Candidate for
Board Member; Ravenswood City School District

"It's easier to build strong children than to repair broken men."-- Frederick Douglas.

"It is shocking to think that a child who can't read by the third grade is a prime candidate for becoming a prison inmate. But looking at the reading levels of elementary school students might very well become a reliable way to predict the number of potential criminals in the future." -- East Palo Alto Chief of Police Ron Davis.

"There can be no keener revelation of a society's soul, than the way in which it treats its children." -- Nelson Mandela.

"We are passionate about social justice. We know that all children deserve the right to attend public schools where they are expected to learn at the highest levels, regardless of their socio-economic backgrounds. Quality public education is an essential human right - it is the ultimate civil right." --Deborah Kenny, Founder of Harlem Village Academies.

"In the old paradigm, kids suffered, adults stayed, everybody keeps their jobs. Our theory is, kids fail, you get a new job. I know it sounds a little harsh. If you accept any excuse for failure, you will fail."-- Geoffrey Canada, Founder of Harlem Children's Zone.

"We need to fight for our students!" "Our children are our most precious gift; with God's guidance we need to love them, to care for them, to nurture them, and to make sure that every single one of them is educated." -- Professor Howard Fuller, Marquette University.

I ask for your vote. Please elect me, Marilu L. Serrano, to the Board of Trustees of the Ravenswood City School District.

President Barack Obama told the American people at the Democratic National Convention that, "I will not tell you what you want to hear, I'll tell you the truth."

I will also speak the truth to you. I will tell you the truth, be open, accessible, keep you informed, and will courageously vote to put students first.

I will make myself openly and readily accessible to all Ravenswood City School District neighborhoods, those in East Palo Alto, but particularly the Belle Haven neighborhood that has been long neglected. It is my promise.

I am seeking a seat on the Ravenswood City School District to put students first.

As a reformer, I am discouraged and unsatisfied with the stagnant educational progress of Ravenswood in educating its students, a fact proven by the drastic -- and tragic for its middle school students--2012 STAR API scores' downward academic slide: Ravenswood dramatic slide backward for its (6-8) middle schools is beyond tragic but life destroying.

The 2012 STAR (Standardized Testing and Reporting) + the academic testing administered to all California students each year + showed a dismal downturn for our middle schools and a downward turn for Ravenswood as a school district.

The data from the 2012 STAR API for Ravenswood is uncontrovertibly and can be verified at the website of the California Department of Education at http://www.cde.ca.gov/ta/ac/ar/. Our students were tested in April as they are every year and the results are in.

On a scale from 200 to 1000 points, (A) from 900 - 1000, (B) 800 -900, (C) 700-800, (D) 600-700, (F) 500-600. Ronald McNair, a 6-8 middle school dropped 41 points to 590. 590 is an F+. Cesar Chavez, a 6-8 middle school dropped 41 points to 651. 651 is a D+. Bellehaven, a K-8 school dropped 17 points to 675. 675 is a D+. Ravenswood dropped 2 points to 712. 712 is a C-.

We are sending our 8th graders off to high school dismally and tragically unprepared for high school.

High School Bridge Program Ravenswood has no high school bridge program to help our 8th graders (actually starting with our 6th and 7th graders) to transition to high school.

Something that if elected I plan to push for and work to convince my colleagues of the necessity of High School Bridge Program

You don't need to be an educator or an incumbent to be educated on the educational needs of Ravenswood students. Since 2002, I have probably been to every school district meeting and read every staff report and followed up with my own research.

Attended every school board meeting I have been to every board retreat, to every budget study session, to every school district event.

Read through every yearly school principal's plan for school academic improvement Each year each of Ravenswood's seven school principals is expected to present to the school board their school plans, outlining how they will move their school academically forward. I have read each and every one of them.

