Okay, welcome everybody to the 2014 Davis Joint Unified School District School Board Candidates Forum sponsored by the Davis Vanguard and Davis Media Access. My name is David Greenwald, I am the Executive Director of the Davis Vanguard and I will be the moderator for this forum. We have by agreement drawn numbers and determined that Barbara Archer will begin. Each candidate will give a two minute introduction addressing several key points. What attributes are necessary to be a successful school board trustee in Davis? How will your past service to Davis schools inform and prepare you for serving as a school board trustee and what qualities do you have that are different from the other candidates that will serve you well if you are elected? Following the two minute opening remarks, each candidate will answer all of the questions one by one. There will be five questions. They have been submitted by the candidates themselves. We have grouped and determined that these are the five that are going to go. We have also been passing around cards. In the second half, after a brief five minute intermission, we will go through the cards and the candidates will have an opportunity to answer probably between eight and ten for a minute each. We will try to get to as many questions as possible. We have a full audience so obviously we are not going to be able to take everybody's question but that is the way it works. Without any further ado, Barbara, you are on for two minutes. Once again, white card means thirty seconds, red card means stop. Barbara? Good evening everyone and thanks for coming out tonight. Thank you to the Vanguard and Davis media access for providing us the opportunity for this forum. We have been asked to address a number of points in our opening statement. First, how does our school service thus far inform and prepare us for serving on the school board? What I would like you to know about me is I have worked in our schools for the last ten years. I was PTA president at Willet Elementary and I served on the school site council. As PTA president, you are responsible for a budget, you answer parent concerns, you work with site staff on projects to help students success.  This is very relevant experience for the school board. In 2012, I co-chaired our school parcel tax campaign. For this, I had to learn about the DJUSD budget. I had to know what measure C funded and what it did not fund. I have followed our budget issues closely ever since by attending board meetings and also by serving on our district parcel tax oversight committee. I think how our budget is managed and prioritized is the most critical issue we face in the next few years. We were also asked to talk about what attributes we have that will be necessary to serve effectively on the school board. I'm a strategic thinker. In my public relations background, I am trained to look at a scenario and think about the different ways an issue could go and plan accordingly. I'm also a good listener. I enjoy talking with people and hearing their concerns. This was something I did a lot of in my parent leadership positions. By nature, I'm a very open person. I value honesty and transparency, which I think are essential qualities in a board member. In addition, I'm responsive. In PR, you always respond to a journalist as soon as you can after you've done your research. I would view constituents in a similar way. I would respond to your concerns as soon as I can. Thank you, Barbara. Ellen? Good evening, everyone. Thank you all for coming out tonight. Thanks also to the Vanguard and Davis Media Access for organizing today's event. It's very important that a forum like this exist in such an important election. I'll be brief. I am currently on the board and serve as your trustee. The attributes that I have leading up to my ultimate appointment on the board are that I have a deep commitment and extensive volunteer efforts, not only in our school but in our larger community. I came to this community initially for education as a student at UC Davis, and I've remained here for the purposes of education in raising my own family. I've been here over 20 years and have committed myself to public service and serving our community, be it on school site council, a member of the strategic plan committee for the district, as well as other activities not related exclusively to the schools but other parts of our community, because getting to the point of what makes a good school board member, I think it's one that has broad vision of all of the different communities within our community and ensuring that our children are educated to the best of our ability requires us to have a broad knowledge of the strengths of our community that we're able to tap into. I'm excited to be on the board. I'm the newest member to the board and I look forward to continuing my service over the next two years and I'm committed, first and foremost, to getting our district to improve, although it's widely known as a great district. Thank you, Alan. Okay, Jose, you're up. I have been a teacher for 32 years. I am a professor at the California State University in Sacramento, and I lived in Davis for 36 years. From the very beginning I served this district as a parent-teacher volunteer. Our family is one of the first families that founded the Spanish Immersion Program at Birch Lane, then at North Davis, then at West Davis, and I was also part of the Technology Task Force that put the first computers and the district appointed by the board. I think the third question is the most important to me, and that is how you make it different. I have given a theme to my campaign as to become the three T's candidate. The first T is technology. I want to make sure that Davis schools become the most technologically advanced in the United States. I practice that in my own courses. I am at the forefront of becoming and proposing the paperless classroom and using technology to teach with iPads, iPods, whatever the kids enjoy nowadays, uses as tools for teaching. The second T is taxpayers. Taxpayers' responsibility. I am a candidate that I believe the taxpayers can trust because I have also opposed the partial taxes when they are not needed. I am not opposed to paying taxes, but when you have four of majors in 18 months you've got to say no at some point. And the last T is teaching. I want to support the teachers. I am one of them. I am with you and I want the kids to receive the best education. That's how I am different from other candidates. Thank you. Thank you. Mike? My name is Michael Nolan. 20 years ago, my wife and I decided that when we raised our kids, we were lucky enough to have one of us stay home and take care of the kids. And I became that one. So I became the home maker. And that gave me the opportunity to get really involved in my kids' schooling in the Davis school system. I am an attorney by profession, a member of the public law section of the state bar. But at the same time, when we had four kids at Willett at one time, the PTA president told me, you have to get more involved in the PTA. And so I did. I became a member of the superintendent's parent advisory committee for five years. I eventually became PTA president and I served as chair of the school site council. In those capacities, I learned a lot about the schools and under the and in the superintendent parent advisory committee, I served under the last four superintendents. And it gave me a broad experience in our school system. Working on the PTA and the site council of working with different people and bringing to consensus. And I found that the most important thing is to listen to people. And as a board member, I believe that that's the most important thing a board member can do is to listen to everybody. And in our district, what's really important is that we're not many other districts are just a majority vote district. In here, we have to have a consensus in the community because every four years or four or five years, we have to go. The board has to use its credibility and go before the community and ask for needed taxes to keep our high achieving schools. I want to be that board member. I want to listen to you and it would I would appreciate your vote. Thank you. Thank you, Mike. Bob. Good evening. I'm Bob Papenge. Thank you, David and David Davis media access. So the first question was how past service to Davis schools would inform and prepare me for the school board. I think probably one of the best ways is that you have children in the district. I have two daughters, very diverse. One daughter came to our family as a 10 year old and as an English language learner. And we have another daughter who is in the aim program. So I've seen two very diverse programs and how the district manages those programs. I also participated on the professional development action team as part of the strategic planning process. And I was actually shocked in Davis that there was really no program to train help train our teachers and keep them trained. And I think that was a very collaborative and very fruitful