League of Women Voters of California Education Fund
Santa Clara County, CA November 4, 2014 Election
	Ina K. Bendis, MD, PhD, JD Answers Questions Candidate for Trustee; Santa Clara Unified School District; Trustee Area 2

The questions were prepared by the Leagues of Women Voters of Santa Clara County and asked of all candidates for this office.
Read the answers from all candidates (who have responded).

Questions & Answers

1. How would you determine that the schools are using federal, state and local funds wisely and fairly and how would you report your findings to the community?

During my most recent (2010-2014) term we hired an outstanding Asst. Supt. of Business, Mark Algire, CPA, who has made wise recommendations to the Board and has provided meaningful and cogent reports to ensure transparency. Though his education of the Board and Public, we've learned that though we will have far more resources in the 2014-2018 term than we did in the 2010-2014 era, we also will need to meet new and daunting fiscal challenges, e.g.., increasing enrollment without matching funds; skyrocketing mandatory contributions to our Employees' pension plans; class-size reductions that will require more staffing and facilities expense; Common Core implementation; unfunded mandates from State and Federal government; etc. This past year, with my support and advocacy, we embarked on a Strategic Plan that emphasizes outreach to our Public for input as to priorities on expenditures, far more than we'd ever done before I joined the SCUSD Board in 2006. During my 2014-2018 term, I will continue to reach out to all District stakeholders -- to the Community at large and not merely to Employee Bargaining Units and the families whose students currently attend our schools -- to ensure SCUSD remains accountable and responsive to all who depend on the work we do to improve our Community through great education.

2. Are the schools offering instruction appropriate to the diverse educational abilities of all the students?

During my tenure thus on the Board, SCUSD has improved in meeting our diverse students' needs, in part due to my advocacy for expanding Basics+, Middle College, STEM, & support programs. We do still have a long way to go in ensuring all students reach their top potential, in part due to inadequate State funding and in part due to having no Executive level Math expertise to ensure best practices in Math education until recently when we hired Phil Gonsalves as Assoc. Supt. of Ed. Services. Also, highly placed former Administrators failed our students by not holding Staff accountable for student achievement, refusing to allow gifted students to accelerate when ready, and ensuring all students mastered basic Language and Math skills. In the 2014-18 Term I will advocate for continued improvement in all these areas, so our graduates leave SCUSD truly college-and-career ready, and can compete effectively for top schools and top jobs.

3. Where do you want the District to be five years from now? What steps should the District take to get there?

Our Superintendent Dr. Stan Rose had indicated his plan to serve four years, so five years from now we'll have a new Chief Executive; ideally, he or she will continue Dr. Rose's openness to innovative and diverse educational opportunities to meet all students' needs, will communicate openly with the Board and public, and will determinedly hold Staff accountable for student success; ideally, too, we will continue to include STEM content expertise at our Executive level (e.g., like we have in Phil Gonsalves now). On the curricular front, we will adopt new materials in Math this year, and in following years new materials in English, Science, Social Studies, etc.; ideally, we will choose programs that ensure all students have solid mastery of fundamentals and that provide the Science, Technical, Engineering and Math skills needed in the 21st Century; ideally, too, we will by then have at least another two or three Basics+ Elementary campuses (even four campuses would not fill current Basics+ demand!), will have further expanded Middle College, and will have adopted A-through-G H.S. graduation standards. On the facilities front, construction on our new K-8 and High School at the Agnews campus will be underway and possibly near completion; ideally, we will have built it with a Project Labor Agreement to ensure cost-effective compliance with Prevailing Wage and other wage-and-hour laws; ideally we will have passed construction Bond Measures sufficient to build these schools and upgrade our existing schools to meet current safety standards (see Measure H, elsewhere on your Ballot!). On the H.R. front, ideally our compensation model will take more into account than merely seniority, as it does now, because America was built on the construct of "meritocracy" and our students deserve the best; ideally, we will continue to keep our salaries competitive enough to attract the most effective educators so our students can all meet their top potential. Finally, from the civil rights front, ideally our District will protect the rights of all Students, Employees, Parents, Community Members, and Board Members, to ensure equitable Due Process without regard for race, culture, religion, political affiliation, etc.

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Responses to questions asked of each candidate are reproduced as submitted to the League.  Candidates' statements are presented as submitted. The answer to each question should be limited to 400 words. Direct references to opponents are not permitted.

Read the answers from all candidates (who have responded).

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Created from information supplied by the candidate: October 23, 2014 19:41
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