Daily Breeze Endorsement questionaire

By Israel A. Mora

Answers to current issues in the Wiseburn School District.

1. It is a pleasure to reintroduce myself, I am Israel Mora, proud husband to Maria (15 years) and father of two boys, Sander, age 12, 7th grade, and Agustin, age 11, 6th grade. Both attend Dana Middle School, previously having attended Peter Burnett and Cabrillo schools. I have been in management for more than 22 years, from UCLA Operations Manager, Director of Food and Beverage Capistrano's Restaurant, Passenger Service Manager for American Airlines, and currently Assistant General Manager for the Residence Inn by Marriott in Beverly Hills. I pride myself on my knowledge of budgets, cost controls, maximizing resources and generating income. I question every expenditure, have tightened controls on unnecessary spending, and have made difficult decisions on budget cuts to keep our district above the 3% minimum reserve. We accomplished this goal without cutting major programs, or laying off any teachers. We have fostered a strong relationship with the teachers and staff, and have built a reputation as the best district to work for in the South Bay.

Community involvement: Board Member of the Wiseburn Education Foundation, former Parks and Rec. Commissioner for the City of El Segundo, RBYB (Redondo Beach Youth Basketball) Board Member and coach, PTA member and active parent in the classroom.

Why do I want to be reelected? I love having a positive impact on all the children in our district. We have made huge strides in improving Curriculum, communication with the community, positive working environment, mutual respect, and a vision toward the future. Schools still need to be built, a high school solution reached, and continued growth in sequential curriculum, will require my commitment of another four years.

2. I view the effort to unify our district as hopeful, but we are faced with many obstacles not in our control. First of all the unification movement is a movement of the residents of our district led by the Chief Petitioners. Though the current board supports this movement, and assists were possible, it is a movement that must be led by the community. Second, the issue is now at the State level, and it is up to the state to do an environmental impact report and re-vote to approve our petition and set an election. Third, Centinella Valley will probably file multiple lawsuits again, possibly further delaying the vote. We will see unification to it's rightful end of Wiseburn becoming a Unified School District. This is a vital issue to maintain our community strong and keep our kids together in a high achieving district through 12th grade. I would be in favor of a regular high school, with sports and other activities. A charter school would be appropriate for some of our students, but not all.

3. There has been a misconception in regards to Permit Students in the Wiseburn School District. Our permit students (on average) receive higher grades and test higher than resident students. Disciplinary and attendance issues can lead to loss of permit status. Permit parents tend to be very involved and very willing to volunteer and help.

What is the optimal number of permit students? As long as you have available classroom space, the only cost of adding another 30 students is the cost of the teacher, the rest approx. $70,000 can be used for other programs. We are close to capacity now at our schools and will not be able to add significant number of permits in the next few years. Permits also give us the flexibility to be ready when Area A and C open, as we will be able to take more resident students and fewer permits. Without our permit students we would not have the ability to offer all the programs in our district.

4. I was supported by the WFA(Wiseburn Faculty Assoc.) four years ago, and again in 2005. I am proud to say that all my voting decisions have always been based on what is best for the students of our district. However, our teachers play a very large part in what is best for our students, and fostering a positive relationship, working together to achieve our goals, has made us the special district that we are. I believe your concern about teachers becoming active in local issues has been an issue in other districts, it has not been in the Wiseburn School District over the last four years.

5. Our district has had a very inclusive attitude toward building our schools. We have allowed our staff, teachers, and community members to have a say in building the best schools possible. All this input, plus our small district staff, has meant a slower process than I visualized four years ago. Our district staff consists of the Superintendent, Chief Financial Officer ( hired two years ago), and four administrative staffs. This limited staff does not allow for a complete focus on building schools. We were not able to start planning for Dana and Cabrillo until Anza was finished. We realized we needed more help and hired a construction management company to assist in planning and building. We are now waiting on the state architect for final approval. Meanwhile, we are ready to go out to bid and hope to be building Dana by February'06.

6. Over the last four years we have shown consistent growth in our API scores. We now have our three elementary schools over 800, and our Middle School over 765. We have provided new textbooks more aligned with state standards, provide teacher development in Writing, Reading and Mathematics, and analyze our scores to identify any weak areas to focus on. We are focused on grants to supplement our learning. For example we were just given a $500,000 grant in American History, we have also applied and received grants in Science and Music/Arts. I believe a sequential curriculum is critical to our success. A detailed plan that takes writing (for example) from kindergarten to eight grades allows all our teachers to understand what they should be teaching in which grade. We have accomplished this in Reading and Mathematics and are now working on the other disciplines.

7. Our district is strong, financially sound, and has the leadership and vision to continue to excel into the future. With sky rocketing costs in construction, our first obstacle will be to finish the construction of Dana and Cabrillo, we will have to be prudent with our remaining bond dollars. The most difficult obstacle is Unification, as we do not fully control our fate. However, our community has the perseverance and the vested interest to continue the fight until the communities voice is heard.

I seek your endorsement for Governing Member of the Wiseburn School District, should you have any questions, please do not hesitate to call me at (310) 339-9763 or e-mail imora1313@sbcglobal.com Thank You