2010 Teachers United PAC Questionnaire

By Lisa L. Pellicano

Responses from April 2010 questionnaire including a ranking rationale.

1. What should your District do to guarantee an instructional program that meets the needs of the racially, culturally, and economically diverse student population in your district?

The teaching of tolerance or differences in social studies and/or daily discussions helps students understand that families and cultures are different. One must raise the level of awareness of diversity between cultures to consider inclusion. The core instructional programs used within my elementary school district are chosen without regard to the racially, culturally, or economic population. The review of data from multiple and/or various sources or measures from core benchmark assessments to evaluate technique and program effectiveness including STAR data is used to evaluate program effectiveness. Strand information may be available on a variety of elements including language and socio-economic factors. Introducing various cultures through activities provided by PTA's or district functions is one way to be inclusive.

2. What is your opinion of the trend in recent years toward standardized curricula and scripted lesson plans which are delivered to students in your District? As a school board member, what do you think is the appropriate balance between the goal of having every student, in every school, learning the same material at the same time, and providing time for teachers to address individual student needs, capitalize on their training and experience and to take advantage of so-called "teachable moments?"

It is important as a school board member as well as all district employees to have the goal of each student utilizing the same material at the same pace. However all students do not learn at the same pace or start at the same level and the district needs to provide supplemental materials to bridge that gap. Teacher and instructional assistants must have professional development in those programs and it is critical to the program effectiveness in my opinion. Programs can be district wide but may vary with individual school sites based on individual student needs demonstrated by each site such as: ESL, Special Education, student achievement or district goals. Leveled grouping of students for core subjects helps teachers and students. Student learning can be accelerated by maximizing "teaching" time spent on differentiating instruction. Experience will vary among teachers but the willingness to embrace new techniques along with the desire to have students succeed and make growth as individuals will expand the opportunity to find "teachable moments" throughout the day. Teachers as well as all school employees must find that balance daily, some days will be better than others, but should reflect overall on capitalizing on what moments were found and used well in the school year.

3. In this period of shrinking budgets and class size increases, how much importance to you place in the frequent adoption and purchase of new textbooks? As a cost item, how valuable do you consider updated textbooks to the over-all instructional program in your District?

Adoptions are expensive from the inception. Committees meet and review curricula prior to the recommendation to the board for purchase of new textbooks. The State Board of Education must take into account the changing of standards which can affect the curricula of each subject potentially. While new materials can "awaken" and "renew" staff; I also see waste within my own district. The negotiations with publishers typically include materials that are not used and are considered "free". The cost is actually hidden in objects such as hard text which would be a required piece and needed. Adoptions also happen so frequently that teachers often get into the rhythm of a series or feeling some familiarity, maximizing additional materials, or are learning to collaborate with others when another new adoption is introduced. Publishers have a monopoly in regards to this particular area of education, which is not beneficial or considered a cost effective practice.

4. One disturbing trend in education has been the decline or demise of how many "elective" programs like art, music, physical education and vocational education programs. How strongly do you feel about the importance of maintaining or restoring these programs and, specifically, what ideas do you have that might help to realize this goal both long and short term?

The State Department of Education must bring these important subject areas into the curriculum to be included as instructional minutes and be fully funded. As an elementary school board member a short term goal would be to ensure that administrators stress the importance of incorporating art and music as a teaching media for current standards and provide appropriate training/materials. By the successful integration of these instructional methods we can expose an educated student to multi media. A potentially large portion of professional careers will see a decline in entry without the importance placed on these subjects. Creative thinking must be nurtured; art and music are excellent subjects to express one's individuality. I would like to see the addition of nutrition to be included with physical education at both the elementary and secondary education levels at each grade level; especially given the rate of obesity in children of the United States.

5. What ideas, policies or practices would you support to improve and assure the safety of students and employees in your District? Please be specific.

Supervision for students' safety is integral and must be maintained at all times regardless of where the student is on campus; either in the classroom, playground, lunch area, bathrooms or parking lots. The District must also maintain adequate staff to account for all personnel as well as student at any time and especially in the event of an emergency. The bottom line is the continued employment and education of people- teachers, administrators and other Para professionals. The current funding model of education in California will not continue to ensure the employment of personnel as demonstrated by the significant reduction in force by many school districts within the state of California. As citizens we must continue to lobby our legislature for the correct formula and raise the dollar amount closer to the mid national average range instead of being at the bottom five percent in spending. As a school board member it is extremely important to use those contacts that will help raise the awareness level of our legislators to what students in California need.

