CUTA Questionnaire

By Andrea (Lerner) Thompson

Chico Unified Teachers Association Questionnaire

Name: Andrea Lerner Thompson

1. Please explain your background and experience in education.

Ever since I was a little girl, I always knew I wanted to be a teacher. I attended public schools in & around Boston, MA. I grew up in inner city tenement housing in a single parent family. Yet the education I received in the public schools was outstanding. I went on to earn a BA in American Studies from Reed College, an MA from Stanford University and a Ph.D. in Comparative American Literatures from the University of Arizona.

My first teaching job was teaching 8th and 11th grades in the Sacramento area. I have taught at a number of schools including Pima Community College in Tucson, AZ and Oregon State University in Corvallis. At the Univ. of Arizona I participated in the MedStart Program where students from rural American Indian communities attended a summer program at the University in health care related studies. Many of those students had never left their reservation before, and many of them chose to enroll at Arizona upon their high school graduation. In 1991, I was appointed Asst. Professor of American literature and American Indian Studies at CSU, Chico. I was promoted to Assoc. Professor in 1996 and full professor in 2002. In that time I taught, mentored students, worked on minority student retention, and received grants to work in Northern California Native American communities.

In 2002 I decided that as much as I loved being in the classroom, I wanted to try to have a larger voice in the shaping the university curriculum and community. I also felt we needed more women in university administration. I was appointed Interim Director of CSUC University Honors Programs in 2002 and appointed Director in 2003. In my capacity as Program Director, I served students from virtually every major and dept. who wished to participate in the program (about 600+) students. I hired and evaluated faculty from across the campus, and worked with Deans, the Provost and the President to create innovative classes and experimental pedagogies. We worked as well on an in-service component to the program that enabled our students to partner with community mentors and with at risk youth in the community. I also managed the Honors office staff.

As a parent volunteer in CUSD, I have worked in my children's classrooms since they entered school. I have hung student art, driven field trips, corrected tests, led writing activities and discovered the amazing creations to be made with colored paper, a glue gun and buttons.

2. Why are you running for the School Board?

Perhaps the simple answer would be that I have two children, an eighth grader and a sixth grader in the schools, and I want them to get the best educational experience possible. Moreover, I am a hands-on, involved parent. I have worked to advocate for my own children, and I have wondered about the success of students who do not have such strong advocacy. As a School Board member I would be able to advocate for all students in the district. I also believe it is a good thing to have parents of current CUSD students serve on the Board. The policies, challenges and issues in our school district are not merely professional concerns for me; instead, they affect and impact my family on a daily basis.

It is time we had an educator serve on the School Board. Although our present board members bring many strengths to the table, I feel the voice of someone who has actually stood in front of a classroom, designed curriculum, & experimented with ways of meeting students' diverse learning styles would be a welcome addition to the board.

3. What strengths would you bring to the CUSD School Board?

I am a teacher, a parent and I care about kids.

I have years of experience in education. I have taught, created curriculum, worked with students' individual gifts & challenges, and I have experience in assessment and evaluation. In my work on campus, I have reviewed and evaluated staff, created assessment plans and assessment tools, and managed budgets.

Another strength I bring is an interest in innovation and experimentation. All of us who teach know that change is a part of school life: each year new students arrive in our classroom, and it is critical that we continue to explore new methods of teaching as well as new curricula and new tools to supplement our tried and true professional practices.

Another strength I bring is my ability to work well with others, to listen well, and communicate effectively. It hardly matters how many good ideas an individual may have, what is important is if they can persuade others to see their way of thinking.

4. What experience do you have in understanding and/or overseeing budgets?

I served for the last five years as Director of University Honors programs. In that capacity I oversaw an annual budget of approximately $300,000. Within the budget, I staffed about 30 classes each year, arranged faculty buy-outs, budgeted professional development, purchased equipment, and worked to improve facilities. Additionally, I approved educational expenditures for student enrichment and created a speakers' budget. I was also involved with community fundraising. During my tenure in that position, through my advocacy, our budget tripled.