process. And now we have a professional growth system. I've also brought educators to the community to look at best practices and best evidence. And I think I've seen through interacting with some community organizations specifically explore it how those organizations interact and leverage our resources in the community to help educate all our kids. As far as attributes that I think are necessary to be a successful school board trustee I am a university educator have been for 25 years. I've been very student focused. As a school board member I would keep that focus. The school board member has to always keep the child at the top in terms of consideration. I think I'm a good listener and observe things that go on. I want to spend time on site in classrooms as much as I can. I am a lifelong learner and I think this is very important because the educational literature changes quite dramatically. And I think it's incumbent upon school boards to keep up with what the latest information is. And I think you have to think strategically. You can't be thinking. Thank you Bob. I want to remind everybody to make sure you're speaking into the mic so that the TV people at home can hear what you have to say. Chuck. Good evening everyone. Chuck Raden thank you Vanguard and Davis Media for hosting this event. Among the attributes that make an effective board member I believe are a collaborative work style and the ability to consider many diverse perspectives and to bring that together in a at least a cohesive solution and approach to solving whatever issues are before the board. I've worked for 20 years on complex high visibility public works projects as both a team member and leading multidisciplinary teams. I'm used to a high level of accountability and also I'm a strong proponent of transparent and open proceedings. I think that's one of the best ways to advance a particular idea or whatever the issues are to at least give it its full and just hearing. As someone who's not an educator but who values education I think I would bring a different set of views to the board. I'm the first member on my extended family to earn a college degree and I think that also provides and having to work through the education system and realize a lot of its benefits and figure out a lot of that for myself without a whole lot of mentorship that gives me some insights that I think would also help complement the other points of view on the board. I make an effort to inform myself on the the current issues and the kind of the long view challenges and aspirations of the district. I served on the strategic planning committee and I think that was an excellent example of what you can see when people from diverse walks of life come together and work together and figure out what what the future course is going to be. Thank you Chuck. Madavi. I'm running for Davis School Board because public schools are the engine of opportunity in our democracy. I myself am the beneficiary of public schools. My parents immigrated to the United States with nothing. Public schools prepared me to attend Harvard College and then later Stanford Law School and today I proudly teach at a public school the University of California Davis School of Law where many of my students are the first in their families to go to college. My scholarship of the past two decades has always focused on expanding opportunities for all from gay rights to women's rights to ensuring access to knowledge. My book on intellectual property and global justice is used in classrooms across the country. My record of service to the Davis schools began well before my own two children now in elementary school here in Davis were of school age. In 2005 I led the campaign to name Korematsu Elementary after the civil rights hero. Today Fred Korematsu's quote if you have the feeling that something is wrong don't be afraid to speak up, empowers kids in that school to stand up against bullying. Last year I participated in the school district's strategic planning process focusing on how to support the whole child. We highlighted there the need for small classrooms as one key to supporting each child's needs and I am committed to reducing class sizes. I'm endorsed by the Davis Teachers Association, the Yolo County Democratic Party, State Senator Lois Wolk and all five members of the Davis City Council and hundreds of community members. I believe one we can and should provide a world class education to our students even in an era of limited public support. Two this means we must spend our money wisely concentrating our resources in the classroom not on unnecessary consultants and three we must be resourceful. I have a proven track record in bringing in grants from Google, the Carnegie Corporation and from the public sector. I will seek partnerships with foundations, corporations and universities to bring opportunities to our kids. Thank you. Okay Tom you wrap up this first set of questions. Can you hear me? Yeah thank you. I'm Tom Adams and I'm running for Davis School Board and I just want to thank you all of all of you for coming out here tonight and participating in the civic situation. As a Davis School Board member I would bring together a number of qualities that I think are needed. One is I'm a known consensus builder. It starts with listening, clearly defining the issues, looking at all sides of the issues, emphasizing the we and not the me of the issue and making sure everyone contributes. I have knowledge of the schools based upon my site council experience at Emerson and Chavez and I also have served on district-wide committees for the Spanish Immersion Master Plan as well as the Davis Schools Strategic Planning Committee, the assessment subcommittee. I have deep knowledge of education policy. I've been involved in education for 22 years. I also wish to bring a positive attitude to Davis in terms of recognizing the great things that Davis teachers do while recognizing the need for change and improvement in other areas. I also seek a balanced education for all students. I believe in all services to all students such as counseling, the arts, humanity, science and career technical education. For me it's this experience K through 12 is the time to foster curiosity and provide a variety of experiences. In terms of my experience in education it's not simply 22 years but 22 years involving curriculum and instruction and assessment. I got my start in assessment and I've graduated to curriculum and assessment. I mean instruction and curriculum and instruction. In terms of the rules of governance I just want to say I'm the executive director of a commission and I know how to make meetings run, how to make sure policy decisions are done in a consensus fashion and that in the end everyone can say they've had their input. Thank you very much. Okay so here is the first question. Alan you are going to go first on this and once again one and a half minutes rather than the two minutes for the first one. What is your philosophy of education and how will it shape your decisions on the school board? Are there issues where you have disagreed with the administration in the last two years? If so what are they? A minute and a half. Okay my philosophy on education particularly as a trustee of a public school district is access and truly making sure that all 8,600 students of our district are served to the best of our ability. From the child on free and reduced lunch to the high achieving student to everyone in between and so access is sort of first and foremost upon sort of my core philosophy on public education and then of course with regard to our district achieving excellence within our student population and driving every student to their highest potential. With regard to the question on administration and whether or not I have disagreed, sure within the last two years I don't know that I go two days without disagreeing at times but I think what you'll find for me is that I am a good listener. I'm a consensus builder. We do have challenges in our district and it's really important that we shouldn't shy away from disagreement from our administrators rather we should look to build consensus with our students in mind. I think frankly the question is thank you. Jose? My philosophy on teaching because I am a teacher my first and foremost responsibility is to make sure that everybody learns and while not everybody is a new student we need to care for those who need help and that is the mission as I see myself in my own classes that's the mission that I would see the teachers in their classes as a trustee. We need to support them to give them all the materials the training that they need to be the best teachers that they can be and of course this touches on two of the things that I have mentioned my campaign is based on. One is the technology to give the teachers the best tools and the other one is the support and the training for them to do so. That I disagree with the board yes particularly on the fiscal irresponsibility of the board where it goes from increased salaries of