Candidate for
School Director; West Chester Area School District

We must upgrade our curriculum, educate and support our teachers, and excite students about learning. We must do this wisely and judiciously so as not to financially overburden the community.

Over the course of the past 5 years our district has eliminated curriculum supervisors, which is counterproductive to strengthening education. The role of the curriculum supervisor is to be responsible for developing strong curriculum and staff development. This effort is vital to ensure that our students are competitive once they graduate. Curriculum must be uniform across our district so that each student, regardless of which school they attend, receives the same high quality education. As a component of this our teachers must be appropriately developed so that they understand the requirements of the curriculum and are skilled in its teaching. These are two of the responsibilities of the Curriculum Supervisor.

Both science and technology are critical to future opportunities for our students and for our country's economic growth. In addition, scientific literacy is important to understand and assess rapidly evolving technologies and to evaluate their risk and impact. The US is slipping in educational metrics compared to other nations, especially in science and technology; it is crucial that we take steps to improve science education. Finally the state of Pennsylvania will require all students to be assessed in science for proficiency. Science assessments began in the 2007-2008 school year for students in grades 4, 8, and 11. It is important that our students be competitive.

Our community is a valuable resource for our children's education. As a board member I would advocate for efforts to encourage and support community involvement. Two obvious opportunities in which to accomplish this are by engaging our community in mentoring and in establishing local technology or industry support for programs. Furthermore, acknowledging the importance of and encouraging parental and family involvement in education is also crucial.

The Board and its Administration must also listen to the community at large. Education occurs well beyond the walls of our schools. While it is critical that our curriculum be strong in order to best prepare all of our students to succeed when they graduate, curriculum alone will not allow us to achieve the level of excellence that we can achieve as a community. Studies* ("Outliers" Malcolm Gladwell) have shown that success is not achieved solely on the basis of individual endeavors. It is a result of providing opportunities, encouragement and enthusiasm and dedication. We must work as a whole to provide the best possible education for each and every one of our students.

Finally, we are experiencing economic turmoil not seen since the Great Depression. It impacts our schools in that there is less revenue to support them. It is therefore imperative that we be both frugal and creative in how we spend and how we fund our initiatives. We must take the same care with the district's money as we would with our own money.