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San Mateo County, CA November 6, 2007 Election
Smart Voter

Who am I?

By Judith Ann Mendelsohn

Candidate for School Board Member; Portola Valley School District

This information is provided by the candidate
I am a parent, teacher, and school volunteer with a wide variety of experience in determining educational priorities, working with staff and parents, and working with students.
I am running for the school board because I love schools - especially ours. I have a master's degree in Education and a California teaching credential for mathematics. I taught high school math for 6 years before staying home with my children for 15 years. During that time, I volunteered many thousands of hours at Ormondale and Corte Madera. In addition to volunteering in the classroom and on the playground, I served on the Ormondale Site Council for more than 6 years including 2 as Chair, served on the Corte Madera Middle School Math Review Team and on the Corte Madera Site Council. Site Council looks at the academic, social and emotional needs of our students. My work included looking at STAR test scores and survey results, working with the principal and the staff and parents to identify program strengths and weaknesses and to develop plans and programs for continued improvement. I have attended numerous School Board meetings over the years, and as co-chair of the Committee on Teaching and Learning, I participated in working with staff and parents on the development of the current Strategic Plan for the district. As a member of the PVSD Board, I would work to help the district achieve the far-reaching goals it has set itself in the strategic plan.


My three children are currently in 5th, 9th, and 11th grades, and all three attended both Ormondale and Corte Madera, so I have a good sense of the long term history of the schools. With two children in high school, I also know that our schools prepare our students very well for high school. As we continue to implement the Strategic Plan for the district, my objective is to find ways help the staff to incorporate the best new teaching and learning strategies with the best of the existing proven techniques in order to prepare all of our students to be global citizens and life-long learners. The challenge is to do this in a way that continually supports our amazing teachers with the time and resources they need.

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ca/sm Created from information supplied by the candidate: November 5, 2007 12:56
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