CONTRIBUTE

PRESS RELEASES

PRESS REPORTS

CONTACT US

1. Why are you running for School Board?
   
   I am a strong advocate for excellent public education. I am passionate about improving the lives of all children and creating a positive environment for learning. I have chosen a life of public service to guarantee that our district continues on its ambitious course of improvement and continues to serve the interests of our entire school community. It is my goal to ensure that our district strives to provide our students with a rigorous, well-rounded education despite enormous funding challenges. I am committed to continuing the district’s vision of providing an outstanding academic curriculum for all students, equal access to educational opportunities for our least advantaged children and a positive working environment for all teachers and staff. I am dedicated to finding solutions for our district’s enormous funding challenges, promoting extraordinary achievement for all children, improving special education, and facilitating collaboration among our parents, teachers and communities.
   
   
2. What has been your personal involvement with education in our community?
   
   I have been a parent and active volunteer in the district for the past 8 years. I have dedicated myself not only to my children’s schools but also to the entire district. My experiences include the district’s Financial Oversight Committee, PTA Council, Community for Excellent Public Schools, PTA President, and establishing the Malibu Teen Center. I have also served on the Site Governance Council, and the PTA Executive Boards at PDMS and MHS. I was Co-Chair of the Measure S Campaign, Vice-Chair of the Measure EE District Advisory Committee and Malibu Steering Committee for Measure Y and Proposition X. I am a founding Chair of CEPS Malibu.
   
   
3. What makes you stand out among the other candidates? What special attributes, talents, and abilities will you bring to our district?
   
   My vision has always been comprehensive and inclusive, seeking to ensure the success of all students. My experiences at the various school sites and district committees have provided me with the knowledge that I need to create solutions to the many challenges our schools face. My extensive, proven track record has resulted in favorable, long-standing relationships with the district, the parents, the teachers and leaders in both communities. With my Doctorate in Education and my position on the District’s Financial Oversight Committee, I have the unique skills necessary to comprehend, prioritize and implement the detailed SMMUSD working budget and evaluate effective programming. I have an excellent understanding of the challenges that our district faces and the ability and reputation to make thoughtful decisions, find creative solutions and to carry out a plan of action. I am a strong advocate for excellent public education and I will put my experience, enthusiasm and vision to work to make our schools stronger.
   
   
4. What do you feel is the number one challenge facing our schools today?
   
   The biggest challenge facing all of our schools today is how to provide an outstanding education for all children and equal access to educational opportunities with inadequate financial resources. We are fortunate to have quality public schools with dedicated teachers and staff members who strive to achieve excellence. Some of our schools consistently rank among the top in the state in spite of the fact that California has fallen well below the national average in spending per pupil for the past two decades. Our challenge as a district is to ensure that all of our schools are able to provide this same quality of education. I believe that our Santa Monica – Malibu school district has the ability to succeed with ALL of our children – those who have special needs, those who are on track and those who are gifted. We have the ability to stop talking about closing the achievement gap and to actually close it. To accomplish this, we must create, implement, and evaluate programs and retain them based on their success.
   
   
5. Do you fully support the agreement negotiated for the City of Santa Monica to provide funding to the School District?
   
   I fully support and worked towards the agreement that was negotiated between the City of Santa Monica and the School District. I was an active in the initial planning stages of the charter initiative and an active participant in the signature gathering of the petition. I will continue to advocate for community support of our local schools from both cities.
   
   
6. If the Santa Monica-Malibu Unified School District faced a budget crisis brought on by circumstances outside the District's control, such as by funding cuts from the State of California, would you be willing to support crisis funding to the District even beyond the City-School District funding agreement?
   
   History has shown that cooperation between our cities and educational institutions is essential for improving and strengthening our school system. I will continue to seek out and support collaborative opportunities between the cities and our educational institutions. However, I also believe that CEPS and other advocacy groups should make every attempt to identify sources of revenue within the cities’ budgets to ensure that we are not forcing the cities to eliminate funding for other essential services to our citizens. For example, several years ago, after scrutinizing the budget for the city of Malibu, I was able to identify an obsolete budget item that lead to the redirection of $165K to fund youth services within the City. In 2003 and 2004, we were able to identify revenue to direct towards a contribution to the school district, by far the largest in the history of Malibu. As a member of CEPS, I believe that our top priority is to ensure the welfare of all citizens with special regard to the importance of education for a strong community. I will continue to advocate for funding for our schools with additional funds if necessary, within the broader perspective of benefits to the overall communities.
   
   
7. Despite the agreement with the City of Santa Monica, SMMUSD continues to face financial uncertainty. If the District’s financial situation continues to deteriorate, what measures would you suggest in response?
   
