League of Women Voters of California Education Fund
Santa Clara County, CA November 3, 2009 Election
	Gary McCue Answers Questions Candidate for Board Member; Cupertino Union School District

The questions were prepared by the the League of Women Voters of Cupertino/Sunnyvale and asked of all candidates for this office.
Read the answers from all candidates (who have responded).

Questions & Answers

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?

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.

2. Are the schools offering instruction appropriate to the diverse educational abilities of all the students?

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.

3. Where do you want the District to be five years from now? What steps should the District take to get there?

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!

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Responses to questions asked of each candidate are reproduced as submitted to the League.  Candidates' responses are not edited or corrected by the League.

Read the answers from all candidates (who have responded).

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Created from information supplied by the candidate: October 20, 2009 10:48
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