Los Angeles County, CA November 2, 1999 Election
Smart Voter

Priorities for School Board Action

By Andrew Ed Gililland

Candidate for Governing Board Member; Monrovia Unified School District

This information is provided by the candidate
With all the issues, programs, and opportunities the School Board has to choose from, there are three major issues I will make my priority.
Across America School Boards are being faced with tough, critical issues that often have conflicting solutions or seem to have no solutions at all. Low student achievement, violence and drugs in the schools, and lack of hope among our youth are cited as reasons for our society to feel the schools are not very good and are getting worse. An article I recently read compares that feeling to the general feeling in the 1950's that our schools were not very good, but they were getting better. School Boards today are being challenged with statements that they should be disbanded and control of the School Districts given over to Mayors or Governors. Board members have to face budgets that aren't big enough, teachers and staff that want adequate pay, a shortage of qualified teachers in California, separation of church and state, curriculum standards that are changing, fears of violence in the schools, and new tests that are being used inappropriately to stratify school performance. While all these are important issues, we can pay a little attention to the many problems, or we can focus the Boards efforts on the most important issues, solve them, and move on to make Monrovia Unified the example of how California Schools should operate.


I believe the first priority we must focus on is bringing our curriculum, teaching methods and programs into line with the new state standards and to go beyond those standards to make every student the best they can be. The SAT9 tests have been badly misused, but we must work with the State to improve the SAT9 and find other assessment tools that adequately measure our students progress. Then these assessment tools must be used to improve our schools so that all our students are well prepared for the direction they choose after high school. We must continue to provide programs for the high achievers such as the GATE program & Advanced Placement courses; programs for the students that will go into careers such as the ROP and adult education programs; and programs for the students with special talents in the arts, sports, journalism, etc. All these must be coordinated with a core curriculum that prepares our students to be the very best they can be (I like the motto "Every student a star"). We must insure the assessment tools are developed and used to insure steady progress in every student in our schools, progress that is measured often so teachers can make the changes needed to make every student a star. I believe we have excellent teachers, staff, and administrators. If the Board will insure proper assessment tools are developed and used, I believe they can make Monrovia the #1 district in California.


Second, I believe we must work with our State and Federal legislators and Education Departments to appropriately help us with the issues we face. We must work with them to increase funding and to insure the safety of our schools and students. We must work with them to insure that control of our schools stays in local hands and is not handed over to the Governor or some other State or Federal bureaucracy. Along with this comes the need to work with the media to get the truth out to the people. Our schools are often painted with broad brush that says "everything is bad in the public schools". That is simply not the case and we must make sure the good as well as the bad is presented to the public so that the pressure on legislators is to deal with the areas that really need improvement. We must get the message out that the schools are worth investing in to make the needed improvements in facilities and in programs.


My third priority is to deal with the question of lockers and the student's spinal health. Please read my issue paper concerning that.


There are many more issues I am sure the Board must deal with. However, in the press of the other business of the Board, these are the issues I will keep in the forefront if I am elected.

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ca/la Created from information supplied by the candidate: October 21, 1999 22:58
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