I'd like to thank Emerson PTA Emerson Junior High School PTA the DaVinci boosters and Patwin PTA for making this happen. We're also being sponsored this evening by Davis Media Access who's recording this for future viewing. The session tonight we have four candidates we have Susan Lovenberg we have Alan Fernandez we have Bob Popengay and we have Dr. Jose Gremba and the way that it's going to work this evening is each candidate will have five minutes to speak freely about whatever they'd like and then we'll move into some fixed Q&A and then I'm hoping some of you will ask some questions via the index cards that are available with pens right as you come in. They will the candidates will see a yellow sign at 30 seconds left and a red when it's time to kindly stop and move on to the next candidate. So at this point what I'd like to do is start our time for five minutes with Dr. Granda. Thank you very much for the invitation. I am Jose Granda and I have the theme of my candidacy the three T's teaching technology taxpayers. So I decided to introduce myself with technology. So here's a PowerPoint presentation that conveys directly that message and I consider myself a different candidate in many ways because I have different positions on issues but I would like you to get to know me. Thirty four years of teaching experience we're in STEM in technology education and engineering and math. This stem for those of you not familiar stands for science technology engineering and math. I have taken the position for the program to be open to everybody to keep the program with high standards but the admission is where I would like to see that it would be more open to pay with a consultation with parents and teachers. I would like to implement technology in the classroom in many ways and I think we'll be discussing some more later on. I gave languages a highest priority. I was born in South America so my mother language is Spanish and I learned German. Lived in Germany and lived in Switzerland and I also live in France. So I speak Spanish German and French and I know because of my experience with other educational systems on those countries how important that is for the education. I believe in cultural diversity and sensitivity because I understand particularly the Hispanic culture and living in Germany. I also understood many other cultures that come from the Middle East and other countries. I will be an advocate for fiscal responsibility and responsibility to the taxpayers and I would like to become an advocate also for the unrepresented and the disabled students who have personal experiences in both of those areas in my own family and I believe that I can represent those interests well. This is just to give you some idea of what my life has been this 34 years and this is my life in the classroom from any teacher that invites me this is what I do with them I go and do projects with kids from little kids all the way to university kids but I can see several teachers that have invited me I have been there and these are the projects that I we built there with my wife's help also as assistants used to work for the education department at NASA where I spent almost the last 10 years as a young professor and we do projects in schools and you see some of those in there and the last picture that you see in there is my students and I on the day that the space shuttle flew for the last time over Sacramento and that was the closing for me also 17 space shuttle missions which I'm participating particularly communicating to the community in simple words what the engineers were doing this is my family my from the left side my daughter Christina who studied at this school Sarah too they study at this school and judges my youngest guy he's at the University of Arizona now and David also studied here at Emerson this beautiful lady here in the middle is my wife Emelda sitting here and this is my hobby I have been I'm not doing engineering or doing other things other projects on Saturdays you will see me in the field I am the senior referee for AYSO here 35 years with your kids chances are that we might have seen each other one of the fields positions I have taken the position of yes on major 30 to fund the schools yes on proposition 51 to fund the school facilities yes on proposition 55 to improve a school funding yes on grants for schools no major age I and I also want to take a position on proposition 64 to protect your kids from drugs thank you very much thank you dr. Bob good evening thank you Mary for organizing this it's a fantastic opportunity to reach out to the community if only I'd known I could have had a PowerPoint presentation being from the University we're dependent on PowerPoints often so I want to thank first of all all the great people who are working on my campaign I think it's been a tremendous effort and I couldn't do it without them it's great to get out in the neighborhoods walk from house to house and listen to people in the community talk about our schools it's amazing the diversity of issues that they do engage me about and I'm always excited to learn new ideas that possibly we haven't thought of before my family we have been in Davis for 12 years my wife and I are faculty at the School of Veterinary Medicine at UC Davis I have two children nine-year-old who is at Holmes junior high and 11th grader at the high school very different children the youngest one is has been in the aim program the oldest one came to my family as a English language learner at age 10 and so we've seen how the public education system can deal with the very diverse needs within a family as many people know I ran for school board in 2014 I bring that up because I think I have a pretty good record in terms of expressing my opinions in the Davis enterprise in the Davis vanguard letters to the editor across a whole diversity of issues whether it's related to maintaining world languages programs in our district to housing affordability for teachers and I'm very proud of the fact that in 2014 I think I was the only candidate that brought up the issue of affordability of housing in Davis for teachers as far as my background I am a product of public education coming from the Midwest University of Illinois is where I got my DVM and PhD degrees I have been at a university for almost 29 years and I think that that experience in a classroom because I've taught over the course of those 29 years I think that experience is very valuable because I understand what it's like to be in a classroom all of the hard work that teachers put in behind the scenes to make it look easy in the classroom I've been involved in a number of university committees that have looked at evaluating teaching and looking at curricular issues so I think that's a very valuable perspective that can be applied to Davis schools with regard to community involvement I'm on the board of Explore Science Center which is a marvelous resource in our community that focuses on hands-on inquiry-based training and education at the elementary school level and I think that that's an example of where the school district could partner very productively with a local institution I have been involved with Jesse Ortiz who's the county superintendent of education in his effort to increase opportunity for quality preschool throughout the county and I think that that's an ongoing issue that hopefully at some point will come back to the ballot and the voters for approval I've been in the Sunrise Rotary Club focused on some of the youth activities of that particular club we sponsor the student of the month which brings in high school students and recognizes them for their achievements in school I'm involved in providing scholarships to high school seniors in fact it's been a real highlight the last