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The questions were prepared by the the League of Women Voters of Cupertino/Sunnyvale and asked of all candidates for this office.
See below for questions on
State and Federal Funds,
Instruction,
Future
Click on a name for candidate information. See also more information about this contest.
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1. How would you determine that the schools are using federal, state and local funds wisely and fairly and how would you report your findings to the community?
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Answer from Kern Peng:
Similar to managing any operations, the way to create and maintain an efficient organization is to use data driven processes to identify wastes and prioritize spending by impacts and benefits. On the macro level, our district spending should be inline with nearby districts. On the micro level, district budget should be managed through full understanding of each spending item with thorough justifications and benchmarking with similar items in the past in our district or other districts. With years of experience and knowledge in budgeting, I am trained to identify potential issues and will alert district administrators and the stakeholders in community.
Answer from Gary McCue:
The school board has the legal and fiducial responsibility to monitor all expenses. We do this by ensuring that procedures are followed in the same way that business has control over there expenditures, e.g. separation of responsibilities, signature authority, etc. In addition, we are audited annually and this report is available to the public. There have been no no negative findings but the auditors since I joined the board in 2001.
Answer from Anjali Kausar:
One of the primary roles of the Board of Education is to approve a balanced budget each year. The board reviews each fiscal year's budget throughout the year. In addition, a rolling three year budget forecast is made to evaluate the long term impacts of yearly decisions. Independent external financial audits are conducted yearly and I am proud that the independent audits have had no negative findings and have suggested no alterations to our yearly budgets. Through proactive financial planning, we have been able to responsibly manage our resources without implementing layoffs or devastating instrumental programs for this year. The state budget crisis continues to worsen and we will have a significant impact on our budget for the 2010-11 school year. The Superintendent and staff are making ongoing efforts to communicate with the entire Cupertino Union School District community; thorough budget update presentations to insure clear understanding of the state and district financial position. My experience as a healthcare executive helps me understand these issues in depth and vote for the best option for our students.
Answer from Ben Liao:
I will utilize a budget committee that will examine the school district budget line by line. This committee will meet at least three times a year and will include teachers, school staff, and community members. In order to provide transparency on this important issue, we will release our findings to the public in the yearly town hall meeting. The public is also invited to sit in on school board meetings, where we discuss the budget in further detail.
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2. Are the schools offering instruction appropriate to the diverse educational abilities of all the students?
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Answer from Kern Peng:
From my experience, I realize that a successful career rarely depends on academic skills alone. Many educational development programs (i.e. goal setting, career planning, decision making, time management, stress management, self-motivation, etc) have far greater impact to a person's future success. Teaching students these skills at young ages enables them to handle uncertainties and obstacles effectively and positively in the life journeys ahead of them. I would like to introduce these programs to the children in CUSD. Serving as a school board member, I would hope to speed up the process and impact more children. Many of these programs are supported by volunteers so please join me to help make a difference.
Answer from Gary McCue:
Our schools are offering appropriate instruction. Actually, state API (test) scores are weighted to increase more by moving students from the below basic category to proficient and above. We work with children who are having difficulty individually and in small groups in addition to "mainstream" education and tailor the instruction to meet the individual needs of students. Although I'm not fond of advertising high test scores, they do speak volumes in this case.
Answer from Ben Liao:
Giving appropriate instructions to each student has been a point of emphasis in almost every board meeting and continue to be a goal for the district.
In the last few years, we have provided teachers with student performance from the state, identifying individual student's strengths and weaknesses in math and language arts. This will allow teachers to adjust curriculum to fit the abilities of their students. We have four alternative schools, as well as ELD programs and programs for special needs children.
Answer from Anjali Kausar:
We are a high achieving school district. I am proud that all of our schools achieve over 800 and that 20 achieve over 900 on the API. Neighborhood schools are the backbone of our community and within each school, the staff offers differentiated instruction and enrichment programs to meet the individual needs of students. Enrichment opportunities in art, music, PE, garden, and character building are found at all our schools. Specific resource and special education programs are offered to support those with an array of learning abilities and styles. Cupertino Union School District also has four alternative elementary programs, Faria - a back to basics program, Murdock-Portal - a year round technology school, McAuliffe - a school that focuses on a whole child curriculum, and CLIP - a language immersion program.
Our middle schools offer broad based curriculum to meet the needs of our diverse student population. An array of electives ranging from shop classes to math electives as well as differentiate core classes are designed to help the students at each school achieve their potential. I am very proud of the curriculum we offer our students.
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3. Where do you want the District to be five years from now? What steps should the District take to get there?
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Answer from Ben Liao:
In five years, I hope we will have the 21 century learning initiative truly integrated in every classroom and the whole community will embraced the life long learning concept.
The district is starting to get a plan for 21 century learning beginning with five middle schools, and the plan will be implemented with partnership from Krause center of Innovation and Apple Computer. From schools, we will involve parents, then the community at large.
Answer from Kern Peng:
CUSD is known for its excellent academic performance as demonstrated by the high API scores. However, other school districts are catching up with API scores improved year after year and our district's API scores are leveling off (It just does not have much room for improvement here.) When the other districts' academic performance gets close to CUSD and with our housing costs higher than others, many families will weigh the costs and benefits and choose other districts instead. How can we continue to stand out and maintain the position as the district of choice for parents? We must act now to introduce the programs that I mentioned above to prepare our students to be future leaders. I vision that our district is not only known for its academic performance but also a place where we prepare our students to be self-driven, resourceful, and passionate individuals.
Answer from Gary McCue:
I want the district to be able to continue it's successful academic programs, of course. This also means keeping our excellent teachers and staff. In addition, we need to continue our focus on the whole child, his and her wellbeing and development--it's not all just about academics. Finally, since the first Net Day in 1995, I have advocated for the use of appropriate technology in our schools. This is more important now than ever, because today's child will need the communication, collaboration, research, and creative skills that can only be enabled by current and future technology. I truly hope this does not take five years to come to fruition!
Answer from Anjali Kausar:
Five years from now I would like to have 21st century learning incorporated into our classrooms by integrating technology with everyday learning which will enhance our students skills and enthusiasm to be tomorrow's leaders. I will work towards it by keeping the district's focus on our students and prioritize programs to maintain the outstanding academic achievement of all of our students.
Responses to questions asked of each candidate
are reproduced as submitted to the League.
Candidates' responses are not edited or
corrected by the League.
The order of the candidates is random and changes daily. Candidates who did not respond are not listed on this page.
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League of Women Voters of California Education Fund
