Candidate for
Trustee; Oak Grove School District; Trustee Area 3

The funding for schools in California has changed over the last year and a half. The Local Control and Accountability Plan (LCAP) has made this change. School districts have more power over where they will spend the money they have because they are not as confined to spending in certain categories. Given this, I would have three areas that would seem to me to important for Oak Grove Elementary School District budget additional spending in these areas.

Schools should always be made as safe as possible. It should be the highest priority of the District. Oak Grove has a good safety program, but any program can be improved, here are two examples.
1. Locks should be changed on classroom doors so teachers can lock them from the inside incase an intruder attempts to enter the classroom. This is not presently the case.
2. Automated external defibrillators (AED) save lives. You see them in all airports. They should be installed in at least middle schools. They are used to help with heart attack victims as well as youth athletes who become victims of an irregular heart beat after heavy exercise.

Return class size reductions to our schools.

Research proves smaller classes improve student learning. In 1996 class size was reduced to 20 students per class K-3. Test scores rose. In Oak Grove our class sizes are now 30studnets per class. We have now one of the highest teacher to pupil ratios in the nation.

Repair our aging elementary and middle schools and playgrounds.

The maintenance department has said at a board meeting on September 11th that we need to spend around $50,000,000 to fix our school's out dated heating and air conditioning systems, some of which have parts that are fifty years old. They propose to try to replace three schools per year. This needs to be a higher priority.