League of Women Voters of California Education Fund
Santa Clara County, CA November 6, 2012 Election
	Vladimir G. Ivanovic Answers Questions Candidate for 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.
Read the answers from all candidates (who have responded).

Questions & Answers

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?

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?

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.

3. Where do you want the District to be five years from now? What steps should the District take to get there?

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.

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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.

Read the answers from all candidates (who have responded).

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Created from information supplied by the candidate: September 28, 2012 13:33
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