Candidate for
Board Member; Mountain View-Los Altos Union High School District

I found the Mountain View Voice candidate questionnaire to be particularly relevant. My answers are included below. (Other questionnaires with answers may be found at my website: fionaforschoolboard.com.)

-Fiona

Mountain View-Los Altos Union High School District School Board Candidate Questions

1. What makes you the best candidate for the school board?

I am a current district parent with previous school board experience. The community has the opportunity to add a new face to this board who can jump in seamlessly. I know the breadth of challenges that the board members will face, as well as the job expectations and time required to do the job well. I know the school board community within Santa Clara County and beyond through regular attendance at Santa Clara County School Board Association meetings and California School Boards Association annual conferences. My eight years on the Mountain View Whisman school board will be an incredible asset to my time with MVLA should I be elected.
I have spent the past 12 years dedicated to local education. In addition to my years on the elementary school board, I have served on many district committees (e.g., Mountain View Educational Foundation, Budget Task Force, GATE, Citizens Oversight Committee for the Measure G bond) and have held many PTA roles, most recently serving as the 2013-14 MVHS PTSA President.
I have demonstrated leadership within our community as we fought together to preserve local funding for our schools. I served as an executive board member for three parcel tax campaigns, chaired the Measure G bond campaign (MVWSD), and was an active volunteer on the Measure A bond campaign (MVLA).
It's important that we add another parent to the board. My proven track record of experience, dedication, and leadership combined with many years in the district as a parent will serve the district well as we address future challenges such as Common Core instruction and how to better engage our parents and broader community in district decisions.

2. What's your assessment of the district's roll out of the new Common Core State Standards? Is there a need for more resources, and if so, how should they be used?

At this point, the district has dedicated four full time Teachers on Special Assignment to specifically address the teachers' transition to Common Core. These four will serve as mentors in the core subject areas of science, math, English, and social studies/history. This approach should be both useful for classroom teachers and successful in helping to get through this first year of the new instructional model.
As part of developing the Locally Controlled Accountability Plan, the district has also reached out to parent groups to help try to explain what Common Core is and what it will mean within our students' classrooms. MVLA has presented at both high schools' PTSA meetings (as well as Site Councils) in an effort to reach parents on this topic.
These steps are a good start, but more resources are always welcome and can certainly be put to good use. Common Core feels like something entirely new when in fact it's a remodel of the traditional education delivery system. Additional communication with parents is critical to their understanding and support of the new program. Letting them know which parts of the existing structure will be kept versus which will be updated will be an ongoing process.
Applying additional resources directly toward our teachers will also be useful. For example, the Common Core text books are not currently available, yet teachers are expected to teach to these standards as of the start of the school year. Training and assistance around pacing guides, strategies, collaboration time, and integration of previously separate subject matter would benefit everyone involved. Adding a second team of Teachers on Special Assignment such that each school had a team of four dedicated to its site would also be a good use of resources.

3. What's your opinion of the district's expansion of the number of Advanced Placement courses offered at both comprehensive high schools? Are there any drawbacks?

While the expansion of AP classes at our high schools seems to be driven by the requests of district parents, I do have a concern about this expansion when regular classes are eliminated in favor of an AP class. An example of this is regular physics at Los Altos High School. In the late spring we learned that regular physics would be eliminated at LAHS for the 14-15 school year. It is being replaced by two different AP Physics courses that are being offered in addition to the already-offered AP Physics C (Mechanics). The second AP Physics C (Electricity and Magnetism) is also being considered.

4. Where do you stand on the P.E. exemption issue that came up earlier this year, when parents lobbied to allow freshmen participating in sports to skip required P.E. classes?

I support the request of the parents this past spring to obtain some type of exemption from PE during a student's sport season. In particular, addressing this for two and three sport athletes seems a reasonable approach to the issue. Freshman PE was made a requirement five years ago by MVLA and provides an outstanding curriculum. That said, four of the past five years different parent groups have approached the district seeking to reopen the conversation. I look forward to continued conversations this fall on this topic and support flexibility for such situations.

5. Do you think the governor's decision to put a cap on school district reserves will have a positive or negative affect on the district? If the district has to spend down its reserves, where would you spend the money?

In the long term, the Governor's cap would definitely have a negative effect on the district. Economic fluctuations greatly affect school districts, particularly those that are basic aid such as MVLA. Maintaining more than the mandatory 3% is absolutely necessary. The amount needed beyond the 3% is left to individual districts to decide based on their three year budget assumptions, staffing issues, changes to student populations, and upcoming needs. Limiting this percentage to 6% runs contrary to the Governor's own rainy day fund and his own planning for our State.
In the short term, spending down the reserves could result in direct benefits to students, with options including: additional support for teachers during the Common Core transition, smaller class sizes, and technology support as we transition to one device per student. Please note that the reserve money being spent down is one-time money; any implementation of new programs would indeed be short term instead of permanent.

6. Did the district make the right decision when it ended the Young Parents program and moved Parent Observation and Mountain View Parent Nursery school off site when state funding ran out?

I support the decision made by the district when they ended the Young Parents program due to lack of State funds. While this was an incredibly painful decision, the Young Parents program was part of MVLA's Adult Education program which is entirely self-sustaining. It is not supplemented by MVLA's general fund and relies solely on outside funding. MLVA's general fund is dedicated to its core responsibility of 9-12 education. When the $112,000 from the State allocated for the Young Parents program was not continued, the district grappled with it's own policy of keeping Adult Education self-sustaining versus supporting an outside program from the 9-12 general fund and thus not funding something on the side of core educational programs. Again, this was not an easy decision to make, but I do support it. Should funding again become available for this extremely valuable program, I would like to look at bringing it back to our district.
Regarding the moves of Parent Observation and Mountain View Parent Nursery School off site, I support this decision as well. The district has known for many years that their enrollment would be climbing. They passed the Measure A bond in 2010 in anticipation of these extra students. Both preschools are excellent programs that have been at the site for a very long time, but at this juncture the district needs the space to continue to accommodate the increase in students at 9-12 (side note: the buildings are going with the programs to their new site). It is likely that a Regional Occupational Program (formerly known as Vocational Education) class will go into these spaces when the two programs move into their new homes.

7. What are your top priorities for the school district in the next four years?

My top four priorities in the next four years are...

Engage parents more on issues directly affecting their students: When issues arise that impact our students and families, the board needs to hear the impact of decisions directly from those living through the situation. Adding another parent voice to the board will help with this feedback loop, but outreach to the broader community must also be an ongoing board goal.

Enhance communication to parents and the greater community: The MVLA district communicates very well regarding its successes. Good news reaches the community on a regular basis. The day-to-day operations, however, such as upcoming board meeting topics or studies leading up to a decision, receive far less communication. One way that the board can help with this is via a quarterly board newsletter that summarizes past board topics and previews upcoming topics.

Expand programs and curriculum for kids at all levels: As mentioned in Question 3, we need to be cognizant that not all kids are seeking AP classes all the time. Maintaining a strong middle ground is crucial for the success of all kids. For those kids who are seeking the extra challenge and perhaps haven't made that leap yet, I will continue to support the Equal Opportunity Schools (EOS) pilot at MVHS and its extension to LAHS when eligibility opens for that site.

Effectively manage the transition to Common Core Instruction: Common Core has been well covered in this questionnaire. It is not coming; it is here. Our freshman will be the first class to take the two Smarter Balanced Assessments in their junior year. We must continue to support our teachers as this transition takes place and instruction methods adapt toward project-based learning and 21st century skills.