Candidate for
Governing Board Member; Baldwin Park Unified School District

We as a school district need to take a holistic approach toward the education of our students in Baldwin Park. To begin with we must set the bar high for our students. We need to provide the opportunities for our students to go on to four year universities. Although some students may not choose to go to college, this should not deter us from creating the proper avenues of support for our students to be on a college bound track.

In order to decrease the drop out rates in the district we need more academic and social intervention programs that focus on motivating and preparing at risk youth for graduation and college. We need to hire twice as many counselors and use volunteer mentors to provide that support.

In order for our district to raise its API scores to state targets we must focus on reading comprehension skills. Low test scores often are a result of weak reading skills. We also need a stronger emphasis on the core subjects such as math and English. There must be a common vision and clear expectations for our students.

Finally we need to focus district wide on accountability and accessibility of all parents, teachers and administrators. Our kids need to be encouraged to be on a college-bound track. This means we also must make available more teacher development, including collaborative grading and lesson planning. Finally, our students would learn better by having clear curriculum choices. We must hold all students to extremely high expectations.