League of Women Voters of California Education Fund
Santa Clara County, CA November 4, 2014 Election
	Ellen Wheeler Answers Questions Candidate for Board Member; Mountain View-Whisman School District

The questions were prepared by the Leagues of Women Voters of Santa Clara County and asked of all candidates for this office.
Read the answers from all candidates (who have responded).

Questions & Answers

1. How would you determine that the schools are using federal, state and local funds wisely and fairly and how would you report your findings to the community?

Our local funds make up about 25% of our school district budget. We are fortunate that we live in such a generous community that votes for a parcel tax, a school bond, and donates to our education foundation. Additionally, we get donations from local businesses. And, we are wise fiscal managers of our building properties such that we get good rental income from currently unused classrooms and buildings. We use these funds for everything from art, music, PE, sports, science enrichment, technology, counseling, school nurses, and generally helping our bottom line. We use our state funds primarily for teacher, classified, and administrative salaries. We use state and federal funds to help our special education students succeed in class and in life.

The school district and various committees report how we spend these monies during quarterly budget reports or annual reports during board meetings. These reports are posted on our district web page and are available in paper copies at our board meetings. These budget report meetings are open to the public. During those meetings board members and members of the public ask questions about the budget reports so that we can feel satisfied that our local, state, and federal funds are used wisely and fairly.

We are fortunate that our chief business officer and her budget staff are diligent experts in school finance. And, our superintendent is our former CBO and has a professional background in finance and the law.

Our school district is so well run that we have been awarded the highest budget rating available, which results in our district being able to finance our school bond work at rates that are most favorable for our taxpayers.

2. Are the schools offering instruction appropriate to the diverse educational abilities of all the students?

We have talented and specially trained teachers who are able to effectively teach our diverse population of students. Our school district mission is that we "demonstrate, daily, a relentless commitment to the success of every child." Think about that for a minute. EVERY child. Relentless commitment. Every day. Our teachers, administrators, and parents choose to live in Mountain View with our rich diverse community because we believe in our mission statement and we all want to make it work.

Our low income students who are not proficient in English are a priority of ours since they make up over 40% of students in our district. It's critical for their success and for the success of our overall district that we provide quality, up-to-date instruction and materials for this group of students. Our hard work is paying off. Our low income English language learner students have had the highest level of test score gains of all of our students over the past few years. I congratulate our teachers for making this happen, and I congratulate the parents of those students for diligently helping their children at home, and for coming out after work to take parent education classes. Most of all, congratulations to those students!

And what of the other 60% of our students? Our talented and trained teachers also know how to work with the students who regularly are able to do grade level work. And, they are trained to work with the large number of students who are able to work at above grade level. For example, we have math classes at both of our middle schools where children learn geometry before they enter high school. Those students are on a top tier track for top tier colleges. But all of our students should be on track to take algebra in 8th or 9th grade so they are on track for the A-G required classes they'll need in order to be able to apply to good to great colleges in California and beyond.

When you hear that Mountain View Los Altos High School District has two schools that put them in the top 1% of all high schools in the country, remember that our MVWSD students helped put them there.

3. Where do you want the District to be five years from now? What steps should the District take to get there?

We've accomplished a great deal since I got on the board, and I expect that five years from now our test scores will be even higher. Even more of our students will be graduating from elementary school ready for the increased rigor of middle school, and even more of them will graduate from our middle schools raring to go for high school work. In this "flat world" our students will be competing with students from around the world for college, for careers, and for skilled jobs. We don't have a child to waste.

But what will it benefit us if we gain all this knowledge but destroy our souls? This is why it's so important for us to continue to honor "the whole child" and provide opportunities for art, music, PE, sports, science enrichment, technology, and counseling. I'm proud to be part of a school district and a community that values these things and "puts its money where our mouth is." Many schools and school districts do not provide for these things, and children and communities are poorer for it.

In five years I want to see all of our schools freshly renovated and enriched via excellent management of our bond money, including opening a new elementary school in the northeast quadrant of town. I want to see that our school district is still financially stable, and that means careful management of our resources though good times and bad. I want to see that our community voted to renew our parcel tax. I want to see that we invested in quality early childhood education classes so that all of our children are ready for kindergarten on day one. I want us to continue to be a district that attracts and retains quality teachers and staff, and that includes paying them a good wage and showing them our appreciation. And (cue music) I want all of our children and families to be happy and involved in our schools.

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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 22, 2014 22:41
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