administrators to 3.4 percent to four measures in parcel taxes which I think is basically an abuse of the taxpayers if that money is not going to be effective in education. We have a budget of $70 million and those taxes are only like 4.2 and to make everybody believe that that's what holds Davis education. Thank you Jose. Mike? Thank you here I am. The state constitution since 1849 is given the legislature the power to create schools but the words they use are common schools. My philosophy is yeah I believe in common schools when they use that word the common in the sense of community and I believe that everyone in this school district should be able to go to a public school and achieve their full capabilities and have the full range of services offered to them. My so my philosophy of education is that we have a chance in this school district in a with a with a consensus of the community to really offer our kids a top notch education whether they will go to college or whether they just want to go to work or community college. My disagreement with the school board in the aftermath of this of the resignation of one of the board members the board adopted a conflict of interest policy which I believe is inadequate totally inadequate and I believe that what we need in this district for the school board to have credibility is a tighter and more explicit conflict of interest code that would make sure that the board operates on a fair open and focused manner. Thanks Mike. Bob? Well I think it's important to point out over the last several decades I think our public school systems have been asked to do more and more and often with less resources so that makes educating all our kids a real challenge. As far as a philosophy education I think it has to be student-centered that's what I've done over the last 25 years at the university level and I think it's very important to engage students in the classroom I think in this country there are a number of studies that say our high school students disengage from the educational process and I think part of that is making sure that we have excellent teachers in the classroom that are adequately supported. I have a philosophy education academic excellence and high expectations I think all our students benefit from high expectations even those that are at risk I think they perform better. So public education is not a zero-sum game I think we have to figure out creative ways to provide opportunities for every child. Thank you. Chuck? Thank you. Pardon my voice and low horse tonight. My philosophy education is really about providing the full range of options available to the different styles of learning and aptitudes that are within the student population. I think that's important so that each of them are able to develop to their full potential and that you know they can rely on their own particular interests and aptitudes and pursue those throughout their school careers here in Davis. Also something I'm very much interested in is inquiry-based learning. I think when the mode of learning comes more from the student themselves or is more interactive and is generated from the questions in their minds as stimulated by the teacher and other environmental factors I think the process is much more enriching and I think that starts a lifelong love of learning as well. In terms of issues with the current administration I would say that better and more active communication before the fact I have seen improvements along these lines but I think in recent history there have been several instances where it was more about damage control and the community not knowing what was going on until after things were apparently already decided. So that's one of the key issues I have but again I have seen personally good. Thank you Chuck. Madhavi. So my philosophy of education is support all children. The public schools make each one of us our brothers and sisters keepers and that means that if we see a child thriving in any of our schools well that makes us happy even if it's not your child and if we see a child suffering in any of our schools that that concerns me even if it's not my child. That's my philosophy of education. In terms of disagreements with the administration well I I definitely think that the problem with the volleyball episode last year went far beyond the fact that we didn't have a conflict of interest policy. We spent twenty two thousand dollars and countless personnel hours investigating a complaint involving a board member's child. This really could have been handled and should have been handled differently. We could have gone to an administrator from another district to look into this without spending money. We could have had a committee of parents and teachers without spending the money. I think that we really need to look at how the district is spending money. We spent over a quarter million dollars in four years on eleven investigations. That's not going to happen on my watch. When I'm on the board we're going to spend our money on things that matter and that means nurses counselors and teachers. Thank you. Thank you. My philosophy of education comes down to the concept of universal design for learning. We have to begin every class and every instructional situation where we know we're going to have all kids there at the beginning. In this sense we have to be open to a variety of students. The other thing we have to do though is have common standards for all students and common expectations and this is important because we want to make sure that kids who graduate from Davis schools actually have the same knowledge and skills we expect. However we also have to have a variety of programs and that's what Davis offers and I want to see continue to offer. Just as we have neighborhood schools we also have schools that are specialized in their function. Also I want to just say that when it comes to our students we have a lot who are college ready but we also have to a lot who have to be career ready and in that sense we should take a look at these programs and make sure they're open to all students and we don't track one into the other but they all enjoy each other's company. In terms of disagreeing with the board I think that it comes down to the fact that the board had to make some hard decisions during tough budget times. What I want to see restored is class size reduction. I want to see regular counselors. I want to see regular school nurses. I want to make sure that our teachers are well trained and can actually get professional development on a regular basis and more importantly I want to see the board reach out and rebuild trust with the community because it's not the board. Thank you Tom. Barbara. Well my philosophy of education goes to enrichment for all and open access to all programs and I'll give you an example. We have a great music program in Davis as you all probably know but when we say access to all what I mean by that is are the forms for the music program in Spanish do we have a translator at those meetings so families who speak another language other than English can learn about this benefit for their child so open access is really important for me and I believe we can be a model district in so many areas. We're known for you know good test scores but I would rather us be known for a model district closing the achievement gap, state of the art technology, community service that's what I want us to be known for and yes I have disagreed with a variety of expenditures made in the last two years and I would seek much more oversight in terms of what we spend money on because we ask an awful lot of our community and we need to be transparent and fiscally responsible with our finances. Thank you very much. Okay that is question number one uh question number two we'll go to Jose uh if you are elected what is your top priority and what is your plan to accomplish that priority? I think it goes to the another one of the teams that's teaching with high technology and support of the teachers those are the highest priority I would not put priority in raising the salaries of the administrators at the expense of the teachers. I think the time has come where all the investments in the past that they have been on pay raises and pensions and all that needs to go to the children to the students and the investment in technology and for them investment on the for training for the teachers. How will we achieve this we need to rethink the priorities and if we set that as a goal I think every all of us need to be engaged in in that goal and see how we can achieve that if we need external funding I am all for that I am all for the seeking and perhaps creating a department that is specifically is dedicated to obtaining grants for specific purposes to enhance those two teams. Thank you Jose Mike you are up. My top priority is to listen to the to our community and to listen to everybody not only the people that are the supporters of our schools but even the critics to listen to our teachers and our students to listen to our parents in order to form a