Political Philosophy for Jolanda Schreurs

Candidate for
Board Member; Cabrillo Unified School District

I commend the existing School Board members for their vision and the many hard decisions they have made over the past 4 to 6 years. I believe that the School District today is stronger and more vital; with new facilities, an increase in recent test scores, new initiatives, and progress in setting school standards.

What is my vision? The CUSD and the Governing Board need to constructively work towards purposeful and unified goals. We need prospective planning. We need clear thoughtful dialogue and a philosophy that respects individuals, sets challenging performance standards, and rewards excellence.

Platform specifics

1) Continue the construction & modernization process which we began with Measure K. This will provide the much needed facilities for our overcrowded and aged middle school, high school and elementary schools. We need to continue monitoring coastside population demographics and distributions. With respect to facilities, we need to be prepared for future (3-5 years) student population changes.

2) Increase total discretionary programmatic resources. Why? Let me give you some perspective. In 96/97, CUSD received $4500 per student, the average in California was $5584. By comparison, the average in the United States was $6494. In my 15,000 people home town, Corning NY, the average is $8,800/student. It's very simple……… we are underfunded. This state is at the bottom of the nation in per student funding. This is at the heart of our state's educational problems.

The quality of Cabrillo students' education and the teacher work environment depend in large measure on these financial resources. Much like the master facilities plan, we need a global master document which delineates the district's programmatic needs, priorities and possible courses of action. This document needs to be created with district, teacher, parent and community input. I believe that there are solutions to our financial problems including: Joint Powers' agreements, parent and community resources, private foundations & grants, state and federal grants, on-line educational opportunities, summer school revenues, local parcel taxes, and increasing state revenues, etc etc. I will work to further this objective.

What could enhanced financial resources potentially translate to?

a) Classrooms with fewer students. At the elementary school level, the national average is 17 pupils per instructor. We have 30-34 students/classroom at the 4/5th grades. Similarly, we have higher numbers of secondary students per teacher than the national average.

Other data shows that US secondary school teachers teach more often each week than do their counterparts in Japan or Germany, leaving them less time than their foreign counterparts to prepare their lessons. In the US, high school teachers teach about 30 classroom sessions each week. German teachers, by contrast teach slightly more than 20 period per week and their Japanese counterparts teach fewer than 20 each week.

b) Higher teacher salaries, More preparation time, Staff development support, etc

c) Support for the arts, music, languages, PE, sports programs. Advanced Courses in Secondary School – On-line instruction. Technology support. Books, instructional materials, encyclopedias, science equipment, furniture

3) We need to work to adopt State Standards, align the curriculum, analyze the SAT-9 test results, implement program changes, and incorporate accountability criteria. Whereas this district needs to objectively analyze the SAT-9 test results, it should also incorporate findings from the NSF and the International TIMMS studies. The TIMMS studies internationally rank the US, address needs of US Science and math curriculum providing concrete and objective analyses and recommendations for incorporating best practices.

Here's an example of SAT9 test results that CUSD might investigate more closely Why does Farallone's item analyses show a distribution that is not the normal expected distribution of 30-40-30, below average/average/above average, but rather 16-57-27. It suggests that we are successful at teaching and raising the bar at our lower end, but we are not challenging our upper end students. This is but only 1 example. We need to examine data from our other schools.

Here's a few TIMMS results that our district needs to investigate and learn from.

1. US schools retain the same topics in the curriculum longer than schools abroad, suggesting that US elementary and secondary schools repeat the same math and science subjects grade after grade.

2. Only a few US 8th grade courses, those specifically classified as algebra, actually teach a significant number of algebraic concepts.

4) Improve communications between the Board, District, Teachers, Parents, and the Community. We need to understand who our stakeholders are, what their needs are, and be responsive to those needs. We need to use a variety of distinct means to disseminate 2-way information including: newsletters, PTAs and school organizations, community forums, Web postings, email, regular stakeholder lunches/brunches.

5) I support the Immersion program, but respect the boundaries placed by Prop 227. I support language instruction for all children, starting at the elementary school, and continuing through high school. Per new university entrance criteria, I believe that instruction in computer languages qualifies.

6) I DO NOT support Proposition 8 and reference all who ask to the California PTA Web site.

This a brief summary of my platform. I'm sure that there are many other important issues that need to be addressed. I am willing to be fair, do in-depth research to determine optimum courses of action and work hard. Please call me, or e-mail me if you have any additional questions.

In sum, I have the talent, the time, the energy, and the drive for this position. I would ask for your vot e on Nov 3.