Candidate for
Board Member; Sierra Joint Community College District; Area 7

Dear Friends,

The last four years have been momentous ones at Sierra College. We're in the middle of a transformation that will make our community college an even stronger engine of economic growth, opportunity and hope.

We've made tremendous progress, and our faculty and staff deserve a great deal of the credit. After three straight deficits, Sierra College has now had four straight balanced budgets. We've used these new surpluses to build up our reserves, so have the chance to avoid cuts to core education during the economic downtown and state budget crisis.

We launched the Ghidotti Early College High School in Nevada County. This innovative program, targeted at kids who may be the first in their family to ever go to college, allows high school seniors to graduate with both a high school diploma and a college degree. And in its first two years, it became the top high school, in language arts scores, in the State of California.

I've also learned some things along the way. In the process of bringing about change, I could have been more patient at times. But make no mistake + change was needed at Sierra College, and change is exactly what we've achieved.

In these tough economic times, we must aggressively increase access to college for the middle class. We need to focus our resources by adapting our academic programs to meet student needs and prepare them for real-world, high-paying jobs. And we need to cut our spending and invest the savings in modernizing and repairing our classrooms and labs, adding full time faculty where appropriate, and paying for retiree medical benefit promises made by past trustees.

I hope you'll join us in working to build an even stronger Sierra College. Our community deserves nothing less.

Aaron Klein Sierra College Trustee