Orinda News Q & A

By Patricia "Pat" Rudebusch

The following was submitted to the Orinda News in reponse to questions the paper asked of school board candidates

The district's first priority is always to deliver a top-rate education to Orinda's students. To accomplish this, the focus must be on providing strong and enriched academic programs, hiring the best teachers, and maintaining facilities that are conducive to learning. The biggest challenge to meeting these goals is the continuing fiscal uncertainty in Sacramento. Thirty percent of OUSD's budget now comes from local sources such as the Educational Foundation of Orinda, Parents' Clubs, and the local parcel tax. Over the next few years, our challenge will be to protect the local investment in our schools from the eroding level of state support.

2. What improvement to school facilities do you feel are needed?

We're nearing completion of modernization projects at each of our schools. The scope of this work was was limited to providing long-overdue upgrades to the electrical, heating, and fire alarm systems; fresh paint and cabinetry; new flooring; and improvements for ADA accessibility. The district's master facilities plan calls for additional structural improvements to our schools, most of which are around 50 years old. This is an issue I'd like to see addressed in the next few years. In the meantime, the district's maintenance staff has identified a number of efficiencies and improvements to keep our schools in as good a condition as possible.

3.  Orinda schools enjoy an excellent reputation. Are there areas of the curriculum you would like to change or expand upon?

We've seen in the past few years that there's always room for improvement+even for a top-performing district. Math has been a major strategic focus recently and we now celebrate the fact that the vast majority of our students are performing at or above proficiency standards. In fact, OUSD's math scores are the highest in the state, as measured by statewide standardized tests.

Literacy is our next big strategic focus. Our goal here, as with math, is to ensure that every student is appropriately challenged, reaching proficiency or above, and excited about learning. Literacy is such a multifaceted area and there are exciting opportunities for improvements in how our students learn to write and improve their reading comprehension.

I'm also an advocate of providing opportunities to enrich the core curriculum, whether that be through library services, hands-on science, music and art, or character education programs. We're fortunate in Orinda that parents and the community-at-large invest in maintaining these programs which add to the robust nature of our curriculum.

4.  According to OUSD's strategic plan, the board should optimize allocation of current resources and develop additional resources. Given the cutbacks in state funding and the already heavy reliance on parental contributions, what additional resources would you cultivate?

We're currently operating with a $400,000 deficit, so securing additional sources of funding is of critical importance to maintaining our academic programs. The single most important "new" source of income for OUSD is the sale of the former Pine Grove School site. We are in contract negotiations with Pulte Homes to develop the site for housing. Once the development plan is approved by the city, and the sale is complete, OUSD will invest the sales proceeds in an endowment-type fund and use the interest earned to offset some of our annual operating costs. We hope to earn roughly $750,000 to $1 million per year from the eventual sale of Pine Grove. In the past two years, not only has the level of state funding eroded but, we also have lost income from the JFK lease of Pine Grove. The sale of the Pine Grove site is a critical element of the district's financial plan.

Aside from Pine Grove, we also must continue to fight for our schools' fair share of state and federal funding. The federal government hasn't even come close in fulfilling its promise to fund its share of special education mandates. This past year, Congress increased funding for special education but Cakifornia's local school districts saw none of it because the new revenue went directly to the state. Additionally, after several years of lobbying our state legislatures, we are finally starting to make some progress in equalizing the basic level of funding for all schools (Orinda has one of the lowest per-student funding levels in the state). Nevertheless, discrepencies remain in both state and federal funding. I'm committed to continuing to work for equitable and sufficient funding for education.

5. What qualifications do you bring to the position of school board member?

I'm seeking reelection to the school board because I believe my experience and commitment to public education will benefit Orinda's students. I wholeheartedly support the strategic goals of the district and hope to continue to work toward ensuring that each of our students benefit from an academically sound and stimulating education.

In addition to serving on the OUSD board of trustees for the past four years, I have been on the boards of the Educational Foundation of Orinda, served on Glorietta and OIS Parents' Clubs boards, worked on facility bond and parcel tax campaigns, and have been an active volunteer in my children's classrooms. Through this, I have developed a keen appreciation of what it takes to keep our schools strong and our students productive learners. Moreover, my past professional experience in nonprofit management and development has given me a unique perspective on how best to maximize resources to improve educational programs. I hope to use both my professional expertise and volunteer experience to maintain excellence in Orinda's schools.