Mercury News Article on the race

By Scott Kleinberg

Ran October 14, 2010

http://www.mercurynews.com/my-town/ci_16342976?source=rss

Scott Kleinberg

Finance guru Scott Kleinberg sees himself filling a niche on the CUSD board, which is one reason why he decided to run for re-election. The 43-year-old, a chief financial officer of a software company, is knowledgeable in numbers and budgets, and from his perspective, he's the one candidate in the field who brings the financial background essential to a governing board.

"Each person kind of has a niche that they fill on the board, and as a group between the five of us, we're firing on all cylinders," he said. "It would be a big hole that would need to be filled, and I don't think there's anyone running other than myself that would be able to fill that."

In fact, his financial acumen was the motivating factor behind his decision to first enter the fray back in 2002.

"My kids were young at the time, going into kindergarten, and I felt that I was able to use some of my skills in the business world in some other context," says Kleinberg, a father of three.

Federal education mandates and state budget cuts are creating tremendous challenges in the classroom, Kleinberg said. Subsequently, the focus has to shift to ensuring students near the end of the pack don't fall too far behind while also making sure top students achieve--and in some cases exceed--their potential.

It's a difficult task, given so many issues and distractions currently taking place in education, Kleinberg says, but schools should continue to be about the children. Things such as after-school programs and small class sizes are a couple of examples that should not be compromised.

Technology is a strong tool in the classroom, but "the most important thing to student achievement is the classroom teacher," said Kleinberg, who is a fan of teacher assessment. Going forward, he says the district has to stay committed to student achievement, which has paid off in recent years through improvement in the district's academic performance index.

"We need to help kids improve, and some of it is creating a culture of expectations of kids that they are going to succeed, with everyone on the same page and pulling in the same direction," he said.