Candidate for
District; Stanislaus County Board of Education; Area 3

Norm Lee will be an excellent choice for voters to replace Zella Gharat for the Stanislaus County Board of Education. He was my top deputy while I served as Stanislaus County Superintendent of Schools. When Norm was given a task or project to work on, he consistently prepared his homework well and helped solve problems for school districts of our county.
Norm will be a team player on the County Board of Education and he will energize his boardmanship by keeping his eye on the brass ring and that's our students.
Norm is a respected leader in our county and state.
Make your vote count and vote for Norm Lee, a person of high morals who will give his best to the school districts and students of our county.

Martin G. Petersen
Retired County Superintendent of Schools

• Very thorough understanding of effective public process; the necessity of transparency, organizational responsiveness, external and internal communications, problem analysis techniques, decision making strategies and accountability. Norm "led the way" for stakeholder involvement during our difficult but necessary school closure process and provided leadership and process improvements for our highly public district-wide deficit reduction efforts.
  
• Norm "listens" to staff and the public very effectively and is thorough about ga the ring facts and opposing perspectives on difficult issues. By not over-reacting, he has, on many occasions, helped find better, long term, organizational solutions to complicated issues.
  
• Norm is meticulous about reviewing recommended policies and expulsion procedures. His attentiveness to detail has significantly helped us align new policies with regulations and in being thorough and fair when dealing with expelled students and families.
  
• Norm has a comprehensive working knowledge of educational leadership accrued over this long career in education but has some areas of specific, professional expertise in Special Education and Special Programs. As the district significantly downsized its district administration, Norm helped the district to transform our programs to be highly effective even in smaller form.
  
• Norm helped provide leadership for the development of our Facility Master Plan, the passing of our bond, and the support and guidance of our construction plan. These have resulted in the wonderful transformation of our senior elementary school and significant progress with infrastructure improvements district-wide. This effort has also improved our food service and nutrition programs impressively.
  
• Norm was a highly effective Board President who successfully guided the district through district-wide budget reductions, union furlough agreements, construction issues, and sensitive personnel and accountability issues.
  
• As the Board Representative on the Budget Advisory Committee, Norm provided budget process insights to the stakeholder members and was an aggressive force in encouraging the committee to "think out side of the box."
  
• Norm has been a part of the development of a highly creative and unique alternative education option in our district. Our Independent Study Program requires daily attendance, is technology-based and has been fabulously successful with previously unsuccessful students.

• Norm's experience as a district/county administrator as well as his current position as a school Board member, gives him a global perspective on district systems.
  
• Norm made changes and recommendations to the special education program which provided enormous fiscal savings. His personnel moves provided a better fit for the teachers involved and enhanced teacher performance.