League of Women Voters of California Education Fund
	Santa Clara County, CA November 2, 2010 Election
	Candidates Answer Questions on the Issues Board Member; Cambrian School District

The questions were prepared by the Leagues of Women Voters of Santa Clara County and asked of all candidates for this office.     See below for questions on Funding, Instruction, Future Click on a name for candidate information.   See also more information about this contest. 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? Answer from Alan Baker: Annual budget reports and audits. Discussions at Board Meetings. Formal agenda item. Newsletter to parents. Answer from Gary Chronert: I fully support the Board's role in defining the budget priorities, authorizing the annual budget, and its continual monitoring of spending throughout the year. During my time on the Board (since 1993) Cambrian has always passed their budget on time, and has passed its annual audit with no exceptions. These topics are discussed on a regular basis during Board meetings, as well as updates on the District web-site. Answer from Randy Scofield: As a school board member a top priority is the responsibility to wisely manage the public's money. To meet this responsibility, I look at a variety financial reports and district plans to ensure that the resources are being used wisely and fairly. The annual district budget, the mid-year and year-end comparisons of actual expenditures to budget, the annual audit reports, school plans, monthly warrant reportst(the detailed list of expenditures) are a few examples of the information I review. As mentioned above, a top priority is to have strong fiscal responsibility, but it needs to be aligned to the district priorities. As part of this process Cambrian conducted a community survey with the results provided to a strategic planning task force which I was a member of. This task force was comprised of community members, parents, teachers and staff, and administrators whose charge was to update the district mission, vision, goals and priorities. These results were adopted by the Board and all administrators and school site councils have been asked to prepare school plans in a format that reflects the alignment of programs and related budgets with the District's priorities. The school plans communicate this information to the community and are available on school websites and are discussed publicly at meetings of the Home and School Clubs, School Site Councils, and meetings of the School Board. Answer from Jeff Cutuli: I believe it is imperative to have a business plan, annual operation plans, financial decision-making tools, and financial benchmarks in order to make smart decisions to spend funds. The business plan is the map that guides an organization to achieve its near- and long-term goals. The business plan weaves the organization's vision, hard data, and business assumptions together to chart a direction for the organization to follow. It includes revenue forecast, which drives the financial plan (pro forma income statement, balance sheet, cash flow statements, capital investment plans, etc). The plan documents the strategies (what we will do) and many of the tactics (how we will do it) to achieve its goals. The business plan is not rigid, but dynamic and an essential business tool to guide the organization. The annual operation plan exists to support the business plan from year to year, including revenue forecasts and costs. Likewise, financial models are valuable tools to enable decision-making that keeps the organization on financial track. Smart managers use financial models to assess the financial impact of "what if" business scenarios (change), to evaluate the return on capital investment (payback, net present value of facility upgrades), or to quantify risks (probability that we will attain the desired payback). I highly recommend and promote the use of financial models for financial decision-making. It saves assessment time and expedites smart and responsible decision-making. Financial benchmarks would provide valuable feedback of business management performance. In a similar manner that teachers grade students (A, B...F) and the state measures academic performance (STAR testing and API), financial benchmarks help our administrators to turn weaknesses into strengths and continuously improve. I would propose to simplify financial reporting so that it is easier for the public to scrutinize and understand. Currently, the School Board publishes financial information (plans, budgets, monthly expenditures, capital investment proposals, etc.) in the attachments of the School Board Meeting Agendas, which are posted on the District's web site. In general, this information is easy for the public to access; however, it is difficult to read and interpret without guidance or dialogue. By design the current Board Meeting does not allow opportunity for two-way discussion with the public. Home & School Clubs are focused on their own programs and financial objectives and do not and, frankly, should not be responsible to present and respond to the details of the School Board's reports. As a Board Member I would encourage the use of a "town hall" meeting to invite real time exchange between the School Board, Administrators, and the public. I would encourage the School Board to promote video streaming conference (i.e. Skype, WebEx, Go-to-Meeting, etc) and messaging technologies to open channels of communication with the public. At some level, the business plan, annual operation plans, financial plans, financial benchmarks, other business related documents, as well as academic reports and presentations should be available for easier access to the public for review and comment through the District's web site or blog. PowerPoint presentations, charts, and excel spreadsheets are not self-explanatory, therefore the Board and Administration needs to provide their written interpretation with data, reports, plans and presentations that they publish for public viewing. I believe the Board and Administration are responsible to facilitate exceptional communication with the public. The resumption of the Superintendent's Quarterly News Letter might be a good start to report financial performance, revive communication, and invite the public involvement. Answer from Stacey Brown: I would gather and evaluate feedback from all stakeholders, administrators, teachers, students and parents and create a scorecard of what I like to call metrics that matter. I would make a standing board meeting agenda item to review the scorecard and would distribute the it throughout the Cambrian community. 