Candidate for
Governing Board Member; Acton-Agua Dulce Unified School District

In order to enhance the quality of education for our students, our district needs to plan for the future and to restore our district to utilizing sound fiscal practices. To this end a viable long-term strategic plan is vital. A strong plan will help prevent our district from the constant "fire fighting" it has endured in the past and the vision to plan for a permanent high school.

Budgets need to be submitted on time without deficit spending. We need to maximize the amount of state matching funds that we can obtain, yet at the same time keep our budget balanced. Because of the severe impact to the general fund, we need to minimize the amount we spend on lease and loan payments.

The education quality needs to be improved. Proactive intervention is needed before a student is recommended for our Success Academy program. To this end I fully support establishing a Saturday catch up program for our middle and high school students.

Our deferred maintenance account has a balance of over $500,000, yet at the same time many of our school buildings need repair. A deferred maintenance plan is needed, so that we can move on and fix as many of our existing structures as we can with that existing money.

Our district is the only district in the area that assesses level I developer fees. All neighboring districts are able to assess higher level II fees. To raise these fees a needs assessment must be commissioned and we must have at least one construction improvement project planned. We have a high school gym that sits void of our students. We need to adopt a plan and get moving on either fixing the existing gym or building a permanent one.

We need strong and knowledgeable administrative management. Our new board needs to diligently seek out qualified candidates to fill the open superintendents position.

Our elementary students should be able to attend their local elementary school. At the same time we need to try to restore small 20 per class sizes in grades K and 3. Responsible fiscal and facility management should allow us to accomplish both of these goals.

If we work together as a community, these goals can be accomplished.