League of Women Voters of California Education Fund
San Francisco County, CA November 3, 2015 Election
	Tom Temprano Answers Questions Candidate for Member, Community College Board; City of San Francisco

The questions were prepared by the League of Women Voters of San Francisco and asked of all candidates for this office.
Read the answers from all candidates (who have responded).

Questions & Answers

1. What do you see as the biggest issue facing community colleges? What would you do to handle it?

The biggest challenge City College faces right now is our enrollment crisis. In the wake of the accreditation crisis we've lost 27% of our students. Getting students re-enrolled and back on campus is critical to saving City College, and I believe it is the responsibility of the Board of Trustees to tackle the enrollment crisis head-on. As Trustee, I look forward to working with my fellow Board members, faculty, and students to draft and implement a community outreach campaign to get students back on campus.

2. What would you do to address the decrease in the number of students at City College over the past few years?

To tackle our enrollment crisis we need to rebuild the broken relationship between SFUSD and City College. Every year, 1,000 students graduate from SFUSD schools every year and don't go on to a 4 year or community college. Many of these students are from communities of color, and City College shouldn't be allowing them to slip through the cracks. As Trustee I will work to ensure we create a strong presence on SFUSD high school campuses, enrolling students before they graduate and creating an enrollment bridge for students. Another critical part of the effort to increase enrollment will be to reach out across our communities to get students back on campus. As Trustee, I would be excited to use my background in marketing and communications to create a grassroots community outreach campaign to undo the damage the accreditation crisis has done to enrollment at City College.

3. What are your qualifications for office?

I have served on the Board of the Harvey Milk LGBT Democratic Club for the past five years, serving two terms as President from 2013 to 2014. During my time on the board, I was proud to lead our organization as we joined the fight to save City College. We were one of the first organizations to sound the alarm within the LGBTQ community and it has been a privilege to be fighting for this college from the beginning.

For the past eight years I have done grassroots marketing for small businesses, non-profits and government agencies. I worked for San Francisco Small Business Week, which attracts thousands of attendees each year; The Treasurers Office, where I helped launch marketing efforts to get low-income San Franciscans enrolled in financial literacy programs; and Renaissance Entrepreneurship Center, a small business assistance non-profit that provides training to low-income women to help them open and run successful small businesses. I am also the owner of my own small business, Virgil's Sea Room, located in Bernal Heights.

I have served on the SoMa Stabilization Fund Community Advisory Committee for four years, serving as co-chair for the past two. I've had the honor of working with a team of experts in a variety of fields to allocate millions of dollars in funding to organizations responsible for mitigating the negative impacts of development on low-income SoMa community members. During my time on the CAC we have invested over $5 million into the SoMa community funding affordable housing, workforce development and more.

---

Responses to questions asked of each candidate are reproduced as submitted to the League.  Candidates' statements are presented as submitted. The answer to each question should be limited to 400 words. Direct references to opponents are not permitted.

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

Candidate Page || Feedback to Candidate || This Contest
SmartVoter Home (Ballot Lookup) || About Smart Voter

---

Created from information supplied by the candidate: October 16, 2015 15:06
Smart Voter <http://www.smartvoter.org/>
Copyright © League of Women Voters of California Education Fund   http://www.lwvc.org
The League of Women Voters neither supports nor opposes candidates for public office or political parties.