Candidate for
Board Member; Moreland School District

Although Moreland School District has enjoyed decades of success educating children in West San Jose the future will require the District Administration, the Governing Board, and the Teachers Association to work together, in concert, to navigate through the financial turmoil and ever-changing community environment presented.

A successful and cooperative blending of these three organizations, whose goals should be one in the same, i.e. providing the best possible educational opportunities to our children, will help preserve and maintain the continued academic and community success the children of Moreland, past and present, enjoy. Without a cohesive and cooperative environment, all successes, perceived and real, have potential to dissipate and wane.

It is clear and redundant to say that we all want to improve student performance and achievement. It is also clear and redundant to say that we all want to improve and maintain safe environments on all District campuses/sites. What is not so clear is why we have to spend so much time talking about these maxims of public education when we should spend this time making things happen, i.e., raising money for programs, classrooms, children, and raising public awareness about the great things our schools are doing. The fact is the District needs to look in different directions and in obscure places to find new solutions and answers to the same challenges and problems the District faces year in and year out.

Obviously, all of the traditional fiduciary duties that encompass the job description for Governing Board Members are applicable and are required. However, moving forward the District is crying out loud for "outside the box" thinking, alternative ideas, and creative solutions to the every day, every month and every year problems and challenges, including, but not limited to:

1) There needs to be District-Wide Leadership in fundraising throughout the community business and corporate infrastructure. This leadership has to start at the top, including the Governing Board.

2) There needs to be a District-Wide public relations campaign to get the Moreland message to the entire community. This too, starts at the top and includes the Governing Board.

3) The District Administration needs to take the initiative in environmentally sound decision-making. First by implementing alternative energy solutions into all existing buildings, and in new construction projects by utilizing solar-panel technology, fuel-cell technology, thermal-mass technology, and water-saving landscaping, etc., the District can save large amounts of resources that can be put back into the teachers hands for the classrooms and the children. In addition to saving hundreds of thousands of dollars every year, being environmentally conscious and proactive is the RIGHT thing to do. Moreover, it is critically important we teach our children that energy conservation is a vital component to a lasting, healthy and clean planet.

4) And finally, the District needs to have a formalized "District-Wide Strategic Plan" such that all people who are involved, touched, employed, or educated by this District knows where it is going, what its goals are, and when it will arrive at those goals. Without such a plan people are left to guess, speculate, and conjecture as to what the District's next move will be.

Without comprehensively and painstakingly evaluating these above four items we can not be intellectually honest with ourselves or with our children because we could not truthfully say that we are trying our best to find possible solutions and remedies to the District challenges/problems. We must give these ideas a chance.