League of Women Voters of California Education Fund
Santa Clara County, CA November 7, 2006 Election
	Janice A. Hector Answers Questions Candidate for Board Member; Union School District

The questions were prepared by the Leagues of Women Voters of Santa Clara County and asked of all candidates for this office.
Read the answers from all candidates (who have responded).

Questions & Answers

1. How would you determine that the schools are using federal, state and local funds wisely and fairly and how would you report your findings to the community?

As a board, we've put in place a process that involves our community in budget preparation and adoption. By including parents, teachers, administrators and staff in the entire budget discussion, we get better decisions and have a better opportunity to ensure that we are meeting the needs of the district's children. We maintain a district-wide budget committee comprised of parents from each school site and representatives from our employee groups. We, as a board, ask tough questions to ensure that we are spending our money wisely and fairly. Having worked as a product manager with multi-million dollar budgets at a Fortune 500 company -- and having worked with school district budgets for over a decade, I'm familiar with the complexities of the budget and I know that our questions help insure that we are considering the needs of all students as we finish our budget. It's a complex process with thousands of line items, but the basic issues are clear. Just as with a household budget, there isn't enough money to do everything that everyone would like to do. So we make tough choices, always putting the interests of the children first. Because we've been careful in how we've spent in the past, Union School District continues to be able to provide programs that aren't available in other districts in academics, performing arts, science, and sports. We've been able to maintain those programs and relatively small class sizes while keeping employee compensation competitive and providing better training for teachers, administrators and staff.

In addition to the budget process, we also conduct an annual audit of what we have spent in the past year. We publish information about our spending in a quarterly newsletter mailed to the entire district and on the district website. If there are important spending issues that need more attention, we involve the community in reviewing these issues and in helping to guide us to a good decision, as we did with the initiative that led to passage of a $92 million bond used to modernize our schools.

2. Are the schools offering instruction appropriate to the diverse educational abilities of all the students?

The key to providing education that meets the diverse needs of our students is what happens in the classroom. As a district, our goal is to equip every teacher with the skills to identify and the knowledge to respond to the educational needs of a wide variety of students. We provide regular training sessions that give not only teachers, but staff and site administrators, the tools they need to handle a multi-cultural student body with learning abilities that vary widely. Within each classroom, we equip teachers to develop strategies for differentiated instruction. We encourage them to use appropriate techniques to involve and educate students with very different backgrounds by engaging each in a way that is appropriate to the student's heritage, learning style and ability. Our curriculum is focused on California standards, but we supplement our core curriculum with other educational opportunities, including offerings in the arts, music, and athletics. The biggest challenge for the board is to ensure that we've created an environment that attracts motivated and talented teachers and staff. That means ensuring that pay and benefits are competitive, that training is available and worthwhile, and that teachers, administrators and staff are able to make decisions that improve how things are done in the schools and in the classroom.

3. Where do you want the District to be five years from now? What steps should the District take to get there?

As educators, the issues we face are global as well as local. Our children are growing up in a world that is shrinking and becoming more competitive. Students in India, Japan and China will grow up to compete with our students for jobs and opportunities. As a result, it isn't enough to compare ourselves to other local school districts. We must look outside the U.S. to ensure that we are asking enough of our students. In math and science, we need to recognize that students in other countries are ahead of those in the U.S. Our best students need to be inspired to compete with these students and all students need to understand that education will be critical to their success. It won't be easy to get this message across. Too many of our state's students enter college without the basics in math, English, history and even geography + knowledge that Union School District's teachers are imparting to our children. To meet this challenge, the district needs to make large investments in infrastructure to take advantage of the Internet and technology which will continue to offer better tools for teachers and students. While the district has put in place the basic groundwork, technology quickly becomes outdated and it will be critical over the next five years to continue making those investments. We must remain vigilant in seeking out the best tools for teachers and students and in providing proper staff training to encourage the most effective use of these tools.

---

Responses to questions asked of each candidate are reproduced as submitted to the League.  Candidates' responses are not edited or corrected by the League.

Read the answers from all candidates (who have responded).

Candidate Page || Feedback to Candidate || This Contest
SmartVoter Home (Ballot Lookup) || About Smart Voter

---

Created from information supplied by the candidate: October 5, 2006 06:45
Smart Voter <http://www.smartvoter.org/>
Copyright © League of Women Voters of California Education Fund   http://www.lwvc.org
The League of Women Voters neither supports nor opposes candidates for public office or political parties.