Candidate for
Member, Governing Board; Fairfield Suisun Unified School District

First 100 days
1. I will start to form community support groups in order to bridge the gap between minority English learners and non English speaking parents to bring them into the important educational process in order to form a link between students, parents, teachers and schools. This will enable those students to assimilate more quickly into mainstream learning. The byproduct of which will be a rise in the Academic Performance Index (API) as mandated by No Child Left Behind (NCLB) and an increase in retention rates in the later grades resulting in a reduction in the dropout rate thereby increasing the Average Daily Attendance (ADA). This will result in higher state funding since funding is determined by ADA, not to mention more students graduating and going on to college.

2. I will approach the Chamber of Commerce and its members to implement a voluntary program by which the participating members will donate a voluntary percentage of sales to a program of their customer's choice to help fund physically creative programs such as music, arts, sports etc. This will create money for these types of programs where no such money currently exists. This will also help keep business local and increase sales for those businesses that do participate.

3. I will review the district policy for bullying which is currently a big problem in the schools at all levels. I will make sure that if the policy is zero tolerance that it is in actuality being applied as such. There should be no room for a student to be harassed for race, religion, appearance or personal orientation. Parents should be held responsible for their children's behavior. Our schools will be safer and result in a less hostile learning environment. School retention rates would go up because parents will not have to be taking their children out of public schools to enroll them in private schools or other more tolerant public school districts.

I will be very vigilant in making sure that the school district has as little waste as possible. I will use very creative and out of the box thinking to ensure that this happens. Small amounts saved in small places can add up to large savings at a time when every dollar counts. A quick review of my campaign spending will drive home a very good example of my ability to be creative and think out-of-the-box to get a job done within the fiscal means. At no time did my spending go beyond the amount of my actual contributions. At no time was personal money infused to make ends meet. Instead when I could see that I did not have the money to buy expensive commercially produced campaign signs I applied my personal creative abilities and made my signs entirely myself ( see my facebook page ). In doing so I was able to make 30 large signs complete with color photo for one third the cost of commercially produced signs. And all those that saw the signs thought that they had been commercially produced. My campaign will finish out completely in the black. This is the sort of out of the box creative thinking and fiscal responsibility that I will bring to the school board.

Longer term goals:

I will work with the many local Trade Unions and trade businesses to organize them to participate in programs so that students can work with them in order to see for themselves if they are suited to a particular trade. This would be extremely valuable to those students that after graduating high school want to enter a trade instead of going on to higher education. I am a trade union member myself and know personally what the trade unions need. In conversations with them they have all expressed a need and are willing to participate in a program of this type. This would be an invaluable program to graduating seniors and the schools in the future.

I am an advocate of special inter-district magnet schools as is the school district (Not to be confused with charter schools). Magnet schools attract students from within and from outside of the current school district. They add funding to the existing budgets in the form of additional ADA monies. A well placed magnet school can greatly enhance and serve the needs of the current school student populations and needs.

I am a strong proponent of creative Safe Routes to Schools programs. Again these programs are not funded with school district money but bring in additional money set aside by the federal government and Cal Trans exclusively for this program. Such programs also bring much needed exercise at a time when schools offer less and less in the way of physical outlets for our children. As a side benefit is a more environmentally responsible reduction on our dependence on fossil fuels and green house effect contributors.

And last but not least we all want to keep our fiscal spending in check. I will be ever vigilant as to how we spent our money to stretch each and every dollar as far as it can possibly go. I will make sure that all of our investments are done in a way that they will actually produce more than they cost or used in the most efficient manner possible. Having been in the construction business for many years I certainly know how to go about handling the maintenance dollars of our districts many schools. All of my visions are clear and concise with no vagueness. These are not generalizations and have a clear plan for execution, as they should have. It is this thoroughness and ability to be creative as well as clear that sets me apart from the other candidates. This also creates an immediate transparency with no hidden agendas. With the help of your vote on November the 8th I can start to work on my plans on January 2nd, 2012.

So what IS my philosophy? I was going to quote Teddy Roosevelt's "The Man in the Arena", my favorite, but felt it is to long ( but please, do look it up ) so instead will do another favorite...

"The question is not whether we will be extremists, but what kind of extremists we will be...the nation and the world are in dire need of creative extremists." Dr. Martin Luther King Jr., 1963