two years because I've gotten to give the Rotary Sunrise scholarship to graduates of our adult high school and then King High School and these are smaller graduation ceremonies and it's just a real pleasure to see the excitement on those students faces as they transition into career pathways so I believe my science background is an important attribute for the board I think that diversity of experiences diversity of backgrounds is an important thing particularly when stem subjects are of increasing interest and I also believe that science background can help look at data judge programs based upon expected outcomes and how do we sure that we're doing a good job and spending money wisely I'll end by saying that just this morning I had a group of veterinary students we did a little problem-based learning exercise and at the end of the exercise they each go around and they say what went well with that session and they all point out what they felt like they did well and then the next step of that is even better yet what could we do better the next time we get together and so that's sort of my attitude with our schools we have great foundation but what can we do better thank you very much Bob let's go ahead and move down great thank you everyone for coming tonight thank you for the PTAs who organized tonight my name is Alan Fernandez I'm currently on the board of education here in Davis and I'll get to how I got on the board a little later because I do think it's relevant to some of the work that I've done both on the board and what I want to focus on but I guess I'll start from the beginning as well at least my beginning here in Davis I came to UC Davis in 93 so about 23 years ago through a path that's very common to many of us which is as a student at UCD and I think that's relevant because I really got a real flavor for living the campus life and understanding what it's like to be a student on the university in this larger community had no idea what a wonderful place it is to grow and raise children and a family I met my wife who grew up here dpns all the way through UC Davis and in both of us we found a love of public service and we find no other higher calling than really committing ourselves to a cause or or the public good and and that's really if I would sum up my experience in my background I would say that that it really is a passion for public service and serving the community and here in Davis I believe there's no greater way to do that than through our school system I graduated from UC Davis got a job in the finance industry quickly realized I didn't really care for crunchy numbers all day per se and then pursued law graduated from law school became a lawyer still focusing on public service practice law for a bit before I ultimately settled into a career in and around government affairs which I think is also noteworthy experience given the fact that a school district is so dependent on everything that occurs in Sacramento given not only our funding stream coming from the state 80% of it but all of the laws and regulations and really much of what happens in Sacramento directly impacts the way we have to run our school district in many ways but understanding that I think gives you a keen insight to into how to be creative and what will work and what won't work throughout my career I also really made a point to involve myself in the community I was a Yolo County Casa which is a quarter point and special advocate I've been focused around children and in the intersection of children and into not only our school system but many others public and social services that we have as a community I got involved with the business and economic development commission was in part of the group that got the U.S. Bicycling Hall of Fame so I have a deep understanding of the unique diverse strengths of our community and I really feel that I'm able to really employ those strengths here in my service on the school board well around 2012 I decided you know what I looked at the school board I said I feel like there's a lot of focus that's needed around elementary there was this I feel you know dynamic where many of the board members were parents of older children when in fact you know half or more of our population is elementary age and I felt like there needed to be a focus there and and I ran really because I thought parents of young children should be involved and I know why parents of young children aren't because we're very very busy and and and but I'm fortunate enough to have a wealth of family support to be able to do this and so I ran unsuccessfully but was you know as it turned out later appointed I was appointed when a vacancy occurred and it was really at an interesting time for our district where really the trust of the district and our board was at stake and I've committed myself to restoring that trust and accountability I was appointed in shortly after elected president by my colleagues and last year I'm happy to say I think we've done more to increase transparency and accountability with our school district than ever before establishing board office hours I was just at it right before here assigning responsibilities the school site but I decided to run after two and a half years being on the board because there's a lot more to do and candidly I want to focus on engaging all of our students and supporting our struggling students 50 percent of our African American and Latino children at below standards and I think that as a community that espouses our beliefs we need to really meet that problem head on I want to engage our teachers and make them more can make the district more competitive to attract and retain and I want to really enhance our school facilities and that's what I'm committed to focusing on should I be reelected thank you very much Ellen we're gonna end the five minutes with Susan and then after this we're going to move into three Q&A predefined questions in which we'll be starting with Bob and coming this way with the answers thank you so five minutes is a little more generous than we're usually given and I'm inspired by my my colleagues up here to actually I think almost everybody in this audience knows me and so I'm inspired to actually give you a little bit more of my life story than I usually do because it's there it's interesting it really does help I think understand why we're motivated to do the things that we do so I was born in Bermuda in 1958 my father was in the Air Force and so for the next 15 16 years we moved really all over the United States living in many different states and it was a long time to be two years in one location when I was in high school we settled in upstate New York up near Watertown so very far northern New York and that's where I did my university degree I went I got a bachelor of science in natural resources from Cornell University then worked for a while I actually worked in the rare book department at Cornell University decided that I wanted to do a master of library science but took a side trip for a couple of years to Holland where we lived while my husband did a postdoc following his PhD which he received at at Cornell University then we came back I did my master of library science at Syracuse University back again where my family was and at that point my husband was a Canadian we moved to Canada so lived in first Edmonton at the height of the Edmonton Oilers and their Stanley Cup wins and then moved to Frederick to New Brunswick which is actually east of Maine if you look on the map and lived there for eight years where our first two daughters were born moved to Davis in 1997 when my husband was recruited to the faculty of animal science here at the university and at that point I was began my second career so I'd been a professional librarian in