   While state funding for education remains dismal, our district does a reasonable job of maintaining sound educational programs, keeping budget cuts as far away from the classroom as possible, and maintaining our strong commitment to positive working conditions for our employees. As a member of the financial oversight committee, I am actively involved in examining the district’s budget and uncover inefficiencies in the budget process and allocation of funds. We can improve our budgetary process by monitoring areas of overrun such as substitute teacher costs and unbudgeted special education costs with a more efficient system of tracking expenses and communicating budget constraints to administrators and staff. Efficient monitoring and allocation of our scarce resources, organized fundraising campaigns and continued support from the community and cities, will enable the district to maintain its excellent quality of education. Prioritization of the goals as outlined in the district’s strategic plan will enable the board to determine which programs should be implemented during times of adequate funding and which are eliminated when there is a budget shortfall.
   
   
8. Although standardized test scores show increasing improvement in our schools, significant differences among economic and cultural groups still exist. What can the District do to continue the overall success in academic achievement while significantly closing the achievement gap?
   
   One of the goals in the district’s strategic plan is to train teachers in methods of differentiated instructions to maximize learning opportunities and to create effective learning experiences based on individual need. It is critical for the district to evaluate what we are doing with regard to professional development to ensure that all students are receiving the highest level of education possible and that teachers are prepared to identify and implement teaching methods to target students who are at-risk for academic failure. While earning my Ph.D. in Education at UCLA, I specialized in examining achievement in at-risk youth. My background qualifies me to evaluate and implement programs that will help close the achievement gap.
   
   Many of our students do not qualify as resource students but remain below proficient in a given subject area. Programs targeted to these students can minimize and prevent many problems that arise in later grades. Programs such as AVID, Project Reach, and Literacy First, target students who need extra support to become successful in the most rigorous classes. As a district, it is our responsibility to evaluate and monitor these programs to maximize effectiveness. It is also our responsibility to employ proper diagnostic techniques to identify students who are at-risk for academic failure and to provide differentiated instruction and proper support to these students in a timely manner.
   
   
9. What is your view of the redesign of Samohi? What do you think should be the priorities in moving forward?
   
   I support redesign at Santa Monica High School as a reasonable measure of High School reform. The creation of smaller learning communities within the large school setting has the potential to better serve the needs of the students and teachers. Based on the preliminary evaluation of student success at SAMO, the re-design is starting to successfully achieve its objectives with respect to closing the achievement gap. It is critical that the administrators continue to evaluate the effectiveness of this program and identify areas for improvement. It is also essential that the district solicit input from the teachers, administrators, staff, students and parents to identify areas that will strengthen student achievement. The district must take proper steps to ensure that the various houses do not become segregated in any way and that all students have the same opportunities to learn.
   
   
10. What are your views on the district Gift Policy/Equity Fund? What is the value of using a student-weighted formula in the distribution of funds?
    
    I applaud the gift policy as an opportunity for collaborative fundraising and creation of an awareness of the differences in educational opportunities that exist between our school sites. As a past PTA President and fundraising chairperson, I am acutely aware of the pressure that parent volunteers face attempting to raise adequate funds to provide basic educational necessities for our students. We are all faced with the daunting task of providing our children with an excellent education in a state that does not adequately fund their educational needs.
    For the past few years, I have worked closely with parent and community volunteers from each of the schools within the district. It is my experience that all of our parents work tirelessly to improve the education of the children in the district. Yet, many of our schools have little chance of improving the size of the contributions they receive from the parents at their schools or businesses in their neighborhoods. This is an issue of demographics not effort. We have the talent and the resources to create a culture of giving that will ensure equal opportunities for all children in the district. I have continued to voice my support of this policy in spite of great opposition within my own community. I have worked tirelessly to promote the message behind this policy and to correct misinformation within the parent population.
    After months of debate, the Gift Policy was voted into effect at the 9/9 meeting of the Board of Education. Although I support the distribution of funds based on the weighted student formula, I have continued to lobby the board to allocate Equity Funds for a district-wide intervention program rather than redistributing funds back to schools solely in the form of block grants. I continue to believe that the goal of these funds should be to close the achievement gap through district-wide targeted intervention programs. I was extremely pleased with the decision of the BOE to set aside Equity Fund contributions to district programming first and then to allocate the remainder back to sites for use based on educationally sound criteria. I believe that this will allow the district to implement effective programming in a cost-efficient manner while giving the least advantaged schools extra funding and some local control in the form of block grants.
    
    
11. The Special Education Strategic Plan calls for a re-tooling, or re-engineering of the system and the move to a prevention model. What is your position on the Special Ed Strategic plan and how would you fund it?
    