Seeking always to educate myself on how to better educate the students of Ravenswood I seek out opportunities to learn from professionals in the field of education; new information that I hope will help me help the students of Ravenswood achieve a world-class education

Attended Ravenswood, Sequoia Union High School District and City of East Palo Alto Intergovernmental Committee Meetings I have attended the Ravenswood City School District, City of East Palo Alto and Sequoia Union High School District Intergovernmental Committee meeting on multiple occasions.

Attended Sequoia High School District school board all-day retreat January 11, 2012, I attended the new school board members all day Sequoia High School Board retreat.

Attended "What Colleges Want and Why" presentation at Gunn High School October 2, 2012, I attended the Gunn High School parent seminar "What Colleges Want and Why" given by Chistine VanDeVelde who advised parents that their children should, "Read, Read, Read even graphic novels to do well in school and college."

Attended Gunn High School College Fair October 8, 2012, I attended Gunn High School's College Fair, participated in a college-essay-writing workshop and a financial-aid workshop, learning from the presenter that a $10,000 scholarship is available for students who attended Ravenswood.

Sequoia Union High School District Board President Alan Saver and his "Save the Music" program I have learned from Sequoia Union High School Board President Alan Saver about the significance of his "Save the Music" program in which Sequoia Union High School student teach music to elementary school age children, and share his desire to bring it to Ravenswood

I have advocated in multiple way in behalf of the students of Ravenswood

Televising of school board meetings through the Mid-Peninsula Community Media Center cable channel

I fought for five years to have Ravenswood's school district meeting televised using East Palo Alto's Measure C funding to cover the cost because it would offer Ravenswood the opportunity to showcase the accomplishments of its students to create parent pride and a little inspiring and health educational competition among parents vying for the opportunities to see their child's accomplishments showcased. In the 2010-2011 academic-year former Board of Trustees Mr. John Bostic and Mr. Larry Moody managed to get school district meetings televised by ignoring the superintendent's recommendations against it. But in 2011, after they both left the school board the superintendent shuttered the cameras.

"Everyday Math" disastrous for Ravenswood students In 2011, I warned the school board that adopting "Everyday Math" would prove to be a disaster for our majority English-learner student population.

On the recommendation of teachers, and without doing their homework, the school board voted to adopt this math program.

I personally tutored a Ravenswood 2nd in this math program, that was ferociously fought against by the parents of the Palo Alto Unified School District, and know that it is a huge departure from the method that I learned math and found it difficult to explain to a child or the child to understand or do homework assignments on his or her own. I met one 2nd grade student who shrugged her shoulders and said that she wanted nothing to do with her math assignments and refused to even try to do her homework.

The need for a school psychologist I have repeatedly stressed to the school board the need to realign the school district budget to hire desperately needed child psychologist.

The San Jose Mercury News reported in August 8, 2012 that Ravenswood has the nation's highest suspension of Pacific Islanders.

A 12-year-old student of Ronald McNair was so traumatized by the murder of his step-brother and step-sister that occurred in Mountain View in 2008 that he began to wet his bed and act out at school. His mother went to his teachers to try to explain his behavior and in the process revealed that he would wet his bed. His teachers used this information against their students to try to control his behavior by telling him that they would reveal to his friends and other teachers that he was wetting his bed. These examples and others exemplify that Ravenswood is in dire need of a child psychologist for its students.

Bilingual Spanish/English/ Dual Immersion Program. I spoke against at a school board meeting the implementation of the Bilingual Spanish/English (Dual Immersion Magnet school at Green Oaks, now renamed Los Robles (K thru 6th) Bilingual Spanish/English/Dual Immersion because of my well-founded fears that the bilingual program in which all core programs -- Math, English Language Learners, Science, Social Studies + will be taught cheat the Los Robles students of a powerful command and native fluency of reading, writing and speaking the English language, required to succeed in our 21st century nation as educated college/university professionals.

The school board is oblivious to the fact that the Los Robles (K-6th) students already start kindergarten as fluent Spanish-speakers, hearing and learning the language from birth from their immigrant, Mexican parents.

