What is the biggest issue facing the...

What is the biggest issue facing the school district?

The biggest issue is the continuing challenge of completing our

many modernization projects, approved by the voters in 2003, in a

short time while facing escalating and exorbitant bids with few

bidders. Currently, construction companies hold all the aces with

hundreds of school districts and other institutions competing for

labor and scarce materials.

In addition, our teachers work extensive “overtime” to ensure

“business as usual,” while projects have been delayed or impede their

work, such as room preparation this fall. Many teachers must pack up

and move out of their classrooms and later move back into their

rooms. If you have ever had to move, you can relate to this burden as

one example. Our teachers have extremely high standards for

themselves, and the projects can’t help but add increasing stresses

on their productivity. Providing our faculties the degree of praise

and appreciation that they are warranted is a problem. They need to

be rewarded and praised for their amazing efforts and accomplishments

in the face of modernization setbacks. But how can a public

institution and board members thank them enough? We can’t award

bonuses; we can’t buy them extra time or materials for their rooms.

We can’t do what private companies do when their employees perform

superior work, “above and beyond,” and accomplish amazing results

with high “profits” for the company -- our “profit” is the

outstanding growth we are seeing in our children’s learning. In

general, providing recognition and respect for the work our staffs do

is never enough.

What can be done to keep test scores on the rise?

You can be proud and confident if you live within the Huntington

Beach City School District! What can be done is being done in the

classrooms by our outstanding teachers and support staff -- and our

administrators are superior in their management skills of the

daunting tasks related to state and national testing. The evidence of

this is in our remarkable children and the published scores, which

have risen dramatically. The evidence is in our visible and

enthusiastic parent support throughout our 10 schools. We have an

amazing community of children, parents, teachers, support staff,

principals, managers under a greatly respected superintendent. We are

hiring and retaining only the best teachers and staff, providing

training and support, giving parents strategies for reinforcing the

standards, infusing technology and software into our instruction to

ensure individualized student gain and providing students the

emotional reinforcement and praise that they need. I am proud that my

children attended this district; their preparation was outstanding.

But the children today -- only a few years later -- are receiving

even better classroom instruction, increased standards, and quality

teaching.

What needs to be done to bolster the budget? What programs should

take priorities?

We need to now be creative, since our school district has

eliminated everything vital that isn’t in the direct classroom due to

declining funding of education in California.

How can school board members better communicate with parents and

the community?

We could better communicate if our local newspapers would allow a

weekly column in education instead of, for example, movie or

restaurant reviews. Parents have asked me about this. It would be

remarkable if the papers would ask one board member to write a column

each week about their district, or a subject of their choice, and

rotate among our elementary districts. The paper could also include

the private schools in our local community. Residents would have an

increased opportunity to get to know their elected board members,

instead of interviews of dozens of candidates once every two to four

years, many of whom do not get elected. The board members should

include in their columns their contact information. Editors don’t

think that the public is interested in education, but I have found

from parents, and from adults with no children, that this is not at

all true ... especially in Fountain Valley and Huntington Beach. We

have a highly educated, highly involved public.

Private companies know the power of increased communication. They

spend tremendous resources funding public relations and advertising.

However, our public schools do not have money to fund strategies used

by private businesses or long-time politicians, like glossy mailers

that we see, the targeted letters from time to time, fancy

advertisements or extensive websites. We’d love to buy ads about our

high quality and the successes we are experiencing. But these

expenses are the cuts that occurred long ago. Thus, all the general

public seems to get to read is the bad news about public schools, the

occasional scandals or spins in editorials. Yet again and again,

polls indicate that communities respond very enthusiastically in

support of their own neighborhood schools -- the ones they know the

best. This is the clear case in Huntington Beach City Schools ... our

parents are enthusiastic supporters, and they communicate with us

Board members regularly.

My fellow school board members and I work diligently to be present

at community events, to be available to parents, publishing their

phone number, reading mail daily, talking to parents often, attending

school functions, making regular school visits, attending PTA

meetings, joining community and local governmental organizations. We

have invested a frugal amount in updating our website for parents. We

have been elected precisely because we are active and accessible in

the community in order to represent our children and parents more

effectively. What we need is more access to the general public who do

not have children, but who read newspapers and want to be informed.