Orinda News October 2010 Issue Q&A

By Tyson Krumholz

Basis of Q&A: Q1. Budget and Orinda's schools top priorities for the school district? Q2. School districts in the Bay Area declining enrollments. How to dealwith this situation? Q3. The current fiscal crisis and abandonment of smaller class sizes. Support such a move? Q4. What are your qualifications that would make you an effective school board member?

Retention, support and recruitment of the highest quality teachers must be the top priority of OUSD. The District administration should be responsive, highly efficient, and focused on delivery of the BEST curriculum for all Orinda's students. The District administration should work with the community to exhaustively pursue all available grants and funding opportunities in order to retain and bolster existing programs such as, technology, science, library, art, music and PE.

Orinda must maintain small class sizes. Empowerment of teachers by District and site leadership is a key first step in promotion of teaching methods that actively encourage our children to think creatively, independently and collaboratively. The earlier students develop their abilities to solve critical problems and utilize all available resources, the greater the chances are for their success in any future pursuits.

Review of District efficiency in operations is in order prior to any elimination of student programs. Handling additional fiscal losses will require the District to work with the new Board to examine the entire OUSD's educational system and structure, restricting elimination based cuts and instead trimming where appropriate. A successful Board should reserve any cutting for non-critical studies and consultant exercises, not our children's education.

I believe the Board and the District Administration must thoroughly understand the collective district needs and prioritize those that directly impact the students. Children and teachers are my first priority.

Q2. School districts across the Bay Area, including Orinda, are seeing declining enrollments. This decline often has a disproportionately adverse effect on school districts struggling to keep programs whole. How would you propose dealing with this situation?

I invite readers to query California Department of Education's "Dataquest", http://www.cde.ca.gov, to review K-8 enrollment prior to assuming this premise is fact. Final 2009-2010 enrollment posts mid-September 2010. California school districts have until this October to compile and submit their 2010-2011 enrollment for state review.

2005 - 2008 enrollment across six Bay Area counties, including Contra Costa, Alameda, San Francisco, Marin, San Mateo and Santa Clara actually increased by approximately 1.7%. In my recent discussions with various Bay Area County District officials, I have learned that 2009-2010 enrollment may remain steady or slightly increase.

In actuality, 2005-2010 OUSD enrollment increased approximately 0.87%.

At one of several meetings I attended over these past three years, the Board approved a contract request from the Administration for a report of Orinda's demographics to analyze accurate enrollment projections. OUSD Administration noted enrollment may decline and recommended the study. At that meeting during public comment I requested a common sense approach before approving a five figure study. I recommended consideration of the new families moving to Orinda for schools and that perhaps surveying the community is prudent prior to taking action.

The District and Board should evaluate and calculate potential budget impacts of any of its recommended consultant paid studies. Competitive bidding vs. sole sourcing of the requests must be addressed prior to District request.

In these times five figure Administration requests must not be granted or contracts awarded when findings may prove to be as accurate as a "best guess".

Q3. The current fiscal crisis has caused many school districts across the state to abandon their commitment to smaller class sizes. Orinda has been able to maintain class sizes, but raising class sizes could bring cost savings. Would you support such a move?

The short answer is NO. Orinda Parents and Teachers agree that keeping small class sizes is imperative to quality instruction. Annual fundraising efforts of Parents Clubs and EFO seek donations requested under this premise.

To put Orinda's K-3 issue on the table you must understand that California's voluntary K-3 Class Size Reduction program started to effectively lower the average class size of 28.6 students to 20 given documented positive results of smaller class sizes in Tennessee. Participating Districts such as OUSD receive approximately $1,071 per student. Without full participation in the K-3 class size reduction program, Orinda's classes could slip back to 28.6+ students, resulting in elimination of roughly sixteen (4 per elementary school), of our lowest paid teachers. The savings derived in a full or partial scenario cannot replace the learning environment that the program provides to Orinda's children.

Grade levels K-3, 4-8 or single subjects were not specified in the question. I am not in support of increasing any grade class sizes. Even with funding incentives in place California schools operate with some of the largest average class sizes in the country. Our children deserve far better; smaller class sizes K-8 and Librarians in all schools.

Q4. What are your qualifications that would make you an effective school board member?

Upon enrollment of our oldest child three years ago, I attended the September Board meeting to listen to those responsible for setting Orinda's educational stage.

Continued attendance over these past three years provided an understanding of current issues and knowledge of the process driven dynamics impacting Orinda's children.

Volunteering is a life long pursuit. Assisting in Special Education in my 5th and 6th grade years remain vivid memories echoing today in my efforts for Junior Achievement in San Francisco and Oakland Elementary schools.

I support the Ronald McDonald House and Children's Book Project of San Francisco.

I was integral in chartering a new Toastmaster's International club for Webcor Builders employees and served as its President for two years. I witnessed how mentoring and constructive feedback amongst coworkers invites good communication, furthers leadership and public speaking skills and enhances productivity.

I have valuable experience working within a myriad of governmental agencies and their constraints resulting in positive outcomes on numerous Bay Area construction projects.

In my professional position at Webcor, I effectively manage, negotiate, transparently report and accurately account for project costs in nine figure construction contracts.

As a member of the new Board I will get back to the basics of one-on-one meetings with teachers, classroom visits, motivating community groups, collaborating with parents and guiding administration to further alliances and strengthen relationships.

I offer a wealth of experience, passion and dedication to make OUSD an even better place for our children to learn and teachers to teach!