Candidate for
Board Member; Santa Ana Unified School District

ORANGE COUNTY REGISTER QUESTIONNAIRE: GOVERNANCE PHILOSOPHY

QUESTION NO. 1: What is the role of government? How do you see yourself in the position you see fulfilling that role?

Whenever government is involved, restraint should be the guiding principle. The appropriate role begins with a more limited approach toward serving and protecting the public's interest. Principles that are bound by a commitment to Review, Revise and Reduce governments' reach in the lives of all Americans is what is needed now more than ever.

As a member of the school board, I will support continued and methodical evaluations of our efforts to deliver high quality, state of the art, efficient and cost effective educational opportunities for our students.

We must focus on programs that work and make sure that they are not hamstrung by bureaucracy or over regulation. We must be fearless in reducing or outright elimination of ineffective educational programs and services. We must find a way to fairly reward our best performing teachers and support staff, including improving a base line for them.

Neighborhood schools have to be attentive to the best interests of the students and parents they serve, tangibly demonstrated by continued improvement and demonstrated proficiency in English, math and science.

Our student test scores and graduation rates need to improve to close the educational gap between low and high performing schools and school districts. REWARDING FAILURE IS NOT ACCEPTABLE!

Government in my judgment has a very important role in protecting the public's interests; unfortunately, sometimes it goes too far in managing our day to day lives. There needs to be a better balance.

Government intervention, whether through financial support, legislation and/or via regulation cannot be the only answer. Families, individuals and businesses need to be held responsible and accountable for their own actions and not depend on government for everything. It is a very complex situation in determining whether or not government should intervene and if so, to what extent?

As a school board member, parents need to take responsibility for their children to attend school and for them to do their class assignments. Likewise, students need to take responsibility to follow school rules, attend classes and to do their class assignments.

The success of achieving educational excellence requires parental and student involvement and responsibility. Similarly, school board members, management, teachers and support staff need to be held accountable to ensure that each student has the support they need to academically succeed. Bottom line, all stakeholders involved in the educational system need to take responsibility and be held accountable.

QUESTION NO. 2: What is your position on current public employee pensions? What policies would you advance or change? If elected, will you take a pension? Will you take insurance benefits? Stipends?

Current public employee pensions, compensation and benefits, including those for executive management, represent agreements between employers and employees that should be honored. Having said that, it is important to sit back and acknowledge that we have arrived at this point because of the power to negotiate and provide employee pensions, compensation and benefit levels is not tethered to the weight of supporting them. It is worth noting that the abuse of public employee pensions, compensation and benefits, thru spiking or backroom deals like those in the Cities of Bell and Vernon are an indictment of individual behavior coupled with a system that lacks oversight and transparency. These examples should not be used as a reason to pillory public employee pensions, compensation and benefits. The willingness and ability to negotiate fairly with employee bargaining units and/or directly with employees themselves is in the public interest. Being fair to employees serves the public interest and is a reasonable and worthy goal.

Employee pensions, compensation and benefits are a part of reasonable labor negotiations and should be resolved at the bargaining table. I think a good starting point would be to limit the ability of employees to retire and return as consultants or contract employees with agreements that allow for pension spiking or double dipping, this seems to be especially prevalent in the executive management levels. Another, is the means by which the benefit calculations are done, which allow for the stacking of pensions and benefits, this to must be restrained. There are too many loopholes in our current system that allow for these kinds of abuses and they should be closed.

The public has a right to know what elected officials, executive management and/or employees in general earn, including any benefits that they may receive.

Subject to negotiations among employee bargaining units and with certain limitations, I have been a long time supporter of District employees, including selected part-time employees, earning retirement and insurance benefits. The structure of the workforce in the public sector must be flexible enough to meet the changing needs of those they serve and reflect the work place economics of the time. With some full-time positions being converted to 20 or more hours per week positions, this new flexibility is part of the employer/employee new reality. In order to be competitive in the workforce and attract the best workforce possible, employee incentives, including benefits must reflect that growing reality.