a number of university libraries and special libraries decided to stay home with the kids so I spent 10 years with staying at home with my children I had a third daughter who was born in 1998 and through that time really got very involved as a volunteer in the in the school system so you know it's the way you start saying I'll do this and you and doing that and that and that and so my children went through Willett here at Emerson and then at Davis High I was active on all of those PTAs doing mostly things like school listservs and newsletters and websites and then when I was at the high school I was a parent education coordinator for a couple of years and then really got engaged at the school district level and began following school politics and at a time in 2007 when two seats were opening up on the board and there were not actually that many candidates who were interested in filling those seats so I got recruited to run and did and have served on the school board since 2007 as soon as I was elected the economic recession started to tank which caused just a round of budget reduction state cuts I think you all probably remember that time. So in addition to what we were doing within the school district so that's the time that we started working on district dollars to help the community understand where the district's money was being spent and to give them an opportunity to weigh in on what the priorities of the district should be. We also started to organize so the Davis schools foundation actually ramped up at that point and there were two very successful more than a million dollar fundraising campaigns. We also a group of us started to advocate for education funding at the state level and out of that created or co-founded a group called saving California communities which continues today. In fact we have a forum next Monday on civility in the public space. Isn't that the right topic for the right time. So that group still continues to meet and host public forums on topics of community interest. Also a spinoff from that was my work I am a co-founder of the Yolo County chapter of the Brady campaign to prevent gun violence. So that's a group that's been active for about three years advocating for the prevention of gun violence. And then at the time that I was ready thank you to go back to work had gotten involved with California Forward which is a good government group and so that was my third career. I now work full time for California Forward at the same time that I have served on the school board since 2007. So that was my life story in five minutes. Thank you. The reason we wanted to provide five minutes is a lot of the forums very quick. We also don't have rebuttal periods during this particular format of the forum. So it's always great to get a chance to know you a little bit as candidates. So thank you for that first portion of the discussion. The second part that we're going to move to that we will start with Bob in just a moment and work down this way are three prescribed questions that the candidates are now aware of what they are. I'd also encourage you to because after that we're going to have a 15 minute open Q&A from 8 to 815 or maybe more if we actually get done earlier but we have index cards for you to write your questions down. We're happy to provide a microphone as well but my experience shows from other forums that folks like to capture them on index cards with pens. So Melody over there who's the president of Emerson PTA one of our co-hosts of this has those available for you and I'll ask that she actually collect the cards throughout so just hold them up when you have questions and if not I have questions to fill the time to best represent what you're thinking in the absence of those being provided. So hopefully you'll provide something. At this point again Bob so the first question that we're going to ask our candidates are we hear a lot about differentiated instruction aim title one schools and achievement gaps English learners students on IEP's etc. How do teachers and the teaching ecosystem come together to optimize for each child or is that an unrealistic expectation. Thank you I actually think there's a little bit of overlap between this question and number three when we talk about educational innovation because I think some innovative ideas can contribute to effective differentiation. Back in 2013 as the district was trying to deal with the local control funding formula come up with a local control accountability plan and a strategic plan. I served on the district's action team for professional development and I think what really sort of shocked me at the time was how little professional development was offered in our district. I think there have been significant strides made since then and I think that's a great thing because I think effective differentiation requires a very rigorous professional development program. I think the challenge is to provide adequate oversight to make sure that differentiation is actually occurring in the classroom and if you look at the educational literature there's not agreement universal agreement that differentiation solves all problems. It does require a lot of work, a lot of attention and I think the challenge is when you have large class sizes how do you effectively provide the differentiation. I think that's one of the key things that we have to ask ourselves. I think the other thing that I was sort of surprised at is the fact that professional development is not a required part of the teacher contract and I think that with differentiation in our district that was one of the main goals of the district but yet only 63% of the teachers thus far have taken a professional development course in differentiation. So my concern is is it consistent? Is it effective? We have to provide oversight I think to ensure that it's being done. I don't think necessarily that it's about whether differentiation is right or wrong. I think differentiation is teaching. I mean the concept of differentiated instruction is that we strive for a classroom in which a teacher is able to reach every student where they're at. And I think that was the gist of certainly the motion and the effort that took place about 18 months ago. It is true that and I would agree that how do you do that? That's the challenge and the way we think you do it and do it best is through professional development. We believe that encouraging our teachers to take that professional development because they want to is the best course of action. And what that means is that the professional development be educator driven. That is that they are an equal partner with the district and us in terms of looking at what professional development opportunities exist. And it's our job as a district to make those offered and we have. And indeed they have taken I think probably Susan knows the percentages off the top of her head. But it's substantial but there's a lot more we can be doing and we will be doing. And certainly that accountability from the district that is actually happening in our classrooms is important and is part of our evaluation system. So I very much believe that it is not unrealistic expectation. I will always be a board member that pushes us to really get to the place where we all want to be which is in every classroom a teacher is reaching every child. But aside from professional development there are other things that we should be looking at in addition to continually pushing to lower class sizes. So there are many things that we should be doing and we are currently. Well thank you and so I'm just going to trade off those remarks because differentiation and instruction at its core is knowing where every child is and where they need to go and how to help them get there. So it's