League of Women Voters of California Education Fund
Santa Clara County, CA November 4, 2014 Election
	Terry Godfrey 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?

To improve communication between the board and the community I would like to set up channels of communication both electronically (e.g. online community engagement systems) and person to person (e.g. bi-weekly coffee chats) to ensure that we gather a wide swath of input versus relying on hearing from community members who happen to have time to attend board meetings. In this same vein, I will work to streamline board meetings so that we stay on agenda so that we are respectful of the time of the community members who do want to engage by addressing the board directly. I think the board would be well-served to be clearer in its decision making by proposing more motions that can be voted upon. This allows for a clear set of decisions so that the staff knows what to act on and the community knows what to expect and for what to hold the board and staff accountable.

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

Our students are best served when our teaching can meet them where they are and deliver a year's worth of learning every year. This means we cannot have one-size-fits-all teaching. Giving teachers the tools and resources they need to create a classroom environment that keeps all kids learning is important. In the lower grades, particularly now when we strive for full inclusion, teachers need the training, time and resources to plan and implement a plan that teaches every child and gets the most out of the combination and interactions of children they have in their class. At the higher grade levels, as students find their passion we should continue to offer classes that let our students stretch; they should adhere to the same principles of a year's worth of learning every year for every student. For some subjects the pedagogy suggests having students of varying abilities in the same class and for others it is different classes (i.e. what PAUSD calls "laning"). Either way, it's very important that we achieve horizontal consistency in teaching so every child has equal access to great teaching. Equally important is that we allow teachers the time and space needed to do what it takes to provide great teaching while alleviating unnecessary student stress. Some examples include teachers collaborating to achieve horizontal consistency, to plan so that students' tests and projects aren't overlapping, to create a testing system with fewer high stakes tests, and to address academic honesty.

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

I agree with the standards. With California having adopted them, the school district has already started work on curriculum revision to meet the standards. The board's responsibility is to ensure that the staff have the time and tools to develop the curriculum, train the staff at all levels and create a set of metrics to not only measure progress towards implementation of the new curriculum but to measure student outcomes as a baseline before the Smarter Balance Tests are fully implemented.

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?

With the existing Young 5s program PAUSD has structure that already accommodates early education programming. For the 2014-15 school year PAUSD offers Transitional Kindergarten for children born 9/1/09 to 12/2/09 which mimics the Young 5s model and addresses a population slightly younger. PAUSD has already instituted a pre-school program for children. It offers Spring Board to Kindergarten which offers five months of pre-school at a PAUSD campus in the winter/spring before a child starts kindergarten. Springboard is designed to improve kindergarten readiness and transition experiences of students without prior quality pre-school experience. This is limited in scope due to its addressing an underserved population. Again, this is in the purview of the Young 5s principal and fits into an existing structure so if the district decides to expand this program in the future there is an existing infrastructure into which it would fit.

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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: September 28, 2014 08:25
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