Candidate for
Board Member; Gilroy Unified School District

Focus on Excellence

The classroom is at the heart of the K-12 education experience. It is the ability of the teacher to inspire and teach that comes before policy, philosophy, administration, and physical condition of the school in determining whether the goals of K-12 education are met. This district must attract and retain outstanding teachers. The district and community must work together to provide the resources, support, and respect needed by teachers to function at their highest level. This includes excellent compensation, effective support for discipline issues, serviceable classrooms, a reasonable grouping of student ability in the classroom, and a voice that is respected and considered. Information must be collected when teachers leave the district, the data analyzed and used to improve teacher retention. There must also be an effective method to evaluate the performance of teachers and that information applied to identify needs and drive continual improvement.

Character matters. A person can have education, money, and health but in the end, it is their character that will determine if these resources are used for the benefit or detriment of our community. Ethics should be taught at all grade levels and public service strongly encouraged.

It should be easier to fire under-performing teachers. The process to dismiss an under-performing teacher today is both very expensive and lengthy, and through it all the students suffer greatly. For example, in the elementary grades, students have one teacher for the academic year. Students that are unfortunate enough to have an under-performing teacher will lose the year, and that is completely and totally unacceptable. If professional development and coaching do not help a teacher become effective, they should be let loose to pursue a different career.

A recent court decision (Vergara v. California) ruled that laws governing teacher tenure and the firing of public school teachers are unconstitutional as they interfere with the state's constitutional obligation to provide every child with access to a good education. Moreover, these laws "disproportionately affect poor and/or minority students." The court's decision is currently under appeal, but if upheld will give school districts the ability to dismiss under-performing teachers by following a reasonable and inexpensive process.

GUSD must develop an effective method to evaluate the performance of teachers and apply that information to identify needs and drive continual improvement.

Technology is very expensive + both in the initial purchase, refresh, and through on-going maintenance. Even worse, if not done correctly, technology can be a large distraction and drag on student academic progress. We need to clearly understand what works and what doesn't work before making large investments in technology; we will fail miserably if we just throw money at technology without a well-researched and comprehensive plan which must include professional development for our staff.

As a board member, I will work to ensure that the District uses real data (appropriately) to monitor and improve performance and to ensure that the voices of parents, teachers, and students are heard. There are many reasons why Gilroy is a great place to live; having excellent schools should be at the top of that list. A focus on excellence will see us there.