Candidate for
Governing Board Member; Culver City Unified School District

PROGRAMS & POLICIES

TO MAKE OUR SCHOOLS THE BEST IN THE STATE

Financing: While facing a $3 million deficit it is quite evident that it is impossible to implement programs without proper planning and funding.

The Federal Govt. has billions of dollars available in Grant Money. CCUSD needs to hire a grant writer to capture some of this money for school programs.

CCUSD spends over $600,000.00 for utilities. We can save this money and actually sell electricity to the power companies if we rent out the roofs at our schools to solar energy companies. This is how many schools in Germany pay for their electricity.

There is a potential of millions of dollars in oil royalties for the city and the CCUSD if environmentally safe drilling is allowed from the oil fields that were established in 1924 above Culver City.

Other funding ideas include recycling programs, local business and community support.

Language Arts Programs: Culver City has an excellent Spanish and Japanese immersion program at El Marino elementary. I will expand that program through grades 6-12. In addition, I propose that we partner with Rosetta Stone language teaching programs that offer individual students a wide selection of 30 languages which include Chinese, French, German, Arabic, Farsi, Spanish, Japanese, Russian...

INTERNSHIP Programs: CCUSD and local businesses can team up to offer Internship Programs to Students. For example, theories learned in school such as computer programming could be applied into real world situations by working in the IT department of a business .

Therapy Dog Program: There are volunteer groups that can come to campus to use therapy dogs to help some special needs kids.

Elimination of Bureaucracy and Red Tape Program: Teachers have complained to me about various bureaucratic forms and procedures they are required to file that prevent them from doing a good job teaching. I will seek to eliminate unnecessary bureaucratic policies and procedures.

Detention and Security Programs: There will be a zero tolerance for bullying, grafitti tagging,and class disruptions. Students violating these rules will be asked to do restitution which would include cleaning bathrooms and picking up trash.

Hold Back Program: If a student in the 10th grade cannot multiply 8 x 7 he has no business being in an Algebra class. It is frustrating for him and disruptive and unfair to other students in a class that need to learn. Students will be held back and helped with their learning problems before moving up to the next level.

Increase AP classes; I will make more AP classes available for students and include field trips to Universities.

Foreign Exchange Student Program; Increase cultural contacts with other countries and a great learning experience for students.

Please send donations to: ROBERT ZIRGULIS FOR CULVER CITY SCHOOL BOARD 2009 (1320885) , 4241 Baldwin Ave. Culver City, Ca. 90232