5. What would be your budget priorities? (For example, electives, fine arts, music, Vocational Education, technology, staff salaries, facilities)

It would be difficult for anyone to point to the list above and deny the importance of any item. Yet the painful reality of budgetary decisions forces us to select priorities and work first toward reaching them. Although it may sound simplistic, I think the most important ingredients in the educational equation are motivated students and teachers who are willing to work passionately, patiently and exuberantly towards reaching all students. In order to do this, teachers must feel adequately and appropriately compensated. As a teacher myself, I know how many hours are spent weekends, evenings, and throughout the summer "vacation" in preparing for our students' weekly needs. As a CUSD parent, I know it is not uncommon to drive by any of our schools on a Sunday afternoon and see the parking lot half full as teachers prepare classes, grade materials, or even mentor their students. The school district must indicate in its budgeting that we stand behind our teachers and see their role in the classroom as the most important ingredient in education.

Following salary issues, I think making our facilities safe, clean environments that are conducive to learning is key. As a parent, I have had the opportunity to visit many of the schools, and I would say that far too many have inadequate facilities. Throughout the district we have overcrowded classrooms, musty portables, dirty carpets and classrooms, inadequate facilities for students to eat lunch, and schools that look as if the delayed maintenance has been delayed for several decades.

6. Are you familiar with Chico Unified Teachers' Association and what do you think is CUTA's role in education?

Although I have never been employed by the district, I have heard about CUTA. In my view, CUTA's role is to advocate for teachers in the Chico Unified School District. If we are to have a high quality of education, we must be able to recruit and retain excellent teachers. Just as the California Teachers' Assoc. works to advocate for teachers across the state, CUTA works to keep teachers informed about their contractual rights, to advocate for them with the School Board and the District. CUTA also alerts teachers about pending legislation, about state and local school budgetary discussions and invites teachers to bring their voice to these discussions. Aside from active teachers, CUTA advocates on behalf of retired teachers to keep their benefits from being compromised.

CUTA does not simply advocate for our teachers. In advocating for them, it also advocates for our students and for our schools.

7. What do you see as the most important issues in our district?

There are a number of important issues confronting the district. While some may say the main concern is budgetary or others might point to facilities or ADA or declining enrollment, for me what is most pressing is the apparent lack of a vision in the central administration. What do we want our schools to emphasize? Although test scores are an important tool, are there other methods to be used to assess the schools? What kind of education do we wish students to receive in this district? What are our priorities? What is the ideal student/teacher ratio? How big should our schools be? Like so many other large organizations, I feel that the administration gets side-tracked by the day to day or weekly pressing demands and tries to repair them as they arise. What emerges then is a piecemeal approach to a large institution. I think this community needs a set of focused discussions to set our priorities in order and to make changes as needed toward a focused direction.

I see academics as a very important issue. Chico is fortunate to have a university, a community college, a strong medical community and a thriving business community upon which to draw resources. Our schools are doing a good job of educating our students, but we need to be doing a great job. Some of our budgetary issues and enrollment issues would be soothed if our schools were a destination of choice for motivated students throughout Butte County. Instead, more and more parents are choosing charter schools, private schools and even home schooling as an alternative to the district. Parents must have faith that our local schools will give their students the finest in public education.

Another serious issue is an apparent lack of transparency and open communication between all of the stakeholders in the district: parents, students, teachers, administration and Board members. Too often this results in a top-down approach where policy and decisions are made at the highest levels and then "applied" to the staff. In my view, when possible, decision making should take place by those closest to the kids. While this cannot always be the case, I see a need for more site based decision making.

Finally, we have issues with overcrowding, both on campuses as well as in classrooms.

8. What changes would you advocate and promote for CUSD?

We need to resist the temptation to settle for the status quo. Although our schools are successful by many standards, we need to ask ourselves how to make them better. I would identify two or three leading school districts and ask what types of curriculum they use, what text books, and the teacher- student ratio. Some of what we find may not work here, but other parts of it might. We need to set our goals on being one of the top school districts in the state.

