Candidate for
Governing Board Member; Milpitas Unified School District

Learning environment:

• It is important that our students, staff, administrators and parents feel safe while they are on our school campuses. It is also vital that they have the resources to learn, to teach and to provide the support for everyone. I believe that we have shown that safety continues to be a high priority for our district. In partnership with the City of Milpitas, we have obtained funding and provided the monies for 2 Milpitas Police Resource Officers on both of our middle school campuses. These officers provide valuable education on how to "just say no", how to deal with peer pressure, and how to see our police as a resource and role models.
• Over the past 4 years, we have spent approximately $90 million dollars on classroom improvements, building multi-use rooms and a new state-of-the-art Math/Science wing at Milpitas High School. After the citizens of Milpitas approved the $64.7 million dollar bond in 1996, our district received approximately $30 million in matching funds for many projects. These improvements could not have happened without the support of the Milpitas Community.

• Our district teachers, administrators, board members and students are all working on the Focus on Success goals adopted in Milpitas. Our students continue to show improvement in test scores.
• We have implemented class size reductions to 20 students to 1 teacher at all of our primary grades.
• Our district goal is to ensure that all students are at grade level for reading by the end of 3rd grade.

• Resources have been made available to our teachers to assist students in reaching their potential. All of us know we need to be accountable for all of the students in our district. Test results are used and compared for each individual student to ensure that they will receive the needed support in specific areas.
• All of our administrators, every board member and several teachers from each school site have taken an intense 2-day course, "Beyond Diversity". This course provided strategies to understand how our students learn differently and how we can assist them in being successful.