Scotts Valley Unified School DistrictCandidate for Board Member

My VISION for the SVUSD remains deceptively simple:  That students, parents, teachers, administrators and support staff, volunteers and the community-at-large, are all contributing at their highest levels in order to provide successful learning experiences for all students.  This can be achieved by combining modeling, feedback, and consensus-building to establish high expectations.

Second, we need to recruit and retain qualified and caring teachers and put them together with kids who are ready to learn in modern, well-equipped and worker-friendly learning environments.  We need to remove barriers so that teachers can teach and students can learn at the highest levels.

The test of the effectiveness (i.e., accountability) of anyone working in the SVUSD should be:  'Am I enabling parents, teachers, administrators, support staff and volunteers to work more effectively with/for students?"

The SVUSD must increase its commitment to communicating with parents and the community-at-large in a variety of ways and on increased efforts at involving parents in their local schools.  Fortunately, the SVUSD has a reputation for excellence and the level of parental involvement is on the rise at all of our schools.  Word is spreading that we offer good value to our students.  Our schools are getting the results the community expects.  However, there is always room for improvement.  While it is always a challenge to improve an already high-performing district, this should not deter us from aiming to achieve improved results with each successive year.

(1)    The immediate CRITICAL ‘Big Thing” is to PASS MEASURE A (Parcel Tax) to enable the District to remain fiscally solvent until the California legislature (through AB 2808) increases funding California K-12 public schools to “a level equal to, or above, the average of the top 10 states nationally by 2025 and, at a minimum, to maintain this level of funding indefinitely”.  With appropriate lobbying by public officials, increased funding should materialize beginning in the 2019-20 school year. 

(2)    The District must maximize student average daily attendance (ADA) upon which our state funding depends, seeking cooperation from our families to mitigate the negative effects of student absences on District funding.  For example, whenever possible families should plan vacations to coincide with District holidays and families should be encouraged to reimburse the daily cost of an absence to the District by donation via the District website.  Other creative avenues are possible, e.g., raffling a car for perfect attendance, etc. 

(3)    Attracting and retaining the best-qualified teachers through a combination of responsible increases in total compensation and housing assistance.  Successful passage of the Santa Cruz County affordable housing Measure H  should provide opportunities for continued collaboration with City and County officials to leverage any funding;

(4)    Prioritizing needed renovations at the District’s remaining elementary and high schools, combined with energy conservation,  green construction, and other cost-saving measures.