League of Women Voters of California Education Fund
	Santa Clara County, CA November 2, 2010 Election
	Candidates Answer Questions on the Issues Board Member; Evergreen 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 Jim Zito: I would review an audit of the District budget, which should reveal the amount of funds received, and how they were spent in prior years. Then a review of each of the 18 school's budget would determine the need and allocation of these funds. I would seek additional participation from each school's administration and parent community to ensure there is a good communication and understanding of the needs at each of our 18 schools. Once this analysis and community outreach process is complete, I would recommend to the Board that we report our findings and recommendations at several community meetings throughout the District, to solicit final input before a budget is finalized. I would use all available means of outreach to communicate to the community, including multi-lingual e-mail and postings to the District web site. 2. Are the schools offering instruction appropriate to the diverse educational abilities of all the students? Answer from Jim Zito: Due to drastic budget cuts this school year, important programs and instruction have been cut - like GATE, Library services and class size increases. Next year, our school s will be even more impacted by these budget cuts. There is still a 200+ point gap in API scores between our highest and lowest scoring schools. I believe more attention can be paid to narrowing, or even eliminating this achievement gap. 3. Where do want the district to be 5 years from now? What steps should the district take to get there? Answer from Jim Zito: First, I would like to see the district with an ample and balanced budget projecting forward three years. I would strive to see our class sizes reduced back down to no more than 20:1 in K - 6 grade, with full funding for Special Ed programs, Music and the Arts. I would strive to see the achievement and test scores of our lowest scoring schools be raised to within 100 points of our highest scoring schools. I would strive to see better communication with, and participation of parents and the community with our schools. The District can take immediate steps by setting up committees with specific goals. They would be comprised of dedicated community members with specific talents to address, among other issues, the following needs: 1. Federal, State and Local grant writing 2. Community outreach and parental involvement 3. Partnerships between the District and private entities 4. Improving academic performance at 5 lowest scoring schools 5. Excellent teacher recruitment and retention In addition to setting up these standing committees of highly talented staff and community members, the District should re-evaluate its operations, deferred maintenance and capital budgets to see where it can restructure the finances to better utilize funds for their priorities. 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.