providing a variety of different learning strategies and giving kids opportunity to move at their own speed. And I think the best way to really describe this so this is not this is not theory. It's happening in many of our classrooms more and more of our classrooms all the time and both common core and technology are huge enablers of differentiation. But I want to just take a minute and describe literally just a minute and describe a classroom that I visited where it was a group I believe it was sixth grade working on math. And so it started with a number talk with everybody working together how do you solve this problem what different strategies might you have to do it where they were all discussing strategies that they would use and try and come up with some different ones. Then they broke into groups some of the groups were working with the teachers some were supported by interns some were self-directed some were doing project-based learning together with a fairly complicated exercise they were trying to work through some kids were on computers to practicing number facts and then kids who finished their activities ahead of time had iPads and were working on Khan Academy strategy so whatever level it is that they were interested in that took place all within 15 minutes in a classroom. So it does take planning but it doesn't have to be reinvented every day. It really can work very well for all kids and it is working well for children in our district now. And then I guess if I got 30 seconds left I would say it can expand beyond the classroom too. I think classrooms are really a construct of adults to be able to educate a lot of kids. So we shouldn't be limited by the four walls of the classroom if a child needs to move to a different grade level to get the right level of instruction to needs to move to a different school. We even have kids who go from the high school to UC Davis to be able to access higher level courses. So we have to break down some of the artificial walls that we've created within education and become more flexible around kids. To share. OK. The question here is I like to concentrate on where it says how do teachers and teaching ecosystem comes together to optimize each child is it and unrealistic expectation. Well I am going to give you my experience as a teacher because I can tell you that it only takes us just a few sessions in class to know where our students are. You as a teacher you know them really well and when you talk to them in front of a class you develop an instinctive sense of who is paying attention who is not. Just as was when I was talking to you I instinctively look at you and so who is looking at me and who is writing or things like that. The point is that teachers are the best judges to be able to know where the kids are and who needs help and so on. But I believe that students teachers realize the levels that they are and that they can classify the students in groups in such a way that those who can do and be challenged more they could even move to a different level. What I believe in the this is why I believe that in the AIM program I would like to see something like a pre-AIM or so where parents and teachers come together make the decision and then find out whether the child feels comfortable or they can succeed and those who can succeed should stay and go on and achieve the best of their full potential. And I think that is the best way to optimize that relationship between teacher and child and help those who need help. Thank you candidates. We're now going to move to the second question and again if you're writing on index cards some of your questions just hold up your hand and Melody will come pick them up. We're going to assume that you're asking it to all the candidates unless you specify otherwise. We'll continue to start with Bob through this round by the way when we go to the closing lightning round we'll actually start with you Alan. And then we have the guest questions then we'll start with you. How can the school board superintendent Bose and the local PTA, PTOs and boosters work together and to what end? Well it's been a privilege to be able to go around and sit in on a number of PTA PTO meetings over the last several months and I'm always amazed at the energy in the room and the creative ideas that they come up with. I am also impressed by the amounts of money that they raise to support various programs. I find it interesting that the elementary school PTAs are far ahead in fundraising than my daughter's home's junior high PTA but be that as it may I think sort of my response to this question is that I really think it is a matter of communication and strategizing and I would advocate for a yearly workshop that would bring together the superintendent, the school board, PTA, PTO, leadership and even teachers to strategize and to plan what are the priorities either for an individual site or the school district as a whole. Several years ago some of the PTA's PTOs were actually raising money for counselors in the elementary school and that has now changed with support for counselors from the school district but that led to severe inequity in my view that some schools had additional counselors and others did not. So I really think that it's important to communicate, to have a formal place where ideas can be shared. There's a tremendous number of great ideas out there that probably are respected to one single school site just because that good idea has not been spread amongst other sites. So I think that would go a long way towards improving the cooperation, establishing best practices, deciding where monies might be effectively spent and I think that that would be a great idea. Well I'm glad you mentioned the counseling issue because actually when I was elected president and one of my first priorities was really seeking alignment among our elementary schools as it relates to counseling because that was one example of where there is some inequities throughout our district when certain PTAs can raise a level of funding and then use that funding for permanent employees that are ultimately the district's responsibilities. And so I made it a priority to really, you know, clearly communicate that, you know, when it comes to hiring certificated staff, that is teachers and counselors and others, we, the board, really need to set the standards of what we want among all of our elementary schools and then provide those as opposed to leaving it to the devices of a particular PTA to fundraise to then hire those positions. So that was a, that was an issue I took up and I'm proud that I did because really what that was about was equity. But I will say that we have a tremendous PTA, PTO community in our district for the specific things that the school board and the superintendent can do. I think we've done a lot of it in that we've established board office hours. We, in the year I was president, we assigned each trustee with responsibilities at each school for the purposes of them checking into the PTA, PTOs at those individual campuses to ensure that we were touching all parts of our district at all times. So I think that it's certainly something that, as you mentioned, communication about expectations is really important and I think that we have done a good deal amount of work in this area and I'm proud to say that I believe that we have a great current relationship and work well with our PTA and PTOs. Just a second. Okay, so the question was how can I work together into what end? So the end is student success. I think that is where we align all of our efforts in the district and while PTAs and PTOs do a wonderful job fundraising and that is greatly appreciated, I know having served on a number of them that that's not the highest purpose of the organizations. I