League of Women Voters of California Education Fund
Santa Clara County, CA November 4, 2008 Election
	Daniel Robert "Dan" Bobay Answers Questions Candidate for Board Member; Milpitas Unified School District

The questions were prepared by the Leagues of Women Voters of Santa Clara County and asked of all candidates for this office.
Read the answers from all candidates (who have responded).

Questions & Answers

1. How would you determine that the schools are using federal, state and local funds wisely and fairly and how would you report your findings to the community?

The Milpitas Unified school district has a very capable and thorough staff. The accounting office pays particular attention to establishing budgets and periodically auditing performance against those budgets.These activities are normally conducted under the authority of the District Superintendent of schools. The accounting office always participates in the school board meetings, which are televised live across the city.

2. Are the schools offering instruction appropriate to the diverse educational abilities of all the students?

If they did I doubt we would have programs such as No Child Left Behind or need a staff of analysts that study the results of the annual testing as much as they currently do here in Milpitas. But if the question is about the schools in Milpitas paying attention to the students and working hard to adjust the educational program to reach those students that need help the most and take those kids that need help and tailor a program for them, the answer is YES.

3. Where do you want the District to be five years from now? What steps should the District take to get there?

The district has a challenge ahead of itself in continuing to achieve high marks in the state testing. In the next 5 years, we will be expected to be at a 95% level or some ridiculous number like that. We also have the challenge of 18,000 new homes built in an area that was never intended for residential housing or schools. We need to team with the city to get our first urban style school built. We also need to work with the city to solve the nagging problems of traffic at the high school, bus routes and ride sharing opportunities. The first step in this process is to develop support in the city council. We also have budget issues to face if the state Legislators cannot come to terms with the Governor. We will be impacted at the local level if the state cannot reconcile the budget. The District should ask our parents to urge our local representatives and legislators to establish a budget that supports the schools.

---

Responses to questions asked of each candidate are reproduced as submitted to the League.  Candidates' responses are not edited or corrected by the League.

Read the answers from all candidates (who have responded).

Candidate Page || Feedback to Candidate || This Contest
SmartVoter Home (Ballot Lookup) || About Smart Voter

---

Created from information supplied by the candidate: September 13, 2008 13:24
Smart Voter <http://www.smartvoter.org/>
Copyright © League of Women Voters of California Education Fund   http://www.lwvc.org
The League of Women Voters neither supports nor opposes candidates for public office or political parties.