consensus to support our schools. The what I want to do is work with the other board members here at least two of the others here and the other or and the the other members to make a consensus that we have credibility to go before the voters and ask for the public support for our schools. The other point is to and the point of listening is to be able to advise the superintendent and the school administration about what public opinion wants and what we're concerned about I think that's really an important aspect of a board member. What I also want to do is make sure that no board member has no board member goes off and tries to manage things on their own that they remember that under the board bylaws that the board a board member has no individual authority except as is authorized by the board. Thank you. Thank you Mike. Bob. Well I think I would actually have a couple of different parties. I think restoring trust in the school board and the business that conduct is very important. I would like to see a community like Davis have a process where as a community we can get together and discuss some controversial or divisive issues and I think we've seen some evidence of issues cropping up all of a sudden without a lot of community input. One that comes to mind is the consolidation of the high school with the ninth grade that just sort of hit the papers and there was no process there to engage the community and get their feedback. Another priority would be teachers we're going to lose about 50 percent of our teachers in the next four or five years in fact this year we just hired about 90 new teachers some are inexperienced some are not so I think we just have to ensure that they have a professional growth system that meets their needs and lastly another priority is we need to develop strategically our partnerships with institutions like UC Davis the city council the chamber of commerce that we have so many resources in this community that we are not tapping into to help leverage resources and improve our educational programs and I have just one minute to go back to the other question about what I disagree with with one situation with the board and I was very disappointed when new monies became available that they hired 3.6 new FTEs for the administrative office and I think that should have been done over thank you Bob Chuck okay I think my highest priority would be making the choices and having or coming up with a plan that actually aligns the district to be a 21st century leader in public education I think a lot of different things would go into that but some of the main components I think would be making some serious headway on closing the achievement gap I think the recent development of the the LCAP and a lot of the features of that plan is going to make some significant strides in that direction I think also having the the full range and open access to all the different types of educational components and options within the district is going to be key to to broadening those those choices I think also as Bob had mentioned that taking care of teachers and staff those those folks who are most entrusted with with educating our kids and their development in the formative years you know if we aren't able to attract retain the most highly qualified down or least quality talent that's the cost is going to have downstream impacts well into the future so that's something that's becoming a very pressing issue and that we really need to get out ahead of otherwise it's going to cost far more in trying to reverse some of those impacts thank you Chuck Montevie you are up okay so my first priority is classrooms reducing class sizes enables us to meet the needs and recognize needs of every kid we have a lot of issues with respect to mental health issues and learning needs that are sometimes not addressed or even identified because the class sizes are so big so smaller class sizes also small learning communities so as we get into the upper grades programs like DaVinci offer kids alternative learning opportunities in smaller environments than the DHS does the second priority would be teachers supporting teachers is one of the most important ways of supporting the kids in the classroom that means rigorous training especially now in light of the Common Core but it also means recognizing their concerns about facilities and safety and security issues we really need to listen to teachers and support them in these many ways the third priority is resources Davis aspires to be great we're all about schools here and we have shown that we are number one in so many different ways but that means we need to seek partnerships actively with UC Davis our world renowned university in our backyard but also nonprofits and the the corporate sector to bring the kinds of opportunities in science but also in language and the arts that we need to prepare our kids for the jobs of the 21st century thank you mother be Tom okay thank you I'm gonna focus where I can focus as a board member we really have to build my priority will be building those board meetings and making sure that they're an example of civic virtue some of the things I want to do I want to start every board meeting with at least a five minute presentation by students we got to remember who we serve we're there for the students I also want to make sure and take the office of public information officer and change it to an ombudsman the fact of the matter is everyone knows how great Davis schools are but really the way we're going to make Davis schools better is by restoring trust and instead of having someone telling people how great we are maybe we need someone who can actually help parents find out and get the resources that they need I want to also say that really it's about listening if you're going to be a board member you better have big ears it's what I say you know you got to be patient with people and listen to their problems and I want to make sure that it we always don't just listen to those who are at the meeting but those who are interested but can't make it to the meeting in that sense we have to reach out to for lack of a better term the silent majority in our of our parents staff and teachers thank you Tom Barbara you are up well my keep issues issue is budget priorities 10 years ago a student entering kindergarten had 22 kids in her class last year she had 32 kids in her class this year we've been able to reduce class size at primary gates to 25 we still can do better and you know we still have 40 kids jamming into a classroom at the high school so class size is still a big priority for me counselor ratio is is something that's critical for us our counselor ratio 7 to 12 is 350 students to one counselor and at elementary they're paid for with soft money by PTAs we need to have a sustainable means where students can see counselors when they need to and that they're not funded by soft money my other priority would be teacher compensation and teacher input into policy and if I have time also technology with proper training and a plan for sustainability we can get all the iPads in the world but if we don't have training on how to configure them and to deal with you know technology obsolescence then it it doesn't work to have that technology in hand so we need proper training thank you Barbara Ellen you wrap up this round those are all great top priorities but you can't do any of those priorities without one thing and as the board member who was appointed as a result of the resignation I'm committed to restoring trust and how do you do that the question is what is your top priority minds to restore trust in the community and the question says how would you do that you do that by being transparent open with your decision process inclusive listening and telling the community the facts and here are the facts 80% of our funding generally comes from the state the decisions up until the local control funding formula have been dictated by the state the state is not investing in public education any longer okay we are 50th out of 50 states in per pupil spending that is not unfortunately at try as I might to increase that I'm not counting on that going up so therefore we need to really tap into our community and say and and ask the community what kind of schools we want for our future and our community is not going to be willing to invest in our public education without restoring trust and I'm committed to that because frankly it's a necessity with our parcel tax funding about almost 10% of our budget and coming up for renewal there are infrastructure needs that are are that have gone years without deferred maintenance that our district is finally catching up on and building that trust with our community is the way we're going to be able to get to all of the wonderful things that you thank you Ellen okay we are now halfway through this first round I wanted to give a couple of acknowledgments first of all thank you to Davis Community Church for this facility second of all thank you to Davis Media Access who has donated their work and labor