think the most important role that PTAs and PTOs can play is to be a conduit for information between the district, between the school board and to really get that information flowing two ways. So the superintendent's parent advisory committee is important place where parent leadership comes on a monthly basis to communicate with the superintendent and then share information back to their groups. There's two things that I would want to mention as very specific opportunities. One of them is this Thursday, which I'm sure I'm going to see many of you at this event. This is the second year that the district is hosting a school governance workshop. That's an opportunity for administrators and parents, the leadership of the site councils and the PTAs and PTOs to come together with district administration and really work in a workshop environment around the table and identify what are the priorities and the strategies for the district and then to learn more about the budget if you want to know more about the budget. So that is happening this Thursday. It's an annual event. There's very nice dinner that served along with it. So we do try to make it a pleasant event. The second is the LCAP advisory, the local control and accountability plan advisory, something that's existed for three years. Parent participation starts high there and kind of falls off by the end of the year at the most critical time when we're allocating resources to our high-need students. So I'd really encourage more parent participation there because it will help inform budget priorities. I think I'd like to concentrate on the question how they can work together and to what end. One of the proposals that I have made and I would like to make it again is that to mitigate the need for parcel taxes or to boost the funding of schools, that each school would have like the ability to apply for grants and that the district would have a coordinator full-time position to be able to help the individual schools to also raise money. There's no, as I see now, PTAs raise money, but there's not much communication with the district in that sense. But I would like to see a two year street so that the funding would be boosted for the entire district. I think even if they get the smaller grants for specific purpose at schools, they will raise far more money than the parcel taxes. I am very happy that my colleague Bob brought it up at another meeting because I think it's a great idea to be able to go high and go for where you can make a difference and actually could be for specific purposes so that the budget of each school would increase and there would be a two-way communication with the district for that purpose. Oh, okay, yes, I think the communication is very important and I think a relationship and coordinating with the superintendent would create an environmental cooperation and I believe that is a good way to have a good relationship between the superintendent and the PTAs. Fantastic, thank you. So let's go through the third question and again hopefully you're writing down some questions on index cards that Melody can come and gather. This is our final question that we've identified. We talk a lot about using technology as part of our long-range plan. What other innovations in education should we consider? And again, we're starting off with Bob. Oh, okay. Well, I think this is a very interesting question. When we answer the Vanguard's third question, somebody posted in response to our responses a link to a YouTube video and I would encourage you to follow that link because it really is an indictment against some of the traditional ways we've tried to teach. So I think technology is going to play a very important role and there are a number of other innovations that can be applied. I think we just have to reimagine teaching. I think we have to get away from the lecturing that is so common. We should rely more on inquiry-based hands-on learning experiences. Technology can fill a role, but the bottom line is the foundation of education is good teachers. And the teachers have to know how to effectively use technology. At the Ventory School, we have some very highly equipped classrooms and we actually have audience response clickers. So the kids out there in a lecture, you ask them a question and they can respond and you can get some instant feedback. Now, I really haven't seen that at a high school level yet, but I think that would be an interesting technology and it's relatively cheap to engage students a little bit more effectively. I think we can't be constrained by age or grades as much as we have been. I think we have to rely more on mastery of skills rather than age grouping and I think we have to focus on critical thinking skills. One area that I think we could do a much better job is involving private public partnerships. I think we're in a very high-tech area and I think that if we could find a way to effectively partner with private industries and that's why I was a big supporter of the Innovation Park because I think that would bring in some high-tech industries, that that would be a great way to stay current with technology and bring some technology into the classroom. There are some politically difficult approaches and year-round schooling would be one. Good thing they're no students. Well, I think that when we think about innovation, a lot of times we think about computers in a classroom but really I look at this question and I think about not only ways we can innovate in the classroom but ways we can innovate as a district. We are a local government, a governing body and what are some of those things that we can do. I was one of the members of the Strategic Planning Committee that convened three years ago and I think the work that came out of that process is really one of the more innovative things we are starting to do as a district and that is we set in there as a goal to allow or require our students to set a goal at the beginning of the year and then track that goal, make it the responsibility of the district and the teachers to learn what each child's goal is. That's something that and we are working now to systematize that. What that means is that really that is us taking an affirmative step to really ignite a love of learning in each child because we are taking an affirmative interest in what each individual child wants out of their educational experience and so I think that that's certainly one area of innovation that we're currently pursuing and I'm proud of the work and that if and when implemented we will have a system wherein our kids matriculate through our schools and each year our teacher is informed about what they want to learn about whether it's aviation or some sports they can integrate that into the curriculum and learning but there are other ways to innovate and I'm we're looking at those whether it's developing an internship program to encourage the type of professionals, development and to deal with the teacher shortage that we're all going to have to live with. Or it's really offering avenues through which our teachers can really attain professional development. I think that innovation is something that's more than just coding and technology in that way. So I think any visioning process kind of starts with where you are you decide where you want to go and you figure out how you're going to get there and that was really our strategic planning process so I'm really pleased to hear it coming up over and over again and I think the vision of differentiated instruction is a real load star in that conversation how do we meet each child where they are provide them a challenging environment help them get vested in their own education. So there's no shortage of good ideas there's no shortage of great teaching in this