League of Women Voters of California Education Fund
	Santa Clara County, CA November 6, 2012 Election
	Candidates Answer Questions on the Issues Board Member; Los Altos School District

The questions were prepared by the Leagues of Women Voters of Santa Clara County and asked of all candidates for this office.     See below for questions on Use of Funds, Appropriate Instruction, District Goals Click on a name for candidate information.   See also more information about this contest. 1. How would you determine that the schools are using federal, state and local funds wisely and fairly and how would you report your findings to the community? Answer from Amanda Claire Burke-Aaronson: The school district makes annual budgets and audits, and these reports are publicly available on the district website. It is important to revisit the budget frequently to be sure we remain on track. My own budget priorities regarding the wise and fair use of funds will place heavy weight on programs and staff development to optimize their delivery, with recognition of other funding demands. Updates should be made quarterly to the district website regarding use of funds, and how well we're staying within budget. Answer from Steven "Steve" Taglio: LASD financial reporting has received annual commendations for its budgeting and reporting practices. These reports and processes provide the foundation for District monetary tracking. The District also gets input from the Citizen's Committee on Finance, which provides guidance on specific budget issues and long-term projections/budget assumptions. Per California regulation, the financial records for the District are audited annually. The board conducts monthly public financial reviews and copies of current budget documents are available on the District's web site and at the main office. LASD receives less than 10% of its funding from federal or state sources. In the 2012/13 budget, the District has set aside the bulk of projected state revenues ($2 million) as pending per guidance from the CA State Budget Office in anticipation of propositions on the November ballot initiatives. If either Proposition 30 or 38 are passed, the District can move these funds into the general fund. 25% of LASD funding comes from local sources. LAEF alone provides approximately equivalent funding for District programs as state and federal sources. These funds are targeted toward specific programs and reported back to LAEF annually. Parcel tax revenues, which make up the next largest pool of local funding, are not allocated to specific programs and are tracked via the standard financial reporting. Answer from Vladimir G. Ivanovic: The District reports on and monitors its financial condition in four ways: 1. Comprehensive audited (and unaudited) financial statements derived from data reported to the state 2. Public hearings on its annual budget 3. Recommendations and reports of the Citizen's Advisory Committee on Finance (CACF) 4. Expenditures (purchase orders) which are presented for approval at every Board meeting I think that these reports, taken together, show that the District is being fiscally prudent, and I don't think anything more needs to be done to inform the community---provided that the District implements its long planned financial web site. Between mandated programs, contractual obligations to teachers and staff, and a large---over 10%---long-term structural deficit, we have very little in the way of discretionary funds. So the issue of spending fairly and wisely is, unfortunately, moot: almost all funds are accounted for. However, we do have to make some decisions soon. We have been lucky enough to build a healthy reserve (~15% of annual budget) which we are drawing down, and we've gotten some good news recently with higher than anticipated property tax revenues, developer fees, and some smaller than anticipated expenses, but looming on the horizon are some large cuts in revenue (trigger cuts) if Proposition 30 fails to pass in November. We have already set aside a reserve in anticipation, so we are not in immediate danger. We are, however, on the path to insolvency unless we spend less, take in more, or do some combination of both. Furthermore, in addition to our structural deficit, we have systematically underfunded our capital fund which goes to maintain existing or purchase new facilities. So, we will need make some painful choices about which programs to retain, how much we should compensate our teachers and staff, how much to spend on facilities, and how much to ask the voters of the District to give in parcel taxes or by supporting a bond measure. The one thing we cannot do is to do nothing. 2. Are the schools offering instruction appropriate to the diverse educational abilities of all the students? Answer from Vladimir G. Ivanovic: The Los Altos School District serves its children well, and some of them very well. Here is some evidence: LASD is the best performing elementary school district in California, as measured by API scores (a flawed measure, but the only one we have). Districts from around the country are asking LASD to show them how we implement some of our instructional techniques, e.g. blended learning. The achievement level (API scores) of all of our children, including special needs children has increased over the last several years. In fact, our special needs program is good enough to have attracted participation from other school districts in Santa Clara County. Our children overwhelmingly go on to attend top colleges around the nation. Families continue to cite our high quality schools as the principal reason they chose to move into Los Altos. Nonetheless, we can't rest on our laurels. We are adopting the Common Core State Standards for curriculum, and that will require us to change both content and delivery, fortunately not drastically. At the same time, our methods of assessment will have to change. We will also need to provide more collaborative, project-based learning and less lecture-based learning. We will need to understand how to use technology to achieve our educational goals without falling into the technology-for-technology's-sake trap. Against all these bright spots, there is one dark area: our socio-economically disadvantaged children are not doing nearly as well as they should. We're not doing anything wrong; we're just not as effective as we could be in bringing their achievement level up to the level of the other children in our