Candidate for
Candidates to succeed Ken Maddox as Governing Board Member if he is recalled; Capistrano Unified School District; Area 5

My name is Gary Pritchard. I'm a 39 year old native Californian who owns a home in Aliso Viejo with my wife of 12 years and our seven year old daughter.

I teach at Cerritos College, and have been a professor there for eleven years, including serving as chair of my department. I have worked successfully to bring money into our community college district and worked with the local high schools to offer additional career opportunities to students. 

After many discussions with my family and friends and much soul-searching I have decided to run for the CUSD board.

I believe successful campaigns are always more about the cause than the candidate. I believe that we are here today as parents and as Americans because we want the best for our children and their future. As parents, our most sacred duty is to provide stability in the lives of our children and to take decisive action when that stability is compromised. More broadly, as Americans, we believe in an individual's right to pursue their own happiness and know that a quality education broadens the possibilities for achieving that happiness.

This morning as we gather in front of one of CUSD's 41 Distinguished Schools, I am reminded of what is possible when a school board focuses on visionary and collaborative leadership, learning support services for all students, and a strong partnership with businesses and the community.

I am also reminded that we are in desperate need of leadership that is focused on the classroom, not the boardroom. That our children's future requires long-range planning which helps us do more with less. I promise you that I will work with our Superintendent to help strengthen learning opportunities for all CUSD students to reach their potential. I promise to seek out and encourage our most successful programs such as the ones represented by the Golden Bell Awards our district used to win nearly every year since 1996 until this board took over 2008. I will also promise to work with our representatives to help bring more tax dollars into the classroom and seek funding beyond the state appropriation.

As your Trustee, I will help build a strong leadership team that addresses the needs of all CUSD students and accountable only to you, the parents, homeowners, and taxpayers in the district. We know what's best for our communities and we don't need any outside organizations telling us what to do in our district.

Our cause today is straightforward (recall, remove, recover) but the current board has other plans and so our resolve must be greater than theirs.

I can't do this alone and will need your help.

We have to let our neighbors know what's happening in our schools and what they can do to help fix it. Tell your neighbors about the recall election, but also tell them about fundamentally changing the system that created the chaos we are now experiencing. We must change the `at-large' voting method to a more local, trustee area voting method. That way, our district can protect itself from outside influences and career politicians looking to make a name for themselves.

The first and most important issue for all of us is the passage of the initiative that allows for election by Trustee Area. Passage of this measure will remove the influence of outside special interests from our elections and allow me to represent schools and parents.

Right now, the cost of running a district-wide election to reach over 100,000 voters is so high that we only see pitched battles between organized slates. We would be far better served if each trustee represents a smaller area, and if each trustee is elected as an individual, rather than part of a slate fueled by money from outside our district.

Most importantly, I want to see a responsive board of trustees, where I am responsible to the residents in our area, where I visit every school in my district on a regular basis, and connect directly with parents, teachers, principals and staff.

We are all better served if each individual brings their particular strengths to a team effort and we all work in common purpose to provide the best schools in Orange County.

These are our schools. We have a local school board, so we can have local control.

We don't want to be at the mercy of outside interests or people in Sacramento who don't understand what's important to people here.

We want control of our own destiny.

At heart, I'm an educator, and I just want to get the outside political forces out of our schools.

That is why this campaign is not only about candidates, it is also about parents and community members working together to take back our children's future. We know what's best for our community and children and it's not the wasteful spending practices of our current Trustees or the groups that influence them.

This campaign is yours. This is your chance to not only help `recall and replace' but more importantly to help our district `recover' from the groups who threaten our children's education.

That is our purpose here today ... That is why I'm in this race.

South Orange County is a special place to raise a family and I believe that our children deserve the kind of schools that will help them reach their full potential. If you believe as I do then I am ready to take our cause across the finish line in November.

I want you to know that I've made no plans to simply sit on a board, I plan on rolling up my sleeves with you to give our children the future they deserve.