League of Women Voters of California Education Fund
Santa Clara County, CA November 8, 2005 Election
	Steve Mullen Answers Questions Candidate for Board Member; Palo Alto Unified School District

Questions & Answers

1. What approaches would you support to deal with the issues of diversity for students, faculty and staff in the Palo Alto Unified School District?

Community accountability is a core focus of my candidacy. As a PAUSD board member, my voice will be raised to insure that diversity issues are dealt with in three ways:

• Curricular -- study the issues in thoughtful, relevant coursework
• Administrative -- adopt and implement policies that embrace diversity among students and staff to insure equal opportunities for all.
• Community -- invite community members -- families, businesses, church and civic leaders -- to participate in our schools in the exploration and promotion of diversity in our community.

2. How would you seek to assure voters that the schools are using state and local funds wisely and fairly to protect and enhance an essential investment in our children and our future?

I'm a Certified Public Accountant. Fiscal accountability is a core focus of my candidacy. My fiscal accountability goals include:

• Adoption of best practice budget management techniques to improve accountability and avoid waste.
• Formation of a first-ever finance committee on the PAUSD board to oversee the financial impact of district policies and plans.
• Adoption of quantifiable performance metrics to compare the fiscal efficiency of PAUSD to other school districts.

3. What is your opinion of such reforms as creating "schools within schools" to reduce student stress, and how would you help a diverse student population achieve their educational goals, whether they are college bound or not?

Educational accountability is a core focus of my candidacy. PAUSD board members, administrators and teachers must be accountable for providing an "education-friendly" culture in our schools. Reducing student stress is a big part of making education accessible; so is providing curricular and counseling services that serve college-bound and vocationally directed students.

Board members' responsibilities must include the following:

• To seek and implement reforms and innovations that reduce stress and deliver a great depth and breadth of curricular offerings, and educational and occupational counseling services.
• To know what works, and what doesn't work. Reforms -- like "schools within schools" cannot be adopted based merely on well-intentioned opinion or 'gut-feel'. Instead, the effectiveness of educational reforms must be demonstrated first, in pilot programs. This approach will insure that our students are served by reforms and innovations that are proven, pragmatic.