tonight to broadcast this to the community and I also want to give a shout out to Jeff Hudson for covering this event all right question number three and we're to Mike Nolan now DJUSD has been questioned about the legality of the lottery used to determine classroom placement for the aim gate program what is your position visa v aim gate the the issue that came up for the board was brought forward by the attorneys because there was a question about the legality of the old way of putting people into the gifted and talented alternative model of education and you know as a as a member of the state bar I have to say that the the attorneys of advice was pretty well sound and unfortunately the criticism didn't see that the california constitution requires a higher standard than the federal constitution when it comes to equal opportunity so that when a person or child is determined to be in the in the program then everyone has to have a equal chance to get into a classroom size I think that the the program is an important part of our school district I think it meets a need for people in the area and I'm not I'm not opposed to it but what I do want to say is that it has to treat people fairly and that all should have an equal chance to get in thank you thank you Mike Bob you are well I'm I'm not a lawyer I have a different perspective on on the lottery actually I was at the school board meeting when they discussed that and what disturbed me was that there were no options or no alternatives that were discussed it was strictly we're going to go with the lottery and I don't consider that fair because we do have recognized tests that were given to these students they do rate them based upon those tests maybe those tests are imperfect you know I'm not an expert in that area but I know of a situation a colleague had twins they both tested into gate one was accepted by lottery one was not that's not fair and so I would have liked to have seen a lot more discussion with regard to alternatives thank you Bob Chuck you are up yes I think one of the the key issues I'd had with the lottery and how that was arranges that this notion that statistically so you we have these objective tests that that determine who gets into the program and yes grant they're not they're not perfect but one of the the the ideas put forth was well a 94 percentiles really no different than a 99.9 percentile and at that point I think you know it's like well what's the point to begin with um and you know first someone who's in extreme need of an alternate approach to education say and that the far reaches of that bell curve to basically be excluded by random drawing I think is a fundamental flaw of the lottery so all of the issues and concerns associated with that process I think just on on that basis alone it was a flawed approach and I agree that the fact that no alternatives were were put forth is is also indicative of what I went back to before in terms of a lack of communication and and open deliberations thank you Chuck mother be well I've been uh campaigning in the community for a few months now and this topic of aim slash gate is very much on the minds of many many people and I've had lots of conversations with parents principles administrators uh and kids about this program um and and what I've heard is that we have concerns about things like the lottery that's one uh so there are some kids this is um began as a needs program a need-based program and there's some kids who have high demonstrated need but then because of the lottery they don't get a seat in the program but there's a lot of other concerns that go beyond the lottery as well there are climate concerns around the program there's concerns around equity uh with respect to all special programs um I guess I want to say this that I am open to respectful uh engaged uh uh deliberative dialogue including considering alternatives to any of our programs that that where we think that the benefits that we need to you know look and balance the benefits and uh the costs I would do so under these principles one resources must be equitably distributed to each child every child should be treated with respect these are kids in the programs when we talk about these programs we need to always remember that every child should be taught at their level as well each child should be challenged and enabled to grow in the public schools thank you thank you moderate okay we go back over to tom okay thank you um the question really is if a student has certain needs should they be denied them based upon lottery and I don't think anyone really agrees with that I think when it comes down to it if a student is identified with certain needs that they really have we do have to serve them as best as we can so the principle of lottery um you know it's been used in other things it's been used in Spanish immersion um as well but the reality is this there's is Davis has a lot of different students to serve and the question is whether we really have the resources to do it and one of the things is is we don't uh build trust and reestablish our uh relationships with parents and make sure we have a good um uh community support for the schools then we're not going to get the parcel tax pass in two years and we won't and we'll just have that fewer resources to do so it in my sense I think the lottery probably is not a good solution it might be convenient say for certain people in terms of selecting which students but the reality is we're committed to serving all students thank you Tom Barbara uh well I I would too is at the school board meeting where um this decision was handed down and to be blunt I I did think at the time that they might be trading one lawsuit for another um I uh I think that uh the community conversation around this issue uh has been going on a long time and my hope is that uh the new board can uh talk about it um in the in light of you know best practices review of testing modalities and come up with a solution that um you know satisfies everyone and we can you know build a consensus about it um but I I was concerned about this um you know uh particular uh happening at a board meeting and you know perhaps we you know uh need to see how other districts do it and review the legal decision thank you Barbara Helen you're up so I think I really like the way Tom phrased it because that's uh really the crux of the problem if we're in a position where we have to choose uh to implement a lottery system to give some children uh or to meet the needs of some children and leave the others out well then we're focusing on the wrong problem and we really have to focus on how are we going to serve all of the children uh and meet all of our children's needs and so um certainly I you know a lottery is not the best way to go about selection into a program like AIM or any others if a child needs a particular program or is better suited for a particular program in our district so I believe that we do need to have a more broad view of our current program and be open to ways that we can ensure that we're meeting the needs of all of the children in our district. Thank you Alan and Jose you wrap up this round. I always say I am very direct and I want you to know me because of that I think the idea of a lottery is a bit crazy to do the selection I think that it denies people equal opportunity and being a member of the Hispanic community is very sensitive to us because many of us have had to work very hard to where we are and we need to get the opportunities that we have and I believe just as when I'm against something I also propose a solution so I I think my experience in living overseas perhaps in this case comes into place I know schools overseas where they have a program like this but they have like a preparatory period for the students where there's no selection that means anybody who wants to be challenged and believes they want to go to that program can get in if they pass that then they get to the full program I think we should throw the lottery out. Thank you very much Jose okay we are now to Bob question number four how would you as a trustee ensure openness and transparency in school board deliberations and decisions? Well I have a few suggestions and I don't purport to have all the solutions I think it goes back to developing a community-wide process for being able to openly and transparently discuss issues that are important to the community and I think that that's going to be critical to avoid conflicts and divisiveness as we move forward just some very practical things I don't know how many of you actually have played around on the district website and tried to find anything particularly when it comes to the board of education there's a lot of information there but you can't type in conflict of interest and come up with with a whole lot of information so it takes a lot of effort I would try to revamp that I would like to see board of education meetings that are only for information purposes that we could bring in some experts to educate the board and educate the community