Candidate for
Board Member; Sunnyvale School District

I believe that we, as a community, want and deserve the best possible education for our children. To achieve this, the Board of Education must assure that all district resoures (including people and facilities, as well as money) are focused on what happens in the classroom. To this end, we have implemented a Strategic Plan, written by a community-wide group of parents, citizens, and staff, and approved by the Board, which outlines what we want to achieve and how we will do so. Each item that appears before the Board is linked to one of the Strategic Plan's goals; we focus our time and energy on making the plan a reality.

We are in our first year of curriculum-based budgeting: in this process, all budget decisions are based on how they relate to the Strategic Plan and our goals. I believe this process separates some of the emotional attachments we may have for particular programs and allows us to focus our resources on student learning.

Quality teachers are key to having a quality educational program. In these difficult times, when the demand for teachers is high across the state, we must continue to search for and employ only the best for our students.

The education of our students is the only reason schools exist. We must assure that we prepare each student for success in high school and beyond. We must serve students across a wide spectrum of needs, doing all that is possible to provide a quality learning experience for each and every child. Standards must be high; curriculum must be tied to the standards; the schools must be accountable for teaching their students. The Board has a duty to allocate resources to the schools, to evaluate progress towards goals, and to hold everyone, including ourselves, accountable for the students' education.