    Special Education has been a significant interest of mine for many years because I believe that as a district we can and should be doing a much better job of educating children who require special services. I have been following the discussions within the Special Ed Strategic Committee and have studied the reports from 2000 and 2004. In order to implement the goals of the special education plan, the district needs a careful evaluation of the costs of new programming and an accurate accounting of the costs of the services we currently provide. I am in favor of implementing some of the “Quick Wins” in the strategic plan and examining programs with low cost and high impact that may be implemented immediately. Currently, the district provides services to children through nonpublic agencies at great cost to the district. Given the proper planning, teacher support and training, and careful examination of areas that we could be more efficient, such as transportation costs and NPS costs, it is not unreasonable to believe that we can implement some of these short-term goals immediately while strategizing ways to fund longer-term programming improvements. I am supportive of strengthening our existing Learning Resource Center, the creation of a Learning Resource Center in Malibu, and the creation of a special day class for autistic children. I also believe that extra funding can be obtained through grants and nonprofit agencies such as the Malibu Special Education Foundation while simultaneously lobbying for necessary state and federal funding.
    
    
12. What is your assessment of the early childhood education programs presently offered by the District? Would you support increased funding for them so that expanded services like a full-day early childhood program could be offered to parents?
    
    I am committed to supporting early childhood education program for our students. The district has a responsibility to the community to facilitate effective outreach programs to underserved members of the community who will benefit the most from a comprehensive kindergarten-readiness program. It is our responsibility to provide the resources necessary to Child Development Services to identify and recruit families for appropriate preschool services.
    Currently, our district provides several different types of early childhood programs through various funding sources such as Head Start, Easter Seals and state and federal programs. Many of these programs are offered for a limited number of hours and do not accommodate working families. In order to provide services to for these student during times of dismal state funding for education, the district must continue effective collaboration with outside agencies to provide funding for these programs. Further, it is imperative that we assess the programs currently offered to determine if we are offering programs that are cost efficient and educationally sound.
    
    
13. How do you view the current proposal to separate the Santa Monica-Malibu Unified School District?
    
    As the only candidate from Malibu running for this seven-member board, one of the problems I’ve heard over and over again as I campaign throughout our two cities is that the School Board needs to communicate better and more frequently with those it serves. Our students, parents, teachers, and others involved in public education need to have more contact and a two-way dialogue with those who create school policy. I believe that as a district we are committed to the education of all students in both cities. However, not all of the parents in Malibu share this view. Efforts to separate the district are in the preliminary stages and years away and it is too early to comment on whether or not this idea is educationally sound, financially viable and beneficial to all students. I only favor the creation of a separate district if it can be proven that it is beneficial to the students, teachers, and citizens of both communities. Regardless of whether or when Malibu separates from Santa Monica schools, we have a responsibility to provide a top-notch, rigorous education to every child in both of our cities. As a school board member, this will be my top priority.
    
    
14. What are your thoughts about how the district and school sites can encourage involvement and participation from families who have felt disenfranchised from their local school communities?
    
    Parents are the best advocates for their children and research consistently demonstrates that parent involvement is the number one predictor of academic success. Organizations such as PTA foster communication between parents, teachers, the school and state legislators. I have been the chairperson for Parent Education at the PTA level, and involved with parent education at the Boys and Girls Club Teen Center in Malibu, and the Parent2Parent Network at MHS. In all of our attempts at parent outreach, it is critical to remember that communication in all forms must be presented in a culturally sensitive way and made available to all parents. The District can engage all families by working with PTA on providing accurate information to parents and by providing technical assistance and coordinating support for implementing effective parent involvement activities. In addition, outreach to our underserved families is critical and board members can work collaboratively with PTA to make every effort to ensure that all families know how to advocate properly for their children.
    As the only candidate from Malibu running for this seven-member board, one of the problems I’ve heard over and over again as I campaign throughout our two cities is that the School Board needs to communicate better and more frequently with those it serves. Our students, parents, teachers, and others involved in public education need to have more contact and a two-way dialogue with those who create school policy. As a board member, I pledge to be accessible and actively involved with the school sites by visiting campuses regularly, soliciting input from various stakeholders and communicating regularly with members of the public.
    
    
15. What is a priority concern you might have regarding the district that has not been raised?
    
    Effective communication between the district staff, city councils board members and the community is essential in maintaining a positive relationship with our two cities. For the past two years, I have worked with the superintendent and the Malibu City Council to establish better communication and foster a relationship with the school district. The immediate results of this improved relationship have been the increased funding to the district and the new Shared Used Agreement between Malibu and the district. Malibu and Santa Monica may have some geographical and philosophical differences but we are united in our commitment to public education. For that commitment to persevere and flourish, it is imperative that Malibu residents feel that they are represented on the board of education by a strong, capable and experienced advocate. If I am elected, I pledge to continue my efforts to keep our communities united and focused on maintaining the highest quality of education for all children. In order to prepare myself for this challenge, I have been focusing my energy on understanding the issues faced by the schools in Santa Monica and the city of Santa Monica. I will continue to emphasize collaboration on projects that are mutually beneficial to both cities and the district, support shared use of facilities, promote public process in determining priorities and allocation of resources for the district.