I think it would be nice we have these two by two meetings there are two board members that liaison with the city council there's two board members that liaison with the university I'd like to know what they talk about you know they do it because of the brown act it's not a public discussion but I think that ought to be there ought to be some summaries of those discussions so we know what they're being what's being talked about thank you very much okay Chuck I think one of the the key ways to ensure that openness and transparency is first of all having the the district having a pretty clear idea of and plan of where it's going and I think the strategic plan was a positive step in that direction and provided some kind of framework and you know programs and and improvements that the the district wants to seek and and are at least a a kind of a tentative timeline in the kind of the long view so having that plan first and foremost and then what it is that the district wants to or is choosing to tackle within that particular time frame and making sure they're getting out in front of it and understanding depending on the nature of the the the change or the improvement or or the case may be that you know there's an assessment made what's the level controversy you know who are the different stakeholder groups what are the sensitivities involved and make sure that there is a plan for getting that word out and letting the community know as as being all stakeholders and especially the folks in with kids in the school what's going to be involved in what's going to be discussed so having a more proactive approach to just getting the communication out and letting the the community know where the district is is going and how they intend to to make progress in that direction. Thank you Chuck. Well this is the first time I've ever campaigned and I have to say I'm awed by the political process of campaigning because it requires you to go out there into the community listen to as many people and have your ear to the ground. One of the things I've been doing is I'm taking a schools tour I'm visiting each of our 20 school sites I've visited at least initially now 17 of the 20 schools and I think this is really important to be accessible and to have conversations with people if we want to talk about transparency because transparency is about building trust and having these conversations so when we talk about things like training teachers rigorously training teachers we need to talk to teachers well what how well do they think the training is going now and what do they think they need to do differently differentiated instruction another hot topic we need to talk to teachers technology well it sounds great to have all the fancy Chromebooks and all that and I'm glad we do but we also need to talk to teachers about what they need to to create new curriculum to to actually use it effectively one of the things I've heard is that every single elementary school principal says we need counselors at the elementary school so I think that we address transparency by having conversations so that people don't think decisions are just coming on from above without the input of the community and the the people in the schools the teachers and administrators I think things like you know you hear on august 25th right the American Academy of Pediatrics says we should start middle schools and high schools later and then when you hear a decision made quickly it causes eight issues thank you Tom my experience as an executive director and a state level board is that transparency openness and transparency is easy to be done with notifications you can fulfill the law quite easily you can put your agendas up but if you're really about openness and transparency it's also anticipating what are the issues out there you have to do long-range planning you have to do a year long agenda and knowing which months issues are going to be coming before your board and how you can anticipate the discussion on that and once you do that then you can actually strategically start reaching out to the community to those people who are affected not just waiting for them to come to the meeting itself right and how many people can give up an evening like this we have to reach out to them and that would be teachers that would be staff that would be administrators that would be parents and yes even students so for me that's the that's the key to openness and transparency but then you also have to explain not make it a wish list but understand the choices that are before you and what are the restrictions and confines that you have to work with it and then you also have to be honest about them when you have to make a decision because sometimes you run out of time just like I'm about to right here and you have to just say people we got to decide this month but with long-range planning everyone should know the clock that they're working under thanks Tom Barbara well I'd like to note that DMA does provide us some transparency I'm an avid recorder of school board meetings so that's a nice service offered to our community you know it's it's important to note that you know especially in closed session deliberations you know there are rules governed by ed code and the brown act and so there's that you know piece of it that we need to be aware of that you know sometimes decisions and and subject matters are in closed session for a reason and but I do agree that we need to make a openness and transparency a top priority to rebuild community trust and as such you know we need to give the community adequate notice for community feedback I I'm thinking of an example where there was a strategic plan meeting where you know I saw in the paper two days before it happened and so we we really need to get things on the calendar soon because everybody's busy and an accessibility of school board members is also part of that being you know open to discussing rationales for decisions thank you Alan so as a trustee you know I have continually made myself available just throughout the town be it in public open office hours which I will continue to do but as a trustee I would also encourage our my colleagues on the board to also open themselves up to have regular and continuous office hours for the community to come in I think Tom makes another great point with regard to transparency is important and and one of the way to achieve that is through long-range planning because that gives the public a heads up on where we're going you know it's very easy to you know take issue with hiring for administration for a public information officer yet criticize the district for not having a better website which I agree the website is terrible and we have to do something about it but we also have to be fair and acknowledge about what time we just went through with the recession we went through an enormous time of constriction and now we're going to have to rebuild and in order to do that we're going to have to be open transparent and give the public a long-range plan and notice of where we're going and then be committed to being open ourselves publicly Jose the openness that we have right now is say you get to a board meeting and they give you three minutes to to do anything you want in there when it's basically useless when they have already decided what to do and that's the kind of openness we have I would like to change that and the way I would do it as a trustee I would like to get down to the level of the schools the teacher and the administrators and I would do my mission as a motivator as a as a professor to motivate the students to study science engineering I've been blessed with a smart wife who accompanies me sometimes to make these presentations on and use those opportunities to talk to the teacher the administrator and the parents I have been doing this with the boys scouts with the girls scouts all these groups and it's a wonderful opportunity to see exactly what the parents are thinking what the kids are thinking and that way we we can if you're accessible that way you don't need the three minutes you'll you talk to me right there all right and Mike you get to wrap up this round as a as a parent for 15 years in the school district from 1999 on my two oldest children graduated they went from dpns to high school graduation and my daughter is a senior at the high school and I have a ninth grader at emerson I remember quite well getting a phone call from a parent saying did you know that there's a school board meeting on sunday morning at eight o'clock during a three-day weekend I said how's that possible said that it was posted on the door it was just posted and it's not at the city hall it was at the back room of the school district and they're going to discuss closing one of the schools you know so a dozen of us went down and attended that meeting and I just felt the the I felt the lack of transparency very clearly then and I will not allow that to happen the second thing that the I mean that was one one one example they have a number of where matters come up