I am deeply concern that that the percentages taught in Spanish -- K-1st grade, 90% Spanish, 10% English; 2nd, 80/20% Spanish/English; 3rd, 70/30% Spanish/English; 4th, 60/40% Spanish/English; 5th and 6th, 50/50% Spanish/English; 7th and 8th, 30/70% Spanish/English + will be disastrous to the education of Los Robles students.

English is a difficult language to learn, 99.9% more difficult to learn than Spanish.

The California Department of Education uses a special test, the (STS) Standard Based Test in Spanish, to test in Spanish the academic achievements of Ravenswood student enrolled in the school district's Spanish/English Bilingual/Dual Immersion school at Green Oaks (now know as The Robles Magnet Academy which has K to 6th students).

The Ravenswood school board has plans to expand the Dual Immersion Spanish/English throughout the school district. This plan would be an academic disaster for Ravenswood students.

Ravenswood could also be in violation of Proposition 227 which California voters passed in 1998 outlawing bilingual education.

Yet, I favor elementary students learning a second language; and the sooner the better. From personal experience since I am bilingual (I speak Spanish), I know that a child learns a second language easily and quickly. But Ravenswood is going to engage in the teaching of Spanish it should do it at an hour a day classroom class, or as an after school program class, but not with the 90% Spanish, 10% English teaching day program the school district has adopted.

2006 New Teacher Center at Ravenswood Against the opposition, I spoke in favor of the New Teacher Center at Ravenswood: a teacher coaching program for new teachers unveiled in 2006 with a $2.46 Million grant from the William and Flora Hewlett Foundation. The grant expired in 2010 causing the Center to close.

(STEM) Science, Technology, Engineering & Math I spoke before the school board for the establishment (STEM) Science ,Technology, Engineering & Math Coordinator after listening to the ABC/KGO video November 17, 2011 "Hard Hit California Schools To Get Hit Again". Lyanne Melendez reported that at Cesar Chavez its computer lab sat empty because there was no one to maintain it. The science lab was closed because the lab instructor had been laid off.

$30,000,000 from Sequoia Union High School District to build three-campus high school at Cesar Chavez In January 2012, I spoke before the school board in favor of accepting $30,000,000 from the Sequoia Union High School District for the building of a three-campus high school on the grounds of the Cesar Chavez/Green Oaks school campus; the school board voted not to accept the $30,000,000 proposal.

$500,000 from Sequoia Union High School District in change for Ravenswood being the chartering agency for Aspire High School In April 2008, I spoke before the school board in favor of accepting $500,000 from the Sequoia Union High School District in exchange for becoming the chartering agency for an Aspire Charter High School in East Palo Alto, thus the Sequoia Union School District would be saved a substantial loss of local tax revenue under state law if it became the chartering agency; the Ravenswood school board voted against this stream of revenue for the school district.

I arrived to live in East Palo Alto in June of 1997 At the corner of Manhattan and O'Connor, in front of Popeyes Chicken (no longer there) and across from my apartment,15-year-old Oliver (Sharkey) Rodriquez was murdered by two Norteņo gang members at approximately 5;15 p.m. on July 24, 1997. There began my advocacy for the children and youth of East Palo Alto. In 2001, through a parent I found out what a disastrous mess the Ravenswood City School District was. I was a member of the three-member, Adam Mitchell, Todd Lopez Gaviglio and Marcelino Lopez, Coalition for a Quality Education that swept into office as school board members on a mandate to immediately fired the 18 years in office Superintendent Charlie Mae Knight and to reform the school district. In 2002, I began attending Ravenswood school board meeting and have not stopped since.

Ravenswood neglect of its Special Education children Emma C. v. Eastin class action lawsuit was settled by the (RSIP) Ravenswood Self Improvement Program for Special Education children in 2003. On November 18, 1996 parents of Special Education children filed class action lawsuit against Ravenswood. The Ravenswood school board paid out to the Weatherly Law Firm close to $2.5 Million dollars to fight the parents' the lawsuit rather than settle and make the changes that would be later forced on it.