Opening Statement, Candidate Forum, October 11, 2005

By Merrill Boyce

Cooperation and teamwork are the hallmarks of the past eight years; I look forward to perpetuating this successful dynamic as we continue to light the fires of knowledge for each of our children.

This is not a statement about test scores but about the people who have made progress possible. We have a district made up of administrators and teachers who are staying with us. Our principals have been with us an average of more than 4 years and counting in contrast to the revolving door we encountered when we were elected. Teacher turnover is down substantially, too. This brings stability to the district and it adds to the community spirit at the schools where our children live and work a large part of each day.

We have seen each of the Reed schools selected as a California Distinguished School, and in the year 2000, Bel Aire was selected as one of 12 schools in the nation for the coveted Blue Ribbon School award in technology. Students, teachers, administrators and trustees have been individually cited for their achievements locally and nationally, including most recently the Marin County Teacher of the Year. We are leaders in the county and in the state both in quality of education and in preparing our children for their future.

If tonight I slip into saying "I," please remember that there are five of us at any time on the school board. Together we share the struggle and meet the challenge and take the grief when there is grief being handed out. The same teamwork, cooperation and mutual support that we teach our children are also the secret to our success as a school board. We would all agree that our way of working together has proven more important to our progress as advocates for the children than any single individual's input or effort.

We took the initiative to move ahead with plans and programs that are consistent with the thoughts and needs that you the community have expressed in the many forums open to us for communication. As board members, we make an effort through routine meetings to be connected with the school site councils, the PTA, the Belvedere Tiburon Joint Recreation Committee, the municipal councils. We see you at town hall meetings, at homeowners' association meetings, in the annual review of the strategic plan, and in the Safeway check out line. We seldom see you at school board meetings. We also meet with state representatives and officials at least once a year to get a sense of the way the winds are blowing in the state capitol. We have listened, we have planned and we have acted based on what we have learned from you and from the critical sources that we rely on to give us a view of the future.

I am here tonight to offer you experience and history and continuity. I am also here to offer to fulfill my commitment to seeing projects completed that were started on my watch, primarily the new facilities and the laptop program. I have two daughters who are survivors of the Reed Schools and who are now in the 9th and 12th grades at Redwood. In the role of a high school parent, I am acquainted with the disjointed connection between middle school and high school. We want our children to be prepared for high school (we think we do that); however, of equal importance, we want the high schools to be prepared and ready for our children. We have worked on math and science; some of our children take Geometry at Redwood as part of their eighth grade curriculum at Del Mar. We have intensified discussions over the past few years with the high school. But as we develop more programs--especially those based on technology--the high school has to step up to the plate and hit home runs for all students by providing them with the tools and capabilities needed to thrive in the changing global environment. I plan to intensify that challenge in the next term and assure that the transition improves.

I agree with the Irish poet William Butler Yeats who noted sagely that, "Education is not the filling of a pail, but the lighting of a fire."

You can put almost anything in a pail, but it takes special circumstances to light a fire. The story of fire is central to our culture and history--Prometheus, Hephaestus, Newton; the cycle of creation and destruction; the Phoenix rising from the ashes. Fire can warm and it can burn but it is ever a source of energy and power; it can be controlled and managed for human use. What is the story of the pail? Well...it's just a pail. I will promise you the lighting of more fires and I will oppose the filling of pails with anything that is not combustible material.