Candidate for
Governing Board Member; Manhattan Beach Unified School District

Commitment to College

A comprehensive public school district needs to serve the students and families within its borders. In Manhattan Beach, for the vast majority, that means preparing students to get accepted to and be successful in a selective, four year college. While we clearly need to accommodate and support alternatives, it is time for MBUSD to embrace this objective as its primary focus.

Improved Accountability

While the state administered Accountability Performance Index (API) provides a reasonable measure of overall student achievement, organizational improvement requires accountability at the level of individual employees. Just as we require teachers to give meaningful grades to their students based on objective criteria, so do we need to hold teachers, administrators and board members accountable to measurable criteria.

Additional Class Size Reduction

There is no longer any debate as to the value of reduced class size or its importance to students, teachers and parents alike. Unfortunately, while we have benefited from class reduction in grades K-3 and somewhat in 9th grade, overall California has the second largest class sizes in the country. I support the Nakano bill to permit a 23 student limit K-5 and I support parents' rights to fund class size reduction in individual grades at individual schools.