Alan says a long process there was a the board had a long process about a school board excuse me school site district boundary changes and it went on and on and on and at the last minute at the board meeting just before christmas they changed it completely and I only became aware of it because I was at the board meeting and the problem is that we need to have a thank you Mike all right we're just about to get to our last question this round I just wanted to note that this is our third candidates forum we've done this year and and today the weather has been by far the coolest of anyone that we've done which is a pleasant change especially after the last week so who are we to chuck this is question number five and after this round of questions we're going to take a brief break and then figure out which of the audience questions to ask so if you still have a question that you haven't written out please get it to us in the next 10 minutes or so all right Chuck given the fact that prop 30 passed in 2012 and measures a c and e cumulatively are in effect until the end of 2016 do you think a new parcel tax measure should be placed in front of the voters at any time in the next four years I think now with the the passage of prop 30 would be perhaps a good time to pause on additional parcel taxes and to take a real hard look at the budget and see with the improving fiscal picture where we can better apply some of our increasing resources and once we get a better hand on that then consider and I think also it goes back into establishing trust and confidence in the board and the management of our limited resources so with a hard look at the budget and then establishing some of that trust and confidence I think we could then be in a position to go out and perhaps ask for some additional support and I think it would need to be tied specifically to the types of improvements that that those funds would be associated with I think there would be an expectation of high accountability for how those funds would be spent but I think for now we need to proceed without asking for additional funds from the community and see what we can do with with the the new improvement thank you a lot of me Alan talked about this earlier but you know California public schools are in the most challenging period that we've ever been in we are ranked dead last as Alan said number 50 out of all the states with per pupil funding of 8500 dollars per child the top states are spending 19,000 dollars per child but in a district like Davis where we're well off we get less than the state average of 8500 dollars we get about 7700 dollars per child from the state in Davis that means it is our parcel taxes that make up the difference and they bring us to about 8700 dollars per child they are still only bringing us but thank god they are bringing us to that 8700 dollars which still is a very challenging number so we need the support of the community but that is why the selection is so important because that means the community has to have confidence again in the leadership of our schools in what our schools are doing and how they are run how every dollar is spent we need to have wise oversight of the spending of our dollars not wasteful uses on unnecessary consultants and things like that so thank you thank you mother be Tom okay thank you I want to reinforce that point about local control funding formula Davis is not a winner in that game Davis actually has to make up for the deficit on its own resources so in that sense for us to talk about ending parcel taxes at this point means we're going to be back to reduce services and that would be one of the worst things we could do for our kids when I was going to the orientation for Davis school board candidates in the spring I asked Bruce Colby I said you remember 2007 and he said yeah and go that was the time when we had great we had pretty good funding for schools things were on the up and up we had pretty good student teacher ratio I said at what when when can we expect to return to that level of funding that we had in 2007 you know what he said 2021 so that's our local viewpoint of things does actually think that we have a lot of excess money or it's coming our way I'm sorry it's just not that case but we can make a commitment among ourselves to make sure that we get the resources that our kids need and let's make sure that they get the services that they need and it's not caught up in adult games thank you Tom Barbara I'd like to correct the question if I may measure a has sunsetted and it became measure E which I know is confusing so right currently on the books I believe we have measure C and E and they totaled nine million dollars of funding as Tom said in 2007 we were doing all right by 2012 we had lost 10 million dollars and we were facing massive layoffs we were facing libraries closing K-12 the elimination of elementary science the elimination of elementary music the you know increase in class size so I sure as heck don't want to go back to the time when we were looking at a 10 million dollar loss the this is not fluff stuff and you know I'd personally like to thank the community measure C which was our last big parcel tax which is which accounts for 6.5 million dollars a year in funding uh that passed with a 72 percent majority in our community so really it's a community choice and Davis chooses libraries Davis chooses music Davis chooses science thank you Barbara Allen so I think Monovey did an excellent job of actually talking straight giving you the exact facts of what our figures look like folks and Barbara also sort of highlighted uh more to the point of the dollar amount the parcel taxes represent visa VR overall budget so to the question of do you think a new parcel tax should be placed on the ballot within the next four years absolutely because the things you just heard about about reducing class size reduction uh increasing our counseling which by the way we did in this last budget an elementary level pursuant to our LCAP we're not going to be able to do any of those we're going to have to regress without a parcel tax yes there are ways to ensure that we're getting the most out of our dollars but let me tell you we experienced the the greatest constriction of our district that we I think have seen any one of us in this room is seen in quite some time and so uh all as to the point of long-range plan plan that a parcel tax will be on the ballot within the next four years because if it's not the kind of schools we're all talking about building uh for our kids is is is um going to be a more difficult reality to achieve if not impossible thank you Ellen who's a I think the only answer that has been sensible has been Chuck everybody else is displays the problem that I try to point out is like they are addicted to parcel taxes at some point they need to be responsible to the taxpayers the question I would challenge anybody who who has been in favor of this taxes is to even in their own kids as a whole in the schools what difference have they made in their child and very few people would be able to answer any with any positive I believe that the board needs to take a look a hard look and and and be truthful to the community if you tell the community that this is a temporary tax then don't come back and renew this and keep doing a 61980 I am not against the taxes I pay those taxes 61980 I have lived in Davis 36 years but at some point we need to respect the taxpayers we do not have to be treated them like an ATM machine every time that they run the budget in the red thank you Jose Mike what I learned about school finance in my experience is that the legislature has built something like a Winchester mystery house you have you have rooms and hallways it's all designed to hide where the money is going and the point is the money goes primarily to the big districts in the state the guys are the big districts in the state there's a thousand school districts and 40 percent of all the kids live in one of them and so and so the I talked to Colby Bruce Colby a friend of mine and the point is this I've known him since uh since he was hired 20 percent of our unrestricted funds comes from the parcel tax now the point is we have all this money come in but the legislature there's always plenty of money to build to build a facility there's plenty of money for new textbooks but the legislature has traditionally restricted those funds and the the new funding formula gives the more money to those districts with higher English learners and poor economically challenged and Davis doesn't meet any of that criterion I talked to the assistant counties superintendent of schools and all the districts around us will get more money because they all have a higher because they meet that threshold requirement except Davis so the the idea is that and the point I want to make about the parcel tax is that because it's limited only four or five years but the money that's raised here is spent locally it is a real engine for our economy okay now it's time thank you for hanging in there on