2. Are the schools offering instruction appropriate to the diverse educational abilities of all the students? Answer from Randy Scofield: I support Cambrian's efforts to continuously improve and look for innovative opportunities to help children learn. The district offers a variety of programs designed to meet the needs of students of diverse educational abilities. The differentiated instructional strategies that all teachers are trained in, materials provided to support this are base of our approach to meeting all students' needs. We need to focus this in significant effort to close the achievement gap that continues to grow in Cambrian schools. Answer from Gary Chronert: I fully support every child learning every day. The Cambrian District continues to offer a curriculum to the whole child. An achievement gap exists in Cambrian, but it is one of my focus areas to continue to offer programs that reach all students. Answer from Jeff Cutuli: Yes and No. The 2009 Academic Performance Index (API) for the Cambrian District is exceptional with a score of 878 out of 1000. However, there is a performance gap between our demographic groups with the API ranging from 650 to 960. Clearly, we have students at both ends whose needs are unique and require different teaching strategies to achieve their potential. Accelerated programs are essential to keep our high achievers engaged and challenged. Likewise, our lower performing students may greatly benefit from other programs, for example: pre-school programs, smaller classes, reading focus, individualized educational services, parent resources, social thinking, or after-school support. I'm committed to help all children to be remarkable learners by supporting teachers creative freedom in the classroom and by finding the financial resources to provide more services. Answer from Alan Baker: That is an objective. We are currently utilizing differentiated instruction as well as other methods to accomplish this. We are always looking for other opportunities as this is key to closing the achievement gap. Answer from Stacey Brown: I think the district has selected and implemented good curriculum and delivered it well. Reviewing our academic performance however shows a clear achievement gap with roughly 25% of our demographic population. I believe there are additional programs and services we can be offering to close the achievement gap such as Spanish language Kindergarten for English learners and middle school math for parents to name a few. In the end I think the Cambrian School District must find more innovative ways to engage the part of our population who are struggling. 3. Where do want the district to be 5 years from now? What steps should the district take to get there? Answer from Randy Scofield: I believe in encouraging a district culture that values collaboration, innovation, and effective communication and challenges itself to reach their common goals. I participated in the District's strategic task force and as a board member voted to approve the Strategic Goals for the District.They are reviewed by the community and updated every three years. They are: All students will meet and exceed student learning goals at each grade level. All students will demonstrate and apply critical thinking skills. All students will exhibit effective interpersonal skills and value diversity. Achieving the goals requires an ongoing and deliberate focus. We have grown this in the past and continue to have success but our ability to drive change and modify to meet our at risk and sub groups needs to be re-aligned to meet the goals above.. This is the foundation on which we move forward to meet the future. Answer from Stacey Brown: I envision the Cambrian School District being the premier example for the region of how to deliver education in the 21st century. To accomplish this, Cambrian must become innovators in curriculum and teaching methods and secure non-traditional sources of funding. Lastly, we must embrace our student's technology literacy and remove obstacles to integrating technology with student achievement. Answer from Jeff Cutuli: I want to see the academic performance gap shrink between our major demographic groups. We could do this by directing resources and recruit volunteers to mentor parents to more effectively work with their children from pre-K through 8th grade. Also, I would promote on-line or take-home summer school to minimize the loss in academic skills and knowledge over the course of summer vacation. Both supervised and self-study summer programs have helped students to maintain and advance their skills in reading, writing and math. It is common for students to be promoted to an accelerated class or skip a grade in math by pursuing a self-study summer studies. Most important, I want to see the school district to be fiscally sound and responsible in order to keep our focus on our vision, mission, and core competence of academic excellence and safety. To do so, we need to apply financial models to help us make wise decisions under-uncertainty, create new revenues streams, improve assets management, adopt frugal spending habits, eliminate redundancies, install technologies to enhance student learning, make facilities improvements with quick financial payback, foster volunteerism, corporate involvement, and minimize the student-to-teacher ratio. If our current business plan is not sustainable, then let's develop and implement a new business plan that is tailored for our new economic reality and enables us to attain exceptional performance. Answer from Gary Chronert: Cambrian is not the same district it was when I first came on the Board in 1993. It has implemented a more standardized, content driven curriculum consistently offered across all grade levels and schools. At the same time the offering of enhanced science, physical education, music, and art has provided many more learning opportunities for the children served by Cambrian Schools. We need to continue on this path. The continued analysis of data, targetted instruction for each child, a safe environment to learn and teach, and a stable financial platform will allow Cambrian to continue to provide a quality education to each child. Responses to questions asked of each candidate are reproduced as submitted to the League.  Candidates' responses are not edited or corrected by the League. Answers must not refer directly or indirectly to another candidate. The order of the candidates is random and changes daily. Candidates who did not respond are not listed on this page.