district there is a shortage of good facilities to really support those programs particularly science labs so I don't know how many of you have kids here and have seen the science labs here but they could use some significant improvements so could the arts and the shops that are in this location high school has some spaces that if you walked into those classrooms you would not believe that they were in Davis in our community and all of our campuses have opportunities for improvement around facilities but if we really want to focus on STEM education career technical education we have to invest in the facilities to be able to have the right tools for teachers to be able to teach really exciting innovative programs that really attract kids so science labs our career technical education facilities like robotics like our agriculture program at the high school we've talked out for many years about a culinary arts program which requires good facilities much better than we have garden facilities also a good way to get that started at elementary school and then internships I think Alan mentioned this I really think that there's an opportunity for growth DaVinci has a wonderful internship program they have an intern coordinator who helps develop those relationships for kids all year long I think we need something like that at Davis High we had a discussion around that as part of a parcel tax but it would have required increasing the size of the parcel tax so these are still opportunities I think we're looking looking to fund I'm going to give you a little more direct different answer coming again from the teacher's perspective because I have been involved in using technology for a while and doing research in this area this is why I would like to implement some of these ideas in the district here you know how your kids have nowadays cell phones, iPads and sometimes we think that they they spend too much time on them and not do their homework or so well you can use these tools to learn if the teacher is giving the tools to put notes and tips for classes in YouTube nowadays kids watch those they can prepare for exams like that they can have communication with their teachers and with their devices so I have decided that to try some of these techniques on my own on my own courses and I do not prohibit the iPads or cell phones in my class I do quite the opposite so that they can use it and learn these tools for learning purposes the idea for example of a flip classroom where students prepare they first prepare the lecture ahead of time and they hear and do exercises in class that's another idea there would be a time where the teacher would be relieved of doing so much grading that is hard on them but make it more automatic and give feedback to students faster and why not use the tools that we have and there are software out there hardware there's also communications Facebook, WhatsApp that don't use the right way could be great tools for implementing new technologies Bob mentioned the clickers that's wonderful to get feedback immediately and I think there's other tools like that thank you now what we're going to do is transition we have two parts left in the forum thank you Melody for collecting the cards and bringing those up the first will be secondly excuse me essentially a 30 second closing lightning round which will be starting with Alan and working this way and like I said when we get to audience questions we'll start with Susan and then rotate that way so at this point we'll start with Alan we have 30 seconds again and reminder to go directly to red and because I believe we needed a diversity of perspective and experience on the board I think I offer that I'm the only one on the board currently that attended UC Davis and has that student perspective I you know my practice is public law which local government which is what a school district is so I have great familiarity and I'm the only one on the board with that and the only one in this race you know I also think it's worth noting that I've at the exception of uh... professor grande lived in the community the longest and volunteered and so I know all about the community in many ways so that's fast yeah really okay we'll speed that one that this is making up for the five minutes that we used at the beginning so I'm honored to have served on the Davis school board um... since 2007 leading really some positive changes amid some challenging times and I am personally deeply motivated to contribute the knowledge the relationships and the experience that I've gained and my service on the board so that Davis schools continue to excel and most importantly so that every child succeeds so a couple of priorities we didn't touch on I'm interested as Alan had said recruiting and retaining high quality educators lowering the cost of health benefits to increase access for everyone improving school climate and working conditions and investing in facilities I think I would say elected two teachers candidates that would be my pitch to you because we have the best interest on on your kids we have the tools and we know what how to help teachers achieve those goals from the experience that we had um... I think that the if you like to have a change on the board a little bit more diversity of opinion um... I think you should vote for me okay I think it's Dr. Bob I probably don't need it oh I got two now so I think it's important uh... for the voters to consider what attributes they would like to see in a school board trustee uh... I think I can bring some very positive attributes to the board uh... I'm willing to listen and to observe I think that is one of the most critical uh... attributes that a school board member could have I have a willingness to learn I don't have all the answers uh... but in our very educated community I think we have some very creative solutions that we have to tap into I'm willing to collaborate and find common ground and compromise I think that's important well congratulations everybody thirty seconds the reason that actually that constructed it that way was so that everybody could kind of wrap with really netting it out for their message and their brand and what's important uh... for their candidacy at this point what we're going to do is move to we have a few audience questions what we'll do is again we'll start with Susan Sahlheim's back in a moment uh... and then I don't think any of them have specified one candidate if they have I'll be sure to call that out so the first question is when everybody one minute response just monitor thirty plenty of time here is there anything that you would change about the district's sex education curriculum if so what well that's a specific question uh... so I I do think that the health program which is where much of the sex education as well science that elementary school uh... has gone through sort of regular revisions periodically to make sure that it's uh... it's up to date and relevant for students uh... just one very specific thing that did come to my attention recently that I've been working on related to the health curriculum was shaken baby syndrome so if you are actually able to uh... access students uh... at their high school level thank you for uh... with the kind of information about how easy it is to hurt a baby uh... then that really is that is the age group often very young parents where that occurs and we have a recent uh... case of that in our community so sharing that information it through our health curriculum is something that I've been working on with rotary club if you'd like me to repeat the question I can't do but it's it's is there anything that you would change about the district's sex education curriculum if so what I didn't get that you mean sex education or what? sex education