6. Please describe what you believe to be the appropriate responsibility of your school district to provide affordable health benefits to your employees. You may choose to include any ideas you have for containing the rising costs of health care.

Health care is valued by most employees and should be important to employers as well. Affordable health care should be of significance to everyone. Most people will not see a significant change in health care this year with President Obama's new bill with group coverage. However if you are a college student, have a pre-existing condition, or have exceeded your life time maximum benefits; changes are coming in 2010. By 2014 health insurance exchanges will be opened in each state to allow people to comparison shop. I support Universal Healthcare and believe that it is a necessity. In my opinion it is the only way to start to control the ever rising cost of health care in America. Whether it is state or federally run is of large debate.

7. Recently California was not included on the list of States who will qualify for federal "Race to the Top" funding. There are signs, however, of plans to apply for funding during a second round of applications. Based on what you know or believe to be true, do you support or oppose your District applying for this money if given the opportunity to do so?

I do not support the Race to the Top application within my district. I will not support any program that cannot account for the cost or reimbursement of a program. If the State or Federal agencies cannot outline their program to school districts to include budget line items such as: how much will be paid (reimbursed), what may be needed to account for student achievement (programs or technology), or how to report the data then it would be fiscally irresponsible to support this application. I will not jeopardize the education of my student population or the responsibility to my employees for an application of any program. In addition the application will require bargaining units to sign off on the application which I am not optimistic that portion of the application would be possible at this point in time.

8. One reason why "Race to the Top" funding has become controversial is because of the requirement to link teacher evaluations to the standardized test scores achieved by their students. In general do you favor or oppose the idea of using student test scores to evaluate teachers? Please explain why?
9. I am not in favor of connecting test scores to any salary related subject for teachers in the Race to the Top funding model. I am not familiar with the specifics of the process of this program in particular. I am positive that not any one measure should be used for teacher evaluations and student achievement. Too many variables are not accounted for such as: new students on the testing day that don't speak English, students coming to school ill, students who did not sleep properly the night before, and students who don't test well. The lists of variables are endless. I do favor evaluations looking at the class as a whole and the measurement of growth as defined by multiple measures that are involved in pacing curricula with relation to the time of the evaluation. This valuable information is not currently used in the evaluation process. The evaluation is based on the delivery of the specified lesson only.

10. The committee wants to fain an understanding of your budget priorities for your District. Assume the entire school budget fell into seven categories. Without explanation, Please rank order from 1(your top priority) to 7 (your lowest priority) the following budget categories:

1. necessary (but not required) building construction and maintenance
2. funding the instructional program, including purchasing books and materials
3. maintaining or raising employee salaries
4. maintaining a reasonable reserve fund or "ending balance" to the district budget
5. paying for outside consultants and trainers to deliver staff development
6. providing quality, affordable health care for employees
7. providing the lowest class sizes possible

Responses to priorities in ranking order:

1. necessary but not required building construction and maintenance
2. maintaining a reasonable reserve fund or "ending balance" to the district budget
3. maintaining or raising employee salaries
4. funding the instructional program, including purchasing books and materials
5. providing the lowest class sizes possible
6. providing quality, affordable health care for employees
7. paying for outside consultants and trainers to deliver staff development

Rationale- Although the question clearly states that you cannot explain your ranking, I thought that I could provide a little insight thoughts here. The number one priority is the safety of students and employees. Grounds or buildings must be maintained- that is the single most important issue in my opinion. A 3 % reserve is mandated by the State. We must be solvent as a district to employee people to provide an education to students. Maintaining the personnel that we currently have is a high priority as is the instructional materials that we utilize for teaching the curriculum. I believe that class sizes should be as small as we can afford to staff. Individual attention to students learning is a priority. Health care and benefits packages will continue to ensure that we attract quality personnel in our industry. Training of staff is the lowest priority with the current economic climate as outside consultants are very expensive. We should utilize the various training and talents within our District to continue to find what works best to engage students in learning.