Washington Elementary - School Board Candidate Survey Results

*30 yrs. experience as a Music Teacher,  k-12, incl. : Concert, Marching & Jazz Band, String & Full Orchestra, General Music, Choir, Hand Bells, Guitar, *15 yrs. exp. on Cartwright Dist. Meet and Confer/Negotiations' Team, as Chair and team member, *Cartwright Ed. Assoc. leadership positions held: Pay for Performance Committee Chair., Membership Committee Chair, Instructional and Professional Development Committee Chair., Building Rep., Member Rights rep. *Cartwright Dist. leadership roles: Dist. Insurance Committee member, Instr. Music Curriculum Consultant, Mentor teacher, Dist. Gifted/Talented program Music Conductor

Besides the time I have spent being part of the Washington Elementary and Glendale Union High Districts as a student, I have also spent plenty of time volunteering with both SOS AZ and the Washington Elementary Districts in various capacities. Most recently I was treasurer of the K-3 Override Renewal committee. While we were unsuccessful we did get about 46 percent of the vote, far better than most override renewal votes in 2007.

Since 1989 I have volunteered in the classroom, been an active member on Site Council, and several WESD District Councils. I organized a community group that worked with WESD to put on community meetings to understand School Finance. I currently work for the Arizona Department of Education as the NCLB Monitoring Coordinator.

1) First and foremost is our responsibility to give our children the best education we can. That includes being part of a coalition that includes ALL stake holders, including parents, teachers, community, administrators, and Board Members.
2) Keeping the District in sound fiscal and financial shape.
3) Keeping the Governing Board Policies up to date, functional, and representative of our educational priorities.

1.Oversight is critical. A governing board member must be willing to challenge what is occurring from the bottom up and not just accept administrative responses from a top down approach. This does not mean one has to be confrontational, just open and transparent.
2. Accountability is the next one. I watched plenty of boards in the past asking questions that had more to do with ego than enhancing student learning. That will end with this board. Forget about bridges to nowhere; I am tired of roll call votes to nowhere. Our time during meetings will focus on students and their achievement and proper stewardship of tax dollars.
3. Accessibility is the last piece. We must be visible and accessible to the community that we represent. They need to know who we are and what we stand for, and we must be there to help them as much as we can.

1. To ensure that WESD provides quality educational programs, safe learning environments that increases student achievement. 2. To oversee the Maintenance and Operations budget and be fiscally responsible to WESD shareholders(WESD home owners). 3. To ensure that WESD meet state and federal mandates through policy development.

Right now, the biggest thing we have going on in the state that affects Washington Dist. is the action going on surrounding the Flores Case and the bill the State Legislature passed at the end of last season giving money to support English Language Learners (ELL). Unfortunately, Washington Dist., and several other districts with large ELL populations, were cut out of that funding. Now, we must still provide the extra support required for the ELL students without any new money. Unless we get more funding, the only way to do that is to cut back other programs. I feel very strongly about not taking money from one group of students for another. ALL students deserve to get what they need! I plan on spending time at the State Legislature getting to know our local legislators better and letting them know our concerns.

My highest priority is K-12 education funding reform. The whole formula is too complicated and antiquated. I would work with my friends on both sides of the aisle to develop a formula that better funds special needs and ELL students but also expands school choice in a way that does not drain funding on the current K-12 public education system. I bet we could figure out a structure that would eliminate redundancy but also increase per pupil funding for our students. I would be willing to sit down and be part of the solution. Teachers: Being in a landlocked district we face unique challenges in this respect. We lost teachers because of the increase in housing costs and the growth of Dysart and other West Valley districts. We hope to get them back with our continual focus on professional development opportunities and other ways to demonstrate our appreciation for these fine people. I will make their pay a priority during our Interest Based Negotiations (IBN). I don't believe student achievement and employee morale are mutually exclusive. Instead I believe they are intertwined.

School Finance Reform. I have been and will continue to meet with legislators on the importance of evaluating how education is funded and researching what is needed to provide quality programs in a safe learning environment to ready our students for the future.

Given the funding formula we have from the state, it is very difficult to effect large scale changes in the salary schedules we presently have, but I intend to spend time looking at them and asking questions to see what we can do to help the teachers and staff we already have. To attract new teachers, we need a good staring salary. To keep those teachers, we need a strong mentoring program. There is already one in place in Washington Dist., but we should continually look at it and study the research to keep it up to date and effective. I do not like the idea of hiring full time staff from outside agencies, if we can help it, since that ends up costing more in the long run and those people are not really our employees.

Teachers are the most important resource in the school for ensuring student success. It is the responsibility of the district to attract and retain the highest quality personnel available. District efforts need to include adequate salaries and meaningful staff development efforts.

Above and beyond improving salaries, we need to ensure our teachers have the support, supplies and the environment to be successful. By providing mentoring programs, job embedded professional development and smaller class sizes will provide job satisfaction which will benefit our teachers, students and schools.