okay because I heard just about in general the curriculum in the in the district what I'm going to do with these I'm going to have a single question I'll pass them down actually for you if you have multiple I'll just keep it well I think from my uh... perspective I I would like to see that uh... there is a uh... not a politically correct way of doing this but really a respectful way where everybody's opinions are heard and mainly I think you need feedback from the parents and there's a subject in which there's not much communication with the school and that has been the case since my kids were in school so that's what I would change you know I think Jose brings up a very good point I do think we have to be sensitive to uh... parental concerns about uh... a lot of uh... the topics that make him up uh... I can tell you from my standpoint and hearing from my two girls I think we have an excellent uh... curriculum here I do have to say I would have to learn more about the specifics to really make a sound judgment is to uh... any potential changes uh... I think it has to be uh... supportive environment uh... I think it has to be an open and honest discussion and uh... I truly believe that that is the best way to present information to our children so they're in the best position to be able to deal with a lot of questions that they're going to have to deal with the question about is there anything I would change and and the answer is uh... I suppose so and then it's just more of it more education Susan mentioned around our health curriculum and certainly biology and that's important but I think that this is a topic that spans subject it's one that we actually have been looking at as a board not only sex education but gender equity and so I think it's important that we ensure that the literature that our children are reading have balance uh... among female authorship and male authorship and I think uh... you know we have to just continually be open and looking at uh... all parts of our curriculum not only health but literature history uh... sociology and so uh... I guess I would constantly be looking at ways to improve our education in this way and and seek out other multidisciplinary avenues through which to pursue it thank you our next question and I'll be able to hand this out also if technology is part of your long-range plan how do you plan to fund it and provide equity between schools training for teachers and support staff to maintain it so don't start the time just yet I'm gonna actually give you the card because there's a lot there so yeah let's go ahead and start and we'll move it around that way after this question we're gonna move back to you doctor ground to start so uh... we have been quite blessed in terms of technology funding over the past two years so the state of california has had a particularly good couple of years we're not anticipating that's going to continue but has designated some one-time funding for technology so there's been significant investment in technology over the past two years uh... I understand that the question is the long-range plan so we have been able to actually uh... implement where we have uh... one device we use chromebooks to three students at this point carts that move around between the classrooms those are much less expensive than the old computer labs that we used to fund so it's easier to be able to turn over a portion of those on on a regular basis that's gonna have to become part of our regular budget there really is that isn't something that we can depend on uh... pts or parent communities to fund for us all the time uh... all of our professional development now i think really does incorporate technology strategies not you know everything needs it but i think it's important that it be a component of all professional learning uh... and the technology support at the individual school sites sorry i think varies still i don't think you have a good standard uh... of maintaining that yet some more work to do there i think this in this question touches on one of these technology and uh... i would say that uh... because the question is how to fund it i hope the district with any money that has extra because i consider the tarp parcel taxes being extra money not part of the budget uh... that they would uh... they would direct those towards the this end and also the the the application for grants specifically for technology there's a lot of uh... grants from the board of them from the department of education for this and i think we just need to talk to resources and particularly somebody like the bill gates foundation who gave money to the district here for specific purpose that would be uh... like that and others or what i would suggest that we tapping to fund and train teachers to use technology in the classroom in the long-range well i i love this uh... question here here well i love this question because it really fits in but you can hear me right uh... i really think that this uh... fits in very nicely with partnering with our uh... resources our partners uh... in the community uh... i'm a strong believer that uc davis should be more actively involved in our schools i became aware that uh... elementary school was interested in getting microscopes the bargain barn for heaven sakes has tons of microscopes sitting there uh... uc davis helps provide uh... support the robotics program uh... i think that's where the park public private partnerships could really come into play technology changes so fast i don't know that schools with the funding level we have can keep up so we just have to be creative in terms of staying state-of-the-art and that also spills over into our current tech education because that requires a lot of resources and that's pro those are programs designed to prepare kids going to go to a four-year college who are going to graduate from high school and probably earn more money than i am at earning now as a university professor thanks uh... technology is really an important part of uh... designing this classrooms of today and tomorrow and certainly uh... as i mentioned at the outset uh... really enhancing our school facilities is a priority of mine i think there needs to be a major investment uh... district-wide among our facilities there's still our campuses that teachers don't have any wifi access uh... so i would really look to in the question asks how do you plan to fund it i would really look first and foremost uh... to the facility funding that may be available to us if should the state pass it statewide facility bond which i support uh... but also that at the appropriate time we looking at uh... really our long plan a long-term plan for facility funding uh... because i think uh... and renewed investment in that way is needed and i think that it's important that we make sure that whatever technology we have it has to be supported by the district uh... that's been a continuing problem that we might have this technology but it's not supported thank you we have uh... great news is we've been submitted a number of questions almost eight in total across two cards we have time for two of them keep on track of time so i'm gonna pick one from uh... each card and i believe after that all wrap it up with my closing comments and then uh... there'll be collateral here from the candidates as well as the candidates themselves will be here for a few minutes after the program which will end at eight fifteen so the first question can you please give us an example of a differentiation lesson in a primary grade that's not a math lesson hopefully one you've seen we're actually going to start with Dr. Gunde that's a very interesting question for me put me on the spot because that's what i teach what i can tell you for example on a differentiation is i