Board members, including myself, receive what District full-time and selected part-time employees receive in terms of insurance benefits.

It should be noted that according to state law and the District's Human Resources Department, only school board members who were on the school board prior to July 1, 1994 are eligible for retirement benefits, therefore, I am not personally eligible to receive retirement benefits.

On a personal note, as a school board member, my monthly salary is $787.50. During my tenure as a board member, I have never accepted a District owned cell phone, computer nor a fax machine for my personal use.

School board members do not receive stipends such as monthly travel allowances but we are eligible for a $400 annual management benefit which all District management employees and school board members are eligible for. Effective July 1, 2008, I voluntarily agreed not to accept it.

Employee pensions, compensation and benefits, including those for school board members, should be based on a commitment to fiduciary responsibility, serving the public interest thru prudent negotiation with public employees and good management of the public trust. I am committed to a philosophy of governance based on restraint and prudence.

Public employee pensions, compensation and benefits received by all District employees, including those by school board members should always be not only in full compliance with applicable state law but also meet the spirit of the law.

QUESTION NO. 3: Why are you running for this office? What are your top three priorities if you take office? If successful, do you see yourself running for additional offices?

I am running for office because there is a need to continue to improve student achievement. I believe we need to emphasize core competencies. Our school district has a significant number of limited English speaking student population and it is critical that all students learn English. English classes need to be smaller to ensure more one-on-one instruction and expanded curriculum support. Students with limited English skills are encouraged to attend summer school for additional English instruction. Where encouragement is not enough and grades warrant it, students are required to attend summer school.

Our students are failing because we are failing them by advancing them from grade to grade without ensuring that they are actually learning.

Increasing the number of students in kindergarten, state pre-school programs and in head start is essential to ensure early educational excellence and success. If a student with limited English speaking skills attends summer school from the first grade through the 12th grade, he or she would have gained the benefit of two additional school years of instruction. Providing more College Advanced Placement Courses for higher achieving students is also very important while also providing appropriate services and support for students who are developmentally disabled and/or those with learning disabilities.

Building and modernizing neighborhood schools, providing parents with educational program choices, increasing parental involvement and improving student achievement are my highest priorities. Building and modernizing neighborhood schools with particular emphasis on the arts, sciences, dual language immersion, engineering, computers, ROTC, etc. are offered to provide parents with educational program choices. I approved and supported the establishment of five (5) charter schools and a state of the art vocational program at Valley High School. The charter schools provide immediate overcrowding relief to the District and educational program choices for parents.

During my Board tenure, including as School Board President where under my leadership voters passed the largest school construction bond in Orange County history, the District built 6 new schools including two new fundamental high schools; expanded numerous elementary and intermediate schools, modernized a number of schools and added hundreds of new classrooms while eliminating portable classrooms. We need to continue to address school overcrowding by building new schools, expanding old ones and modernizing our existing schools with state of the art facilities.

It should be obvious after 12 years as a school board member that my highest priority is to provide an educational experience and environment that allows our students to achieve higher academic achievement. However, one can certainly not disregard any future political opportunities.

QUESTION NO. 4: What is the extent of regulation and taxation that is appropriate? Name two recent and relevant regulations that you thought were appropriate and two that were not.

This is not the time to raise taxes for businesses, individuals, seniors and working families. It is also not the time to over regulate the business community. There is no question that taxes in California are too high during a time of economic uncertainty. California is over regulated causing the business community to leave the state, become bankrupt, go out of business and/or reduce operational costs via employee layoffs. Senior citizens, individuals and working families are being forced to make economic sacrifices to maintain their quality of life. In some cases, becoming bankrupt and losing their homes.

The flip side is that if California residents want a certain level of public services then it must expect to pay a certain level of taxes while demanding that public agencies provide such services in an efficient and cost effective manner. Obviously, this involves the cooperation, understanding and flexibility of all our stakeholders i.e.; elected officials, executive management, employee bargaining units, business community, community organizations, working families and taxpayers.

