League of Women Voters of California Education Fund
Santa Clara County, CA November 4, 2014 Election
	Jay Blas Jacob Cabrera Answers Questions Candidate for Board Member; Palo Alto Unified School District

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

Questions & Answers

1. What steps need to be taken to foster better communication among the school board, superintendent's office, and the local school communities?

I am committed to full online interactivity for all decisions that come before the school board. As a voter you will be able to help priorities and vote on each and every topic, as well as decisions that the school board votes on in the comfortability of your own home, and on your smartphone anywhere. I will implement this immediately upon my election to the PAUSD School Board. Additionally I will also have participatory meetings between each and every school board meeting, where every community member who attends will have equal vote, and as a community we will consider and vote on each and every issue and decision that comes in front of the School Board. I am 100% committed to voting in alignment with the decisions the community makes as a whole, as long as no individual rights would be violated or existing laws would be broken.

2. What approaches would you support to help students of diverse educational abilities achieve their educational goals?

This is a VERY broad question so I will give a variety of answers.

1) Initiate the process to create a new Mini Strategic Plan which specifically focuses on the individual unique needs of each and every student, and how we as a district will ensure that those needs are met.

2) Communicate directly with students, teachers, parents and community members to build priorities on educational goals and ensure that all top priorities are accomplished to the best of our ability.

3) Ensure that the difficult and taboo issues are addressed including academic pressure for students to always get A's (why not offer rewards for B's too?), the cheating scandals both at Gunn, Paly, and other schools across the nation, as well as making sure there is a plan for students who are falling through the cracks of the system!

4) In the context of academic achievement, we MUST increase money, resources, tutors, staff, and build leadership within the communities that are currently unable to meet the level of academic goals and standards needed. This is not just a legal issue, as we have been in violation of the law, it is also a moral and ethical issue, and it is NOT ok for the PAUSD to barely be meeting quotas.

Although there are more, I will end with the fifth one...

5) In regards to children with special needs, I am a huge supporter of expanding inclusion programs and building in systems of access for these programs to all students. This will end stigma placed on children with special needs, as well as ensure that students who don't want to be stigmatized have access to the resources that are available to them to increase their learning skills. Many students that do need special needs education tools to excel are NOT getting the help they deserve. This happened to me, and it shouldn't happen to anyone else.

3. Do you agree with the Common Core standards and if so, how should they be implemented?

In short Yes. There is no question that Common Core will be a step up from "No Child Left Behind", and it is great that we are implementing it into our schools as it will bring many benefits. BUT my priority in supporting the implementation of Common Core will be on fully evaluating it as a skeptical observer. We need detailed internal evaluation criteria as a community and make sure that these new standards really are helping our children learn instead of creating a new hurdle for teachers to actually teach real skills to our children. Although standardized testing will not be going away, we must ensure that it doesn't get in the way of our youth learning real skills and not just learning how to take tests. We must also make sure that these new standards don't lead to more cheating and cheating scandals. Again, I am happy to be implementing these standards, but will be scrutinizing and engaging in detailed analysis of there effectiveness, from the day they are initiated.

4. Do you see instituting a pre-school program for children younger than the "early 5s" age as desirable for the PAUSD? If so, have you any ideas on how it might fit into the school structure?

Yes, pre-school is an essential aspect of learning and important both scientifically proven, as well as from my own personal experience from going to "Big Kids Place" in Palo Alto/Stanford while growing up here. The most important aspect of pre-school is access and ensuring that all parents have the option to send their child to pre-school if they choose. Any Pre-school program would need to be organized as a separate system under the elementary schools. It also would make sense to collaborate with existing Pre-schools in the area and create a integrated private public system, as there is no reason to take over the existing pre-schools in the area. Instead we could consider starting just one or two additional pre-schools, and allow parents to choose between the existing private pre-schools, and the new public one(s).

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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).

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Created from information supplied by the candidate: November 1, 2014 15:47
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