#1: Excess Utilities Funding
#2: Desegregation Funding
#3: Maintenance & Operations and/or Capital Override(s)
#4: Per Pupil Funding Formula
#5: School Facilities Board Funding

#1: Per Pupil Funding Formula
#2: Maintenance & Operations and/or Capital Override(s)
#3: School Facilities Board Funding
#4: Excess Utilities Funding
#5: Desegregation Funding

#1: Per Pupil Funding Formula
#2: Maintenance & Operations and/or Capital Override(s)
#3: School Facilities Board Funding
#4: Desegregation Funding
#5: Excess Utilities Funding

The State Legislature keeps threatening to cut, or limit, both Excess Utilities and Deseg. funding, so I listed those two first as areas that we especially need to watch. With all of the new state ELL regulations and the spiraling costs of oil and utilities, these are two areas in which we cannot afford reductions.

Just look at the numbers. If we had better per pupil funding we would not need to rely so heavilly on 3,4, and 5. M&O is the core of any school district, so too are capital overrides we would not need were we adequately funded.

Per Pupil Funding determines class size and the quality of programs offered. A school district's ability for the passage of overrides determines the districts ability to go above providing the minimum. To meet the expectation of providing a quality education and safe learning environments which in turn enhances our shareholders neighborhoods requires a financial commitment to support quality schools.

All five areas are important and these are only my bottom 3 because I couldn't list them all as no. 1's! Every year, the State Legislature puts us through months of worry about whether or not they will honor the state regulation to give us our 2% inflation increase on the Maintenance & Operations budget. They should really be talking about how much MORE they are going to give us, not cutting what little we have! As for the per-pupil funding, such things as Special Ed. have NEVER been fully funded. At best, we are being reimbursed for 80% of what we must spend on Special Ed. by Fed. and State requirements. The School Facilities Board started out great, trying to even the playing field and helping out districts with less capital funding, but the State has put more and more restrictions on them, so it has hurt us trying to get help with older buildings.

School Facilities Funding helps with infrastructural issues, so that funding is appreciated. The Excess Utilities Funding almost deserves a separate line from 1-5 because it has been a life saver for districts. Desegregation funding is helpful, and Washington has been good about not relying too much on it but it still does not address the funding inequities that exist within our present ADM funding formula.

Funding: SFB, Desegregation, and Excess Utilities funding should not be considered outside a school budget, you can not run a business or educate children without including funding that provides: much needed repairs to schools; the ability to pay rising utility costs; and to pay for a legislative directive of the new ELL mandate.

No. While I do believe in some kind of achievement testing for accountability, I believe the present AIMS test for Math tests more reading skills than math facts. The biggest problems, however, lie with the AIMS and Federal guidelines, more than with the actual tests. There are too many ways to "fail". One small group can cause a whole school, or district, to appear as failing, when, in actuality, the school may be "passing" as a whole. When the groups that are "failing" are the ELL students (who are being tested on how well they know English, not on their true learning or achievement) or Special Ed students (who, by definition, may not be able to learn as much in a year as other students), who does this help? Also, the state changing the rules and the formula every year isn't helping either.

Yes. I support AIMS but I think we need to assess what it is doing for our students. Are we using it as a diagnostic tool to measure student achievement in real time or is it just high-stakes testing? I think it needs to be part of diagnostic assessment at the grade and high school level but not a graduation requirement. Instead it should be something that recognizes the best students with a special designation on their diplomas.

No. I support AIMS as an assessment tool, but now how it is being used in judging school or teacher performance. It is best used as 1 of the indicators on evaluating how student's are meeting the state standards and for the teacher to use in assesing their teaching stratagies.

No. While I support the idea of a unified district from pre-k-12 for the benefit the continuity might have for the students, I do not support the current ballot issue. It is not well worded and will end up costing us more money, time, and frustration than it is worth. There needs to be a lot of meeting and negotiating done between the districts BEFORE the referendum is passed, not after. The way it stands now, if some of these decisions are not agreed upon ahead of time, we will be spending a lot of money on legal issues trying to get things resolved. While people think that we will save a lot of money on administrators' salaries, they fail to see that the larger a district is, the more "overseers" you will need, so the savings might not be as much as you think.

No. Senator Gray and Marty Schultz have demonstrated leadership on this issue and I respect them for that, but this plan is horrible! It won't improve articulation of services and won't reduce administrative costs, moreover it won't improve student learning. I support continued research into unification that will monitor student learning, better pay for teachers, improved articulation of services and lower administration costs. When I see such a plan I will support it!

No. The legislature has decided to remove funding for this initiative. If it passes it will be detrimental to our students. This, will in turn adversely affect our shareholders, by not having successful schools that encourage quality families to live in our neighborhoods, they will fall in decline.

Thank you for asking me to participate!

I have had the honor of being on the WESD Governing Board for the past 4 years. During this time we have brought back Art, Music, and PE to our schools. WESD has developed and implemented a strategic plan that support WESD's new vision, mission and value statements. I am committed to providing "Excellence for every child, every day, every opportunity". During the next 4 years I will continue to work for our students and the shareholders of WESD.