Candidate for
Trustee; Orange Unified School District; Trustee Area 3

My background in the field of education is diverse. Every role that I have undertaken, I have thoroughly enjoyed. I have taught in classrooms from kindergarten through community college, have been equally effective in working with students of all ages, and learned a great deal about teaching (and life) along the way.

Prior to my first full-time teaching assignment, I worked for three years as a full time classified employee. I also coached at the high school varsity level for 6 years. During this time, I completed my student teaching at Costa Mesa High School in Orange County. I earned Orange County Coach of the Year honors in 1981.

My first full-time teaching assignment was teaching 7th and 8th grade Social Studies at a middle school for four years. During this time, I also served as the ASB moderator and Faculty Club president. At the end of my third year of teaching, I was appointed as a mentor teacher in charge of implementing the `Clinical Supervision' model into our District. Part of that assignment was to create a peer-coaching program at our site.

I spent the next eight years as an administrator. My first year in administration was spent working as an assistant principal at a middle school in Ontario, followed by 2 years as an assistant principal at an elementary school in the District where I lived. My first principalship was at an elementary school where our student population changed from a `small' school of slightly over 400 students, with no self contained special needs classes; to a site with 775 students and 6 self-contained SDC classes (including an SED, a CH, and 2 TMH classes). During this whole period, I was the only site administrator. I take a great deal of pride in knowing that during my tenure at this school, our scores went from the lowest in the District (the year before I started) to being in the top three in every subject area when I left. In my last year as principal, I was nominated, and selected as a finalist, for the Riverside County PTA Principal of the Year. Our parent satisfaction survey and staff satisfaction survey ranked us #1 in our District. We also had an outstanding Program Quality Review and Coordinated Compliance Review in which one of the reviewers wrote that we were "one of the best schools in the state" that he had ever had the pleasure of visiting. The review team also cited my leadership as being exemplary.

Prior to my current position, I taught special education as a Resource Specialist for grades K-6 for four years. During this time, I was also the District Mentor Teacher in charge of Special Needs/At-Risk programs. Part of this assignment was my responsibility for the development of a District-wide process for SST (student-study teams). As well as developing forms and procedures, I did inservice training for all certificated teachers at the elementary, middle, and high schools.

For my current teaching assignment in the Lake Elsinore Unified School District, I work with parents and students in all grade levels, K-12. In addition, I initiated an online education program for students in grades 5-12, which I teach as well. My day is a mixture of working with students of all ages. I also work daily with parents; instructing them how to teach and to communicate better with their children. I am also certified as a trainer in a program called Active Parenting and have taught evening parenting classes in our District. In addition to my regular teaching duties, I am the Digital High School Project Coordinator for our site (I was also the grant writer for this program for both our site and another site in our District which brought in over $150,000 in funding). This position includes responsibility for staff development to integrate technology into all areas of the curriculum. For many years, I was responsible for all of the ordering of software and hardware, and set-up and maintenance of hardware.

Through my experience in both the Home Education and the Special Education programs, I have learned to truly tailor children's education to their unique needs and abilities. I took on a new challenge 2 years ago as our site Self-Study Coordinator for our first WASC review. I am pleased to say that our site received a full 6 year accreditation in our first review! That is a rare accomplishment. This was an arduous process that was extremely productive for our students, parents, and staff.

This past year, our small school was ranked #5 among ALL the public high schools in Riverside County based on our API scores. We were only 1 point behind the school ranked ahead of us at #4.

Outside of school, I have also contributed as a community member. In the early 1980's I served on the Canyon Lake Homeowners Association Board as the Vice-President. During that time, I initiated a summer day camp and Family Film Night at the local community center. For the past fours, I have served on our Vista Heights Estates Homeowners Association Board. The first year I was the Vice President. For the past three years I have served as the President of our association.