Where possible, I would like to see more site-based decision making. Teachers and site administration have a first hand understanding of the problems, and often have a better sense of what will work to attain their goals. This can result in fewer delays, less red-tape and bureaucracy.

While test scores are one key type of assessment, we need to find other ways to measure if our schools are succeeding and how they may make needed improvements. Working with teachers, parents, district staff and members of the community, we could create rubrics to be used for assessment.

We need better long range planning. It is unconscionable that one year we close schools and the following year we experience a crisis in primary grades with not enough classrooms. We need a policy of looking forward with determined vision. Instead of reacting to each year's new crises, we need to lay groundwork to shape our progress.

We need to send a strong signal to teachers that we believe in them and support them. We need to free them from bureaucratic busywork and allow them to do what they do best. We need to offer and encourage professional development and allow teachers to have a strong voice in decision making throughout the district. We need to be reminded that the most important elements in education are the teachers and the students. The rest of the framework should be in place to serve them and not the other way around.

We need to ask serious questions about class size and student teacher ratios from grades 4-12. We need to involve the resources of the community and the university to help us attain our goals.

9. Are you familiar with No Child Left Behind and its impact, both positive and negative, to Chico Schools?

I am familiar with No Child Left Behind, and I have followed with considerable interest the ways in which what seemed a good idea has had some very disturbing consequences. The positive side of NCLB has brought some additional Title one monies into districts; its focus on students who need the most help and who come from poor backgrounds is a good thing. Additionally, letting parents know they have choices in where they send their kids to school is also, in principle, good.

The darker side has become obvious. Many critics of NCLB point out that the Bill has never been fully funded, and consequently, it results in a major drain of district resources. Although we would believe parents have a right to send their children to good schools, the act would seem to arbitrarily decide--based solely on test scores--if a school is succeeding or failing. Schools that are having trouble tend to get punished rather than helped. Finally, there seems to be a notion that if we take a struggling child out of an "underperforming school," and place him/her into a "performing school" somehow magically the child will excel. I am not convinced of that... In fact, more likely than not, the "successful" school will see its test scores slip as more and more low performing students arrive. Moving kids doesn't really fix the problem. Finally, schools in higher socio economic areas tend to score higher than other schools and this creates its own complex set of concerns.

10. What do you see as the school board's role and responsibility regarding the CUSD administration?

The Board of Directors is elected by the voters, and thus, their responsibility is to act on behalf of the community. They do not work for the district administration; rather, they advocate for the students, families and community members. In my view, it is right and proper they see their role as questioning the District about its practices and procedures. I do not suggest this should be adversarial; it is simply that the Board represents the people and must act on their behalf to make sure that the District is doing its best to create exemplary learning environments. Of course, the Board would be respectful of the administration and vice versa. But respectfulness need not prohibit asking questions, or having frank exchanges about policy. If it was all up to the District staff, we wouldn't need a school board.

11. What do you think could or should be done to improve relations between the school board, school staff, students and parents?

We need a greater transparency and openness to begin with. I would work to see the school board restore the public comment section to the beginning of the meeting. This would encourage community participation. To expect parents of young children to sit through budget reports and other business until late at night is not realistic. Board and District members also need to do better at responding to community members. They might establish a parent's advisory group, and a school advisory group to discuss issues with the Board. The district must work to dismantle a perceived sense of a `closed door policy' wherein answers are not readily available and when communication is often not responded to, and where questions are greeted as criticism. This should not be the case. The District personnel and the board need to remember that the community trusts them with their most precious resource, their children. If their voices are not welcomed into the mix, then those parents will take their children elsewhere, as so many have recently done. We can see this in the burgeoning enrollment at charter schools and home schooling.

12 What organizations have already endorsed your candidacy, and from which organizations are you planning to seek endorsement.

To be honest I would have to say that the answer to this is largely unknown at this time. I am not a politician, and this is the first time I have run for office. For me, as a teacher and a Mom, I cannot think of more important endorsements than from the CUTA or parent/teacher organizations.