Class size reduction is an example of over regulation by both the state and federal government. In order to participate, a school district has to agree to a funding formula that financially punishes a school district for not having a specific class size. The bottom line is that a school district even with full compliance financially receives less than what it costs to participate.

Another example is the regulatory process in built out communities for acquiring property and building a new school is so time consuming that school districts in planned communities where property is donated by the developer and included as part of a planned development, is able to build a new school much faster, even years ahead, than a school district in a built out community that is overcrowded. School construction funding cannot be earmarked nor received until property is acquired. That is the dilemma that Santa Ana Unified School District and other built out and overcrowded urban school districts are faced with.

Federal and state regulation that requires that special education students and those with learning disabilities are entitled to a fair and appropriate education is good public policy.

Likewise the same for federal and state regulation that requires that students with limited English speaking skills are also provided with the necessary resources to become English proficient.

QUESTION NO. 5: Do you believe our schools have substantial funding or need more? Do you support school choice programs and alternatives? Explain why or why not.

Over the past 7 years, the District has had to cut over 166 million dollars from its operating budget and will cut even more this coming year. This has resulted in the laying off of employees and re-prioritization of educational programs and services.

Our employee bargaining units who represent our District employees negotiated personal sacrifices to ensure minimizing the impact in the classroom i.e.; taking a 4 percent salary cut for 2 years, employee furloughs, employee layoffs, no salary increases for the past 3 years, etc. Although this was not easy and not everyone was in total agreement, including myself, we have weathered over the years the decline in state and federal funding while being confronted with declining student enrollment. The bottom line is unlike other Orange County school districts, we have not had to reduce the number of days that our students are in school, thus, minimizing the impact in the classroom. Budget reductions have forced District employees to become more efficient, cost effective and to work more with less.

Every educator and school board member will always say that they could use more funding. More money does not necessarily mean better education for our students. We need to maximize resources with less revenue for use in the classroom while adequately compensating our good teachers and support staff. The reality is that school districts will for the next 5 years or so and/or until we overcome the current economic crisis, will have to work within its means which in the long run maybe a positive thing because it forces school districts and even school board members to become more efficient and cost effective in using taxpayer funds.

I have always been a strong supporter of school choice. This is what our parents want for their children and that is what I believe they deserve. When I was first elected 12 years ago, over 20 percent of non District residents were attending our schools of choice. Today, District residents are given first priority over non District residents. Secondly, our parents were camping out for days to attend schools of choice. Today, with a student lottery, this is no longer the case. Lastly, during my tenure on the school board, the number of students attending schools of choice has nearly tripled. The number of fundamental schools has increased from six to eight. In 1998, students did not have the opportunity to attend a fundamental high school. As School Board President and under my leadership, we passed the largest school construction bond in Orange County history. The Measure C school construction bond resulted in building 6 new schools, including 2 fundamental high schools serving nearly 5,000 students.

When I was first elected, the District did not have any charter schools. Today, we have 5 charter schools, more than any other Orange County school district. I have also supported the establishment with the local chamber of commerce, High School Inc., a state of the art vocational program located on the campus of Valley High School. I have always supported our magnet high school, Middle College High School, where nearly 50 percent of its graduates earn a degree from Santa Ana College while also earning a high school diploma.

QUESTION NO. 6: Will you or have you sought union support for your candidacy? Have you been endorsed by a union? Have you received a campaign contribution from a union?

I am very pleased to have the endorsement and financial support of employee associations, labor and working families.

I am equally pleased to have the endorsement and financial support of the business community, parents, individuals, community leaders and Santa Ana related elected officials, Republicans and Democrats alike.

This broad spectrum of support that I have received is a testament in their belief that I have provided positive leadership in representing and making educational excellence a priority in Santa Ana.