would relate to the experiences in germany when my son and my daughter were there there was a big uh... emphasis on art just to discover how is whether the students had the ability to do uh... abstracts conceptions whether they were painting as cultures or you name it uh... there was the promotion promotion of uh... how students can appreciate opera or things like that that we really don't don't don't don't do here but i think we need to be innovative to uh... give uh... opportunity to do this new things and i just always concentrate that the teacher is the best judge for this well that that's uh... another very specific question and i have not had the opportunity to observe much of the differentiation that goes on in our schools uh... so you know i think it is something that uh... again requires uh... some very intense uh... professional development to make sure it's done correctly and i think that's uh... a role where technology can play uh... an important uh... part in differentiation uh... but again i think that's a little too specific that i can't give you an exact uh... example right i think that question was about elementary non-math differentiation answer book in the back uh... i guess leave it to the one candidate up here with elementary school kids which means that i'll be in this district a long time after the this term and have to live with the decisions we make but with the book in the back program is is it's a program that is uh... largely volunteer run by parents and grandparents actually uh... within our schools where we uh... endeavor to have every child leaves the school day with a book and why is it differentiation because it's that parent community that relies on that book being read to then assess whether or not they're ready for another book at another level so book in the back is uh... program that happens in our district and it's a great example of differentiation elementary that's not good well i think that uh... the principles of the example that i gave that was a fifth or sixth grade classroom and math are the same for primary and non-math lessons i mean you want to use a variety of techniques individual instruction small group instruction whole group instruction uh... using the elements of project based learning is something that uh... you can do with any age group technology can enhance instruction for any age kids uh... we do pull in and pull out instruction already in all of our classrooms we level reading groups across all grades uh... and then that ability to move across classrooms to a higher grade level or two again a different school so i think the elements are the same the elements of differentiation is or the same regardless of the age group or the thank you this is our final question and i think let's do this one with uh... whoever feels compelled to answer it first it's not a survival of the fitness with three mics i promise right this is an interesting question how do you ensure parent involvement in decision-making it seems like speaking at board meetings doesn't really seem to work many parents can't be on l-cap or strategic committees to provide input since i have the the microphone in front of me i mean this is obviously something that i thought a lot about because i've been involved in parent groups for many many years and davis uh... it is the hardest thing to accomplish i mean i think pts and pts are really uh... helpful as our site councils in getting that parental involvement at the school level that then can feed up through the leadership into the district office but one of the reasons that we did the district dollars program was because there are a lot of questions around uh... the budget how the money was spent and we wanted to be able to get people to share what they valued when we were actually having to make budget reductions so that was created to be something you could access in your own time spend as long as you wanted you've got some simple screens to give you an overview lots of links that you can go deeper so something that you could access in your own time and provide input to the district whenever you had that uh... opportunity available to you uh... just a couple of comments i think uh... one of the most important things uh... to engage parents is active listening uh... because you know going out and walking the neighborhoods i'm i'm always amazed at how engaged parents can become uh... if you just listen to some of their concerns and some of their ideas so i think that's uh... an incredible asset to have i think that uh... one thing that would be a party is if i was on the school board is uh... i have tried to navigate our website and there's a tremendous amount of information there but it is not very accessible i think we could be doing a lot better job with that and that might be a an opportunity to partner with uh... people uc davis in terms of uh... students uh... becoming involved in a project helping move that along i think school group has been a great way to reach out to parents i use it all the time and it's a great way to monitor your kids progress i think the real key is how do you engage those parents that are not inclined to be engaged at all and that's particularly true with at-risk kids well i i i think we actually as a board uh... do a good job uh... on getting parents engaged in our decision-making process uh... and but does not mean that we can't do better uh... i think that we as a board have continually looked for ways to expand our reach i've mentioned uh... you know certainly the board office hours being won secondly i've mentioned you know signing trustees with responsibility but i think we still need to do more particularly as uh... bob mentioned really with uh... we uh... a responsibility to our student community to reach those parent voices were not li- hearing from and so i think it's it it means you know weekend uh... events and at night time events and daytime events just offering more flexibility within our district for that parental input and uh... i would certainly and have encouraged us to expand our reach is is best possible i think uh... i agree with the person who was the question that is difficult that communication between parents and the board and in fact uh... board meetings the situation is tense many times uh... in the past uh... has gotten better with this board but in the past the board didn't want to listen to the person speaking and treated them nothing a very nice way i think that if you elect me what i would do is i would hold office hours at specific times and visit schools and you saw from my pictures in there uh... one of those was a project uh... with parents where we actually built airplanes parents and kids together so if if you have somebody on from the board visiting school and doing a little project that invites the parents and the kids at the same time would break the ice and i would be happy to do something like that we made it congratulations everybody so few wrapping remarks on on my part first of all thanks to melody patwin excuse me the pta president for emerson uh... and on behalf of patwin in our school pta thank you and also grace for davinci boosters thank you very much as we're sponsored tonight by davis media access has been kind enough to record this and will make this available on a website so we'll make sure to contact through the pp pta is excuse me to notify that it's available thanks also to those of you who asked questions uh... thank you to the davis enterprise for coming this evening as well to cover this discussion and that most of all i'd really like to thank the four candidates for investing your time with us this evening uh... susan levin burr allen fernandez bob pop and gay and doctor who say that so thank you very much in this concludes our forum