Creativity, Accountability, Relationships, Experience & Success: Strengthen the whole by focusing on each individual student.
Creativity -- Creative solutions for the difficult problems our district faces.
- Through my extensive experience with charter schools, I can help our district find creative ways to finance and operate our schools.
- We can adopt the most desirable qualities from the charter school system and apply them to our district without converting to a charter system.
Accountability -- Hold teachers, administrators and board members accountable.
- I believe we need to treat our teachers more professionally and collaborate with them more, which means setting standards of acceptability, rewarding those who do a great job, and working to improve those whose performance does not meet those standards.
- Transparency of programs, policies and procedures is a key step to greater accountability, as is regular and meaningful evaluation of teachers, administrators and board members to judge their respective performances.
- I can help change the culture within our existing system and locate resources to facilitate the advancement we need.
Relationships -- Strengthen the bonds between parents, teachers and students.
- I believe strongly in promoting a collaborative relationship among parents, students, teachers and administrators.
- Surveys of students, parents and teachers are valuable tools that should be introduced and utilized in our schools.
Experience -- Extensive work and board experience in school finance and operations.
- In my professional work as an attorney, I have represented public and private institutions of learning as well as successful charter schools; I currently serve on the board of one of the best-performing charter school systems in the Los Angeles area.
- My experience with educational issues is unusually diverse and well-rounded: I have taught at the grammar school and graduate school levels; I have had children in public and private schools; I have been a board member for a charter school and for a private college; and my wife is a former public school teacher.
- As a concerned citizen of La Caņada Flintridge for more than 25 years, I served on the LCF Educational Foundation board from 2003 to 2006 and am presently serving on the La Caņada Public Safety Commission.
Success -- Safeguard and enhance our already excellent record of success.
- La Caņada is fortunate to be endowed with the advantages sought by other schools: an emphasis on college preparation, active parental involvement, minimal disciplinary issues, streamlined administration and high test scores. Our highly regarded school district is our community's greatest asset.
- Although we're a high-performing school district blessed with many excellent qualities, we need to improve in some areas. I have the expertise and vision to help drive this progress.
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