district. The good news is that we are aware of this gap and are working to close it. Answer from Amanda Claire Burke-Aaronson: There is currently no metric in place to measure the diverse educational abilities of all students. Short of subjecting all children to more testing, in this community parents are the best proxy for their children's educational needs and abilities, this should be assessed by parent feedback. It could be built into a parent survey, allowing us to truly evaluated if we are meeting the needs of their individual children. What we DO know is that there is a demand for alternative programs, as seen by the enrollment rates for BCS each year. One way to address some of the diverse needs of students would be to look at magnet programs - allowing for building on individual strengths and weaknesses of each child. Answer from Steven "Steve" Taglio: LASD has three identifiable populations having specific educational instruction requirements. Two of the three have documented track records of successful delivery with either testing or evaluation data to document progress. Special Needs: Special needs learning program has been refined over the years to provide the best blend of mainstream and individual instruction. Data on this population continue to show year-over-year improvement of student achievement in core curriculum. English Language Learners: ELL program has been redesigned in the last few years. Three of our seven K-6 campuses support the majority of these students. The goal of the program is to move them to fluency before they enter the Junior High. There is continued support at the Junior High level for those needing additional support and new students. Last year, the District piloted a new model of ELL delivery and saw significant improvement in student achievement year-over-year. Since the population is relatively small, we are able to monitor students on a 1:1 basis, further supporting student success. Economically Disadvantaged: This is a group the District has started monitoring over the last few years. Some overlap in populations does occur with the groups above. Again, the number of students in this group is sufficiently small that 1:1 support is available. 3. Where do you want the District to be five years from now? What steps should the District take to get there? Answer from Vladimir G. Ivanovic: I'd like to see three issues addressed in the next five years. Firstly, all concerned would like to see LASD at peace with the Bullis Charter School, or at least to have reached a modus vivendi. Our continued, acrimonious dispute with BCS is costly and distracts us from what should be our only concern: student achievement. Both sides in this dispute have behaved badly and have needlessly antagonized the other side. This must stop, and we need to engage in open, collaborative discussions about BCS's needs. The relationship I propose is that of a magnet school to its district, but that entails trust on both sides. If we incrementally start to cooperate (Junior Olympics, chess club, science fair, drama, etc.) we might be able to build some bridges and repair what everyone agrees is a needless rift. Secondly, we need sustained and informed community involvement in District issues. The issues we're grappling with (e.g. budget, charter school, curriculum, facilities) require community support in order to be successfully addressed; people will simply not support decisions when they haven't had a say in arriving at those decisions, particularly when something as important as their children are involved. But participation requires being informed. Right now, the community simply doesn't have access to the information they need in order to make a substantive contribution because so much Board activity is held in closed session and because the District web site is so information poor. Both need to change. Finally, I'd like to see fair and stable funding for schools in California. With so much uncertainty in our revenues, we can't make any realistic plans for the future. Even one year out is problematic. Of course, ending the funding seesaw is not something that can be solved at the local level; both the state and the federal government need to cooperate to make this happen. We can do our part by continuing to budget responsibly and prudently. Answer from Steven "Steve" Taglio: The last 5 years have seen evolutions in education program delivery. New math and writing curriculum delivery are producing measurable results. We need to continue this evolution in delivery to other aspects of the program, such as Science. The Living Garden curriculum helps support hands-on science delivery - we should be pursuing other ways to make science interesting and accessible. Introduction of Common Core Standards should be fully successfully implemented. We will need to continue looking at ways to support that implementation with program definition and faculty training to ensure successful adoption for both staff and students. Over the last 10 years, LASD student population has grown approx. ten percent. With current urban development plans increasing housing density in the northern part of the district, we need to continue to look at ways to deliver services to this growing population. The District is launching a committee representing the key stakeholders to look at ways to support this growth without creating additional traffic/safety issues. Part of dealing with this issue will be resolution of the 10 campuses on 9 sites issue. We need to clarify the options and take that case to the community. This can only be done with full support from all parties involved in the process. Answer from Amanda Claire Burke-Aaronson: In five years I want to see the facilities issues settled, and the community working harmoniously together. I want all schools in the district interacting in performing arts, athletics, science and technology. The steps we need to take to get there are to end lawsuits, work on agreements regarding facilities, and implement whatever changes need to happen - hopefully minimizing the disruption to all students in the district. Responses to questions asked of each candidate are reproduced as submitted to the League.  Candidates' statements are presented as submitted. Please answer each question in no more than 400 words. Direct references to opponents are not permitted. The order of the candidates is random and changes daily. Candidates who did not respond are not listed on this page.