Candidate for
Governing Board Member; Whittier City Elementary School District

Four (4) years ago, I promised to move Whittier City to a more positive place, to continue working toward meeting our No Child Left Behind challenges, as well as to ensure we maintain fiscal solvency. I believe I have followed through on these and several other accomplishments:

I have helped:

• Increase Student Achievement
• Build Student Enrollment
• Implement Full Day-Kindergarten at all schools
• Improve articulation from elementary to middle and on to high school
• Change District Culture through recruitment, collaboration, and relationship-building among all stakeholders
• Insure NCLB Qualified Teachers at all schools
• Invest in Technology throughout the District
• Enhance District Communication through WCSD website and through setting a standard of transparency in all interactions
• Build back the "Pride of Whittier" in our public schools

In the process, I uncovered the wealth of internal resources we have in our District...the teachers, the parents, the community, the kids. I began to build relationships quickly to help bring our stakeholders together for the common good of our kids. With my fellow board members, we sought to actively orchestrate a shift in culture where the positive, the respect, the innovation, the empowerment was unleashed. We are now beginning to feel the wonderful impact of those efforts.

I believe it is the essence of good stewardship. You find the strengths. You recruit good, talented people. You build on them and you provide the support to give them wings for flight. You monitor. You evaluate. You celebrate and then refresh your priorities and goals. It is simple yet can get convoluted when you lose focus---it's always the kids.