that one all right bob you wrap up this round well you know one of the one of the things that a school board member and a school board needs to do is advocate for public education and I'm a strong believer in public education and when you look at the alternatives to what happens if kids aren't given a quality public education the costs are tremendous so I think if you keep that in mind our costs are pretty pretty modest actually and as others have said California is not known right now for being near the top it's near the bottom so I think we have to recognize there's a lot of competition competition for our tax dollars I mean the city of Davis is in a little bit of trouble too so you know I think our needs are very great and I think it goes back to establishing a level of trust in the community that we're watching the dollars that we're spending that we're putting them where they're most needed I mean I would love to see some extra money go to summer enrichment programs for at-risk kids I mean I think that's critical and I think the district also needs to look at its facilities the facilities are really not in very good shape so that's not conducive to a good learning environment and those facilities being old probably cost a lot more in terms of energy and I think that's something that needs to be looked at thank you very much okay so we are now going to take about a five to seven minute break very brief don't go too far and then we will be back with the real tough questions thank you to the candidates for volunteering to serve the community they don't get they don't get a lot of compensation even if they get on so this is a labor of love and it will be a lot of labor and hard work so thank you very much so and also thank you to the audience I know some have left but a lot have stayed here commitment to this community is tremendous unfortunately we're not going to get to everybody's questions tonight but we're going to do the best we can to address as many different types of issues as we possibly can so we're going to speed this up a little bit that you're going to be up soon first and you get one minute to answer the questions so you're going to be up first and then we'll go back to Tom again if elected as school board member what would you personally do to support LGBT students parents guardians and employees great question again I think it's you begin with the philosophy of supporting all students I have had the privilege of visiting a class at Emerson junior high it was a leadership class led by teacher Jennifer Tara who's a rock star teacher and I heard from the kids in that class about the struggles of LGBT students in junior high and how these kids are learning to support each other to stand up to create cultures of inclusion so I think I would begin by by learning by about the programs that we actually have having conversations talking to teachers and parents and community members here I'm working I have the privilege of having Gloria Pratida on our campaign team and she has started the Davis Phoenix coalition and they just launched a new campaign called hate is not a Davis value so creating these conversations and communities is absolutely one of my main commitments time Tom you are now up hi I just want to say that and the California Department of Education I worked in help passing SB 48 the Fair Education Act and actually worked with the superintendent and legislative leaders on that I want to say this about LGBT students first of all we always have to guarantee their safety in schools that's has been in law now we have to go to the next step and actually make sure that they see themselves in the curriculum both in terms of national figures and state figures but I also want to see it in terms of local figures there are local leaders here who are still around who have helped improve this issue and then there are also leaders in the past who we need to acknowledge that it contributed to Davis thank you Barbara I think the key is student forums to bring awareness I think the district this year started educating students with regard to transgender students and I think that's important and I've been really happy to see in my own experience at junior highs that a number of students could come out and be welcomed and supported that's not to say you know that the opposite experience can't happen obviously it does and and we need to do everything we can to make sure that everyone's included um and that all our students feel respected thank you Ellen so I I want to echo the points Madhavi Reyes and Barbara I think that you know we have to exhibit a culture of acceptance and inclusion here and it's looking as Tom said at the leaders within our community not only political leaders but pioneers in fact I see a couple in the audience on this issue but not only LGBT I would say that there are other communities within our student population that also need this same type of acceptance access those including race mixed race and others and so we really need to be focused on a culture of inclusion uh in our district and not only with regard to assemblies but also within our normal school day thank you uh Jose I had touched a little bit before on the issue of equality and I believe that everybody deserves to be treated the same not any differently or anything special but um I would say just like zero tolerance for bullying thank you Mike I agree with what what's been said here the um uh we have a under our state system this we have compulsory education and these kids are we owe a duty that to them that they are protected and that they are not bullied or harassed that they feel free and safe in our school I was uh six years in the school positive climate committee at willard we addressed these issues and I and I as a school board trustee I will be very critical of the uh of administration on this I've got 30 seconds I mean a critical oversight for by the administration in the district office but also at the school sites I believe it's incumbent for the school board members to to visit the sites while they're a member and to see and to ask the questions about what's going on in every school and every program in this district thank you Bob well obviously a positive school climate is is critical and uh in my reading about school climate programs one thing that comes across pretty clearly to me is that they need to be student driven the students are invested in these school climate programs and those tend to be I think more successful than if it's more of a top-down approach to to school climate I also think that the district really needs to and this ties into a positive school climate not necessarily the specific topic that we're talking about is restorative justice programs and I think those have shown great promise in terms of improving relationships among students and seeing different things from different perspectives and we have a a very large LGBT component to our students at the veterinary school I'd actually like to see the university maybe some of those individuals help mentor some of the younger kids thank you okay Chuck okay I think in addition to uh fostering a more inclusive school climate I think building a sense of solidarity amongst the students that to where students can intervene on behalf of other students that are being mistreated for whatever reason in particular here they're their orientation and and then from there I mean there should be a kind of a stepwise approach along the lines of the restorative justice where you know a kid may have certain influences in in their life that are not necessarily healthy and they are being molded by those influences and and so I think counseling and combination of restorative justice and at some point you know you have to kind of tow the line and I think ultimately it's one of these things that takes time to build and then as that that culture of inclusiveness builds then eventually the the problem of these isolated incidents get rooted out effective thank you okay uh so second question rather than reading this long prelude um I'm I'm just gonna skip to the question which is uh are you in favor of moving the start of the school day to 8 30 or possibly 9 a.m tom you're up and I'm assuming that question is actually focused on high school students because that's the discussion and yes I would support that but I'm not going to flip the switch tomorrow I'm not elected till uh November that happens um and also it wouldn't be just me but I would support the efforts there it seems to be a reasonable thing it seems to it may create some inconvenience for us but it do something that we really want to do which is put kids first and we need to make sure that they get the sleep that they need and let why not follow the recommendation from the American American Pediatrics Association thank you tom Barbara yep more sleep is good um I think that for all of us um the AA the American Academy of Pediatrics does not make recommendations lightly um there is solid science on this issue and I see no reason why we can't adjust our schedