up on the latest research as part of my responsibility as a program director and faculty member of a Bay Area university's Graduate School of Education. I have taught educational assessment, measurement and research methodology for undergraduates to doctoral students. I know when "proof" of the benefits of one curriculum, program or service over another is "real" or just wishful thinking. I know when statistics have been used appropriately or not. It has been said you can lie with statistics. That is true, but someone who knows statistics and research methodology can spot that lie a mile away.

School improvement need not just be in the area of academics. Citizenship, interpersonal skills, building a strong sense of community and life long friendships are what I will foster as a school board member. As a supervising school psychologist in a nearby district, I have the opportunity to provide direct service to students in developing their social skills through positive interactions in team supporting activities that also stimulate learning. Oh, and they have a blast doing it!

I have been actively working in school districts in the Bay Area for 16 years in some capacity. Much of that time has been spent providing direct services to students. However, consultation with parents, guardians, administrators, teachers, and support staff play a key role in how I work toward bringing any kind of meaningful, sustainable change for the students. It is through this process we all get to share sides of the students that might be hidden or otherwise unnoticed and bring into focus how best to support their needs. I know I always come away from these meetings having learned some new insight into the students I serve.

I am deeply concerned that our district's Crisis Intervention Manual isn't up to date. Crisis Intervention isn't just what to do in a crisis, but how to prevent them as well e.g. school bullying, threat assessment, suicide prevention, etc. Building a safe school environment for our children to learn is fundamental for best practices. I will be leading a workshop at an international conference hosted in Japan on this topic next month. It is an area I have a strong background in, being part of the team that developed Santa Clara Unified School District's Crisis Intervention Manual as well as being the psychological first aid coordinator during some of the district's most trying crises. Regardless if elected or not, I plan on helping the district in any way I can to develop a comprehensive Crisis Intervention Manual. Santa Clara Unified had the vast resources of being able to pull a team of 10 volunteer educators, with experience in Crisis Intervention. It took this team two and a half years to develop it. The process for Lammersville will not happen overnight. New research has shown some of Santa Clara's Manual will need revision and I am certain they are in the process of editing it now. As with most things in education, learning, leads to new knowledge and the need for continuing education.

Striving to improve upon Lammersville's high standards by keeping it grounded in "best practices" that are supported by scholarly research is what I believe I can add to the board. This of course needs to be done under the umbrella of being fiscally responsible and answerable to the residents that are served by our schools. This means having more public informational meetings, postings on the district's webpage and information packets sent home to residents, so that they are kept abreast of what and why board decisions are being made.

It comes down to dollars and sense. The best isn't always the most expensive and sometimes, if you know how to look, it can actually be free. I have experience working on grants and finding resources so that is one more way I can be of service. Fiscal responsibility isn't just accountability. It's more than that. It is really understanding why you are spending money on one program and not another, or taking away money from one program and not another.

The main charge of a board of education is to set the policy, the mission and vision for the education of our children. This mission and vision has to be malleable enough to accommodate the changes in the prevailing winds of our legislators, which come down as state and federal mandates. It has been my experience in education that our legislators know little if anything about education. Although it is often something they all campaign on and express how important it is, they remain ignorant of basic developmental principles and often turn to outside sources (lobbyists) to help them make sense of things. It is my hope that we in the Lammersville school district do not fall into the same trap. Businesses don't just have CEOs running the company but have boards of directors, to offer them knowledgeable counsel, be sure to ask the simple fundamental questions underlying program decisions, because the devil is in the details and ultimately hold the CEO and themselves accountable. How can you do this if you don't know anything about education? A board can hire assistance on how to do finances, and that is why schools have Chief Business Officers or Directors of Business Services. That is why the Financial Crisis Management Assistance Team was created. What a board cannot abdicate is the responsibility for how we should be educating our children. That comes from learning, experience, developing expertise and ultimately training other educational professionals. I believe administrators and those that train educators can offer the guidance from knowledge and experience to aid our growing district overcome educational issues more quickly, effectively and fiscally responsibly. Requiring our school administrators and teachers to be educating the board takes time away from the effective education of our children. The board should be doing that on their own time and I know some current board members do just that and I applaud them for it. However, currently we have no educators on our 5 member board. I hope in this election we can change that.

I promise if elected, to be accessible and raise your concerns at meetings even if I don't agree. You have a right to be heard. You may bring to light an issue that could change everyone's mind, or in the very least, be voicing a concern others may share, which should be addressed, even if the answer may not be to your liking. I also promise if elected, that when I vote, my reasoning will be clear and I will be able to tell you why I voted a particular way, and there will be no passing the buck from me.

Learning is a life long process. I am curious by nature and I love to learn. My love and enthusiasm for learning is something I will bring to the district if elected. I too will be going back to school in FCMAT's Chief Business Officer Mentor Project this spring. FCMAT's (Fiscal Crisis & Management Assistance Team) mission is, "to help California's local educational agencies fulfill their financial and management responsibilities by providing fiscal advice, management assistance, training and other related school business services. The Kern County Superintendent of Schools office exists as the administrative and fiscal agent for FCMAT." The Chief Business Officer Mentor Project, "is a one-year program designed to produce qualified district CBOs." I was honored when Dr. Mark Fulmer, Chief Deputy, Administration and Finance Services, Kern County Superintendent of Schools, offered to extend his nomination of me to this program. I can't wait to share what I learn about what is going on in the inner halls of Sacramento with regard to the State's Education Budget: how what is being discussed might impact us; focusing our efforts on what we as a district need to fight for; and what we can take advantage to squeeze the most out of every penny. I am taking this learning opportunity for self-betterment not because I think it is something our district lacks. We have a Director of Business Services and we don't need me trying to do their job and our superintendent is also well versed in the business issues that go with construction, the bonds needed to secure funding, and the governmental bureaucracy that goes with it. I'm doing it because I believe you can never learn enough, something I hope will not be lost on our students.

I look forward to working with our new Superintendent Dale Hansen, win or lose, to help the district shine not just in the Central Valley, but the state, nationally and even internationally. Thanks again for stopping by and come back soon. I will be updating the website with more information.

Thank you for your time and consideration,

James