Candidate for
Member Governing Board; Murrieta Valley Unified School District

• Putting your kids first--

Fiscal responsibility involves setting a prudent, fiscally conservative, crystal clear budget. Next year, cuts may be necessary since the state of California is in dire trouble. It's important to set up District priorties and teachers, parents, senior citizens and business people need to be on a District Budget committee to do just that. We must, however, give our teachers all the tools they need to do a first-class job of instruction. Keep any cuts away from the classroom.

• End the 12-year rift with the City Council-- I'll ask to sit down with other willing Board members, the City, the police and fire and the RTA to end the school traffic chaos now. Working closely with the City of Murrieta, I also propose that we share facilities, which could provide us a new performing arts community theater of 2,000 seats, a theater which would allow full class assemblies as well as provide a wonderful venue for traveling off-Broadway shows.
• Let's also get long-needed lights for all the tennis courts at the high schools. This would be very beneficial to the community. Let's work with the City of Murrieta for school planning. The City is not the enemy.

• Introduce music K-8 and foreign language in 4th grade--
  A. Murrieta parents send their children to elementary school well prepared but test scores fall dramatically in middle & high schools.
  B. More than 400 studies, from UC Irvine to the College Entrance Examination Board in Princeton, NJ, show conclusive proof that course work in music for elementary kids K-8, resulted in high school SAT scores 51% higher on verbal & 39% higher on math, compared to kids with no course work in the arts. Let's do it!
  C. Foreign languages are more easily learned when one is young. The 4th grade is an ideal start to give our kids the early training that will make a language easier as they grow older.

• A "We Tip" telephone line--
  A. This lets kids anonymously call regarding weapons and drugs on campus, plus adds a 24-hour hot-line for parents in the event of a bomb scare. The district still ignores these needs even though I campaigned for them in 1999. Let's return to the philosophy of putting kids' needs first.

• I am passionate about high quality schools--
  A. It is not enough to be the best in Riverside County, we must work to improve our schools so that they are some of the best in the United States.
  B. I will visit each school, elementary, middle and high, twice a year at least, to chat and see first hand how things are.
  C. It is important to see that the Gifted and Talented students, and the Special Education students all receive the best training we can provide. Let's restore Advanced Math and Advanced Social Studies in middle school, and double the number of Advanced Placement courses in high school.
  D. And let's have truly comprehensive high schools by adding whatever vocational courses are needed to serve the rest of the school population that will not attend college. We've neglected them long enough. The nonsense of "every student will be prepared to attend a 4-year university" that is part of the District's policy must be re-evaluated. We cannot afford to ignore reality any longer.
  E. We need to set higher expectations in all classes and in all grades.