Candidate for
Board Member; Antioch Unified School District

A School Board Member should be an expert at partnering relationships and consensus building. Serving the School Board is a juggling act where one is called to draw from the experiences and talents and reconcile the sometimes factionalized interests of administrators, teachers, staff, parents and teachers. This demands consummate team-playing.

I will take to heart the March 10, 2004 County Report declaring the Antioch Unified School District a "lack of going concern" and will intensely focus on remedying the root malaise which caused the District to partially or totally ignore the listed recommendations made in the 1998 County Recovery Plan.

This iceberg was avoidable as the County Fiscal Advisor cited, "the deterioration of the District's fiscal condition did not suddenly begin". Simply put, I intend to implement, not ignore, County recommendations before we totally collapse into State takeover.

Some specific overacting recommendations:

• With no axe to grind, I will objectively evaluate the Superintendent to see if they are up to the task of running a School District for a city of 105,000 people.

• I will try to first cut administration fat and staff like curriculum advisors before cutting music, custodians, crossing guards and campus security.

• If on no other grounds than public relations, I will question the propriety of $150,000.00 on conferences and the infamous $50.00 lunches.

• As an educator myself, I am a teacher's friend. Nevertheless, a 12% pay increase was excessive. Reserves need to be built to a minimum of 3% rather than binge spending in the good seasons.

I will make it clear that a dynamic School Board thrives on dialogue and respectful critique. I will give the people straight talk and I will initiate town hall meetings to hear the people. I will start an on-line newsletter to apprise people of on-going developments. I will restart the abandoned joint City Council + School Board meetings and talk to other School Boards to find out what has and has not worked for their District.

I cite three examples of the pull-up-the-barricades mentality we see:

• The School Board, to the dismay of City Councilors, stopped joint meetings, therein losing valuable input on issues such a 3rd high school, campus security, crossing safety, truancy, out-of-district students, etc. as well as losing valuable joint effort solutions.

• Speaking to a neighboring School board President, I was told that in five years, she had not communicated with any of Antioch's Board members. Where is the partnership; where is the search for best practices?

• A perfect example of the communication gap is the 7th period issue. First, it was announced abolished. When hundreds of parents, teachers and students showed up at the School Board meeting; after an hour of waiting, the Trustees announced a tabled agenda. Days later, it was announced that 7th period was restored. At registration, students found out that it was technically restored, but in reality only partially and selectively restored. Where is the transparency?

We need competent business decisions to restore confidence and dissipate the bitterness.

Through a more open atmosphere at Board meetings, e-mailed newsletters, town hall meetings, etc., I believe dialogue will create constructive partnering. When citizens are heard in the process and see that we share in the remedial cuts; then we can pull oars for a common boat. Cooperation is always a work of art in progress, but in a transparent atmosphere, we can make headway and work ourselves out of the mess.

I don't have all the facts yet on whether the Superintendent is up to the job; but nothing would be off the table as I don't know the man and am not beholden to the system. At the least, it appears that the Superintendent allowed laxity to rule and incompetent staff to remain.

We need not only ask tough public questions but exercise tough follow-up after meetings. The budget is the School Board Member's Bible to be exhaustively studied and County Recovery Plans, like the one of 1998, cannot be ignored. Oversight mechanisms, audits, second opinions and, of course, qualified Business Directors are needed.

We need better communications. The School Board is not getting their message out or not getting it out well. There are legions of disgruntled parents, bitter and fearful teachers.

There were some horrific decisions. Our country suffers from a 30% childhood obesity rate and yet cuts were made to elementary P.E. Art is the basis of civilization and numerous studies indicate that music increases intelligence indexes, yet cuts were made to music. Cuts were also made to 7th period depriving our graduates of the required electives which would make them fully competitive for college.

This crisis management technique need not occur with proper controls, restraint and foresight. Since the disaster happened, we need transparency to re-instill good will and trust amongst the teachers, staff and parents.