Candidate for
Board Member; San Carlos School District

An East Coast native, I was born in New York and grew up primarily in New Jersey. I was blessed with a good education, extremely involved parents, and strong community. Also, my schools had the luxury of greater resources than California schools have today -- we had school buses, teacher's aides in every classroom, and smaller class sizes. As a parent, I of course want to provide every opportunity to my children that my parents provided for me.

I went to Dartmouth College, where I earned my Bachelor's Degree in Economics. Later I attended Harvard Business School for a Masters in Business Administration. I moved to California in 1993 and have been a resident of San Carlos for 14 years.

My wife of 16 years, Sara Dobbs, is a local pediatrician. Our two kids are in 7th and 5th grade this year at Tierra Linda Middle School. Both of my children have had fabulous teachers and overall great experiences throughout their time in the District. In the last seven years, I have been a classroom volunteer, a Healthy Cities tutor, youth sports coach, was on the board of the San Carlos Educational Foundation, and have volunteered with the San Carlos Children's Theater.

I have extensive experience in business, with a background in finance, strategy, marketing and business development. I have held a number of executive positions at technology companies in Silicon Valley, and I currently run my own consulting practice focused on strategy and business development for media and technology companies.

I was first elected to the San Carlos School Board in 2007, so I am coming to the end of my first term. This has been one of the most rewarding experiences of my life, and I have grown more passionate every year for the cause of promoting public education and the issues that face our children. I have gotten more involved in regional and state activities around advocacy and education.

I believe that I have continually demonstrated leadership on a number of issues, both within our school district as well as part of the larger educational community.

First and foremost, I have been extremely proactive in communicating with our community, primarily through my popular blog (http://www.rosenblatt.org). It has become one of the de facto sources of information and analysis about the San Carlos School District. I am a fairly open book; you can peruse through the last four years of blog postings to see my take on a wide spectrum of issues.

I haven't shied away from difficult discussions. When many folks said it was politically impossible to change school boundaries, I still knew it was the right thing to do to correct the major imbalance we had in our then current enrollment. I beileve that my leadership in this area helped create a solid process and deliver a successful outcome, and this action which is normally considered the "third rail" of school politics was accomplished with overwhelming support from the community.

I have also spoken out forcefully against "traditional" ways of solving problems that, while expedient and comfortable, don't serve children. Perhaps the best example of this is my leadership in the fight against furlough days. I never accept an answer that says: "because we've always done it that way."

Being a School Board Member also means being present around the school district. Besides volunteering at my own children's schools over the last four years, I have consistently met with principals, teachers, and other staff to stay current on the happenings at each school. I have been involved in a number of committees concerning district-wide issues, and I am often present at school plays, presentations, and other events. In 2010, I was honored by the San Carlos Educational Foundation with the Cathy and Eric von der Porten Stewardship Award, given to those who have made a significant impact on our school community through contributions of time and talent.

My involvement in public education has extended beyond our district. In the second year of my term, I completed the Leadership Redwood City/Belmont/San Carlos program, a year-long program of workshops emphasizing local civic leadership. My Education Finance Video (http://www.rosenblatt.org/video/ca-ed-finance.html) has been used by districts across the state, and I have spoken at conferences and written on educational topics in both local publications as well as this article for the national eSchoolNews. I am currently President of the San Mateo County School Boards Association, which represents all of the school boards in the county and supports governance teams and advocates on behalf of our students. I feel strongly about being part of the movement to change the broken California Education Finance system. It's a long uphill battle, but one worth fighting.

But the most rewarding part of being a school board member is serving this community -- I get to personally witness our progress and success as well as the enormous contribution that everyone makes to ensure we deliver an exceptional education to all of our students, despite all of these structural problems we have inherited.

I believe I have brought dedication, engagement, energy, thoughtfulness, and good judgment to the role. I am passionate for public education, but I also propose honest and practical solutions for our District. I would be honored to serve the San Carlos community for another term.