Orinda Education Association Q&A

By Tyson Krumholz

Twelve questions provided by the Orinda Education Association for all candidates to respond are listed below with my answers.

Q1. What in your background leads you to believe that you would be a successful Orinda Union School District School Board member?

I believe that I have valuable insight into the educational needs of our children and feel this is a prime opportunity to volunteer my time and effort for the benefit of Orinda's children.

As a member of this great community and a fantastic family who believes strongly in the empowering gift of education, I have a vested interest in affecting change for the betterment of Orinda's children.

Volunteering is a life-long pursuit of mine. I remember the first volunteer efforts back in Cub Scouts and then in school assisting in Special Education classes while in my 5th and 6th grade years. I continue helping children 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.

Board members are charged to lead and represent the entire community through effective communication and listening skills, direction and 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 am a Professional Civil Engineer and General Contractor currently working for Webcor Builders as a Senior Project Manager in San Francisco. 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!

I support Orinda Scouting & Boy Scouts of America; I enjoyed chaperoning my son's field trip to Don Edwards Refuge and providing for improvement projects at the Wagner Ranch Nature Area. I look forward to continued involvement in class field trips.

Q2. Please describe your community activities during the last three years.

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.

My boys and I have enjoyed the community programs offered by the City of Orinda, especially carpentry! Time spent working with Cub Scout Pack 212, and specifically with our den leader and other parents has been very important to my oldest son. I look forward to my youngest starting as a Tiger scout next year and plan to continue assisting with Pack activities.

Being active with my boys on the weekends has been paramount. Whether riding bicycles from Pleasant Hill to Moraga or from Walnut Creek to Alamo my boys have learned a great deal about the back trails offered around our community. We have concentrated on enjoying time learning to swim at Park Pool, gardening at home, walking the hills of Tilden and raising chickens.

Q3. What are your top three goals for the Orinda Union School District? What are your ideas for addressing these goals?

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.

Q4. What strategies would you champion to improve meaningful communication throughout our educational community?

As a Trustee of Orinda I will seek to understand before seeking to be understood, encourage participation and input from all groups, listen and lead. OUSD needs a higher performing, efficient and transparent district administration that promotes open dialogue of issues with an active, visible role supporting excellent teaching.

As a Board member I will focus on what is best for Orinda's children, partner with all parents, educators (certified and classified), district management and community members to improve morale, maintain a high level of perseverance and make informed, open minded decisions after listening to all sides.

Q5. How are you educating yourself on issues that are the most important to the work of teachers?

Educators have influenced my entire life; my mother taught for nearly 30 years, 12 of which at Orinda Intermediate School (OIS) and my wife, Anna, also taught for 9 years, 5 of which at OIS. Nearly all of my closest childhood friends had one or more educators as parents.

My siblings, niece, nephews and sons combine to have 74 years in Orinda Union School District (OUSD). Advancing OUSD's reputation requires concentration on enhancements in premier curriculum, special and innovative education while focusing on effectiveness of the OUSD. Ultimately, this serves to excite minds of students, preparing them as successful independent thinking adults.

In the last three years I have made myself familiar with the available information on the OUSD website in addition to attending Board meetings. I have attended several Bay Area Council sponsored forums on education, reviewed the California Dept. of Education website, spoken to several Bay Area County Offices of Education about numerous topics and whenever possible listen to what the teachers themselves offer up as important.

Q6. It is clear from educational research that student performance is closely linked to the quality of teaching. What role do you believe the school board has for attracting, retaining, and supporting effective teachers?

As noted above in question 3 I believe this is one of the top priorities for the OUSD. The Board must actively support, advocate for and listen to teachers while ensuring that the Administration and Head Teachers fulfill their roles as effective leaders that motivate and unify each site's education team. OUSD needs to re-evaluate the credentialed salary schedule and recast it to appropriate values that are equivalent and competitive with comparable Bay Area school districts.

Q7. What are the priorities specific to OUSD that you would represent if elected, and what solutions would you offer?

In addition to the priority of education of Orinda's children I bring an important and appropriate skill set to the position with respect to the facility management, improvement and any potential construction planned or required during this four year term.

The schools are on average approximately 50 years old and will certainly require attention in the near future. I will strive to keep costs down while promoting successful facility management. I will closely review all new facility construction this term.

Another priority is to return the focus on addressing bullying in our schools. Reviewing that the current practices on the part of the Administration, site leadership and Teachers are consistent, effective and appropriate is crucial to the success of the program.

Q8. Should central office personnel's evaluations include input from teachers? Why or why not?

There certainly are opportunities for the administration to learn from, make adjustments and take credit for specific evaluation feedback provided by the teachers and on site administration.

Following suit this is equally true for teachers, as they can learn from the constructive feedback offered from each other as well as the parent community to enhance their skill set.

It is important that all information is kept professional and respectful in order to maintain an effective system.

Q9. If there were to be cuts to the budget next year, what would you cut and why?

I do not share the philosophy of the existing Board with respect to "cutting" our children's programs. These unique and difficult times require flexibility and creativity when it comes to preserving all of Orinda's K-8 programs.

As for the budget issues the Board has a unique opportunity to motivate the community, teachers, parents and administration in a variety of ways to further alliances and strengthen relationships. Continued accessibility of the Board for all Orinda parents and community members is key to success in balancing the dynamic list of priorities facing the OUSD.

In the event of future additional fiscal losses the District must 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 new Board will reserve any "cutting" for non-critical studies and consultant exercises, not children's education.

California's budget crunch and the current state of the economy from Orinda's to the world's continues to present new challenges. Balancing the priorities of required educational subject matter, student health, physical needs, infrastructure, teacher support, community involvement, etc. together in the OUSD requires effective collaboration and strong trusted leadership.

Q10. When the State does provide our District with additional on-going revenue, are you interested in restoring any programs that were previously cut?

As noted above I believe in "trimming" the whole and focusing our resources to achieve a production oriented and efficient administration prior to requesting further handouts from the community.

The Board has the ability to accept, appropriate and establish constraints for one-time funds when offered to support specific programs. Similarly the Board should welcome all community donations for our children's schools, whether monetary, in volunteer time or useful product.

I believe that "trimming" when required as opposed to "cutting" preserves valuable student programs that immediately affect a portion of our student population and would require a significant future effort to reverse course if eliminated.

Restoring and reinvigorating the Library, Technology and Environmental Science programs previously cut remains a priority for Orinda. Equally important to the restoration of these programs is the reinstatement of K-5 teacher's preparation time that was secured with these programs.

Q11. How do you see the Orinda Education Association becoming an equal partner in the development of the budget?

In July I reached out to the OEA to request a discussion or "short list" of those items most critical and top of mind with the group. At the time this was a proactive inquiry to assist me in shaping upcoming communication to both advocate and challenge any particular point of view. With the election cycle moving forward I am disappointed that such a list of hot topics or goals has not been circulated to the candidates.

Proper preparation and establishment of a well founded position are key to any successful partnership. I look forward to increasingly open dialogue and respectful sharing of ideas to break the current cycle and restore moral amongst our children's teachers.

Q12. What do you see as the role of teachers in providing input for the decisions that the school board makes?

A core belief of mine is that every individual has the right to respectfully share their ideas whether in confidence or in public. I look to the teachers to attend the Board meetings, speak out on issues when appropriate and confide in those Board members that have gained their trust as individuals, community members and/or parents in the district.

Input on all levels is valuable and I look forward to reviewing district wide teacher surveys as well as individual conversations in the near future.

In order to advance their input on issues the OUSD teachers require effective collaboration with the administration and a strong trusted leadership.