If you have any questions about my position on any issue, then please email your questions to me. I will post your questions and my answers on this page.

Question:

How do you plan to help restore a trust and healthy working relationship between all district vested parties, i.e., parents, board members, district administration, and teachers?

Answer:

First, the board needs to respect anyone who takes the time to examine an issue and provide a thought or idea. I believe much of the frustration is due to people coming to the board with their ideas and opinions and feeling like their thoughts are never considered, evaluated or even heard. An unresponsive board tends to foment frustration that causes people to suspect that the board members have already made up their minds, made deals in the backroom, etc. People deserve a fair answer to fair questions and fair consideration for reasonable ideas.

Second, we need to recognize that board members and administrators can learn a lot by listening to those that are closest to the issues. For example, who knows more about the issues within the classrooms than the teachers and the parents?

Third, we need to focus on our first priority: providing quality education for our children. By focusing on what is most important, we will find ways to work together to achieve our shared goals.

Question:

What do you think the next step, realistically, is to helping equalize school funding in our state and how do you think the board could help drive that change?

Answer:

I wish I could say we just need to get a few more legislators on our side. Even though our local legistlators are trying their best, the issue that becomes apparent in my discussions with a few legistlators that while they "feel our pain" they are not willing to feel the pain of not getting re-elected because they took ADA money from their local districts and gave it to Livermore and a few other districts. Therefore, it is very low on their priority list. It should also be said that its not a question that they law to equalize funding doesn't exist. It does. But the legislation simply fails to fund per the law. So I don't see much hope through the legislature within a horizon of less than 10 or 20 years. Therefore, we need to go to a neutral playing field focused on upholding the law which is the judical branch. I believe the law needs to be enforced and I also believe that a funding formula that is not either absolutely equal per student or within some sort of supportable, annually updatable formula (i.e., reflecting true and current cost of living figures created by a neutral entity) is a violation of our children's fourteenth amendment rights to equal protection under the law. Therefore, I believe the district should be exploring a compliant to the Federal Civil Rights Commission or looking to the ACLU or other entity that can handle a lawsuit on a pro bono basis. I hate to turn to the courts but if I want my second grader to have an opportunity to recieve equal funding while he is still a student within the district, it will probably require the court system. I would still work to unite all the low funded districts in the state into some type of action committee and still try to work with the legislature but you cannot depend solely on that branch of the government.

Question:

How do you feel about the fact that the children at the charter school, if and when officially approved, may be get more ADA funding than the other 14,000 or so children in the district?

Answer:

From the above about equalization, you can see that I believe all students should get equal ADA funding. However, at this time we do not have control over that. The charter school will get the average of all school districts statewide which is more per student than LVJUSD gets. However, it should also be pointed out that the charter school on September 7 offered the school district an encroachment payment of about $420 per student which goes a long way toward compensating the district for that difference in ADA funding. They actually offered the district various payments for services and facilities as well as encroachment that amounts to almost $700,000. Since I can't control the approval or the funding of the charter school, the one thing I can control is how much money the district can obtain from the charter school to help compensate for its impact. Remember, the charter school is not required to pay an encroachment fee to the district, rent district facilities or purchase services from the district. So there is negotiation required. So the answer to your question is that I'd like to see equal funding per student regardless of whether they go to a charter or district school but since that is out of our control, I would like to ensure we bridge as much of that gap as possible by working with the charter school. In addition, this is not just a charter school issue. There are waiting lists at all the area private schools (with some schools looking to expand), waiting lists of Livermore students for inter-district transfers to Sunol and Pleasanton and a growing number of parents choosing home schooling. Part of our fullfiling our mission from your question 1 is to reach out to the parents of private, charter, inter-district and home schools to find out what needs to be accomplished to bring their children back to district schools. Increasing our enrollmenbt is actually the quickest way to improve the district's financial situation. So instead of alienating all these parents and students, let's find a way to embrace them for the benefit of all the children within the boundaries of our district.

Question:

Where do you stand on negotiations with the district teaching staff?

Answer:

Our district's benefits cost has gone from $5 million a couple years ago and will reach $22 million in about 3 years. Our total budget is $88 million so having 25% of the district's total budget going to benefits will surely bankrupt the district. I believe the teachers understand that issue and have shown me both a willingness to negoitate and a willingness to present some pretty interesting plans worthy of consideration. The primary "product" of the district is the education of our children in the classroom by our classroom teachers. Therefore, they are highly valuable and very important. Therefore, we need to provide a competitive compensation package as well as the respect and support they so richly deserve. I believe this negotiation needs to create a win-win situation where the unions permit a modification to their contracts that helps ensure the district's ability to remain solvent and the district provides the unions with committed items that are triggered as the district's financial situation improves. We must protect our most valuable employees which are the teachers and staff at our schools, but we must also ensure the district remains solvent.

Question:

What do you think we could do in the district to further the equality of educational programs in the district, so that each child receives equitable opportunities no matter which site they are based?

Answer:

I'm not sure where you are headed with this question. Usually, when this question is asked, it is in reference to the fact that some parents in some neighborhoods are better able to financially support their neighborhood schools than parents in other neighborhoods. I'll answer that question and if I'm answering the wrong question, let me know.

I don't believe it is good to discourage these parents from lending their financial support to their neighborhood schools. However, I'd like to see the district able to articulate the specific programs that need support at specific schools. I think it is difficult to respond and help these schools without specifics such as 6 kids need PTO support to go to science camp. That helps parents respond because it is specific. I would prpose two action items. 1) after getting a difference between what various schools can support, ask the more financially able PTOs to consider donating 10% of their donations and fundraising to a fund to help the other PTOs respond to their students needs. As a parent at one of the more financially able schools, I would be happy to take the $20 request for supplies at our school and write a check for $22 so 10% of it could help other schools. 2) I would propose forming a volunteer coordination office (manned by volunteers) that would help manage ways people and businesses could volunteer to benefit the students in the district. I believe people and businesses can give one or more of the following: time, talent or money. The purpose of this volunteer coordination office is to help put the underfunded schools together with various opportunities. For example, resturants in the community might want to donate part of their proceeds from the slowest night of their week to the district in turn for a program designed to get people into the restuarant on that slow night. Or businesses might want to donate part of each qualifiying purchase to the district. Or we might be able to match businesses up with schools in need as Comcast recently did by help with a clean-up/modernization day. I'm sure there's many details and issues to be worked out. However, I believe people have difficulty responding to non-specific causes. I believe Livermore as a community in extremely generous so I believe we could help some of our schools with less ability to gain donated funding by simply being better able to articulate the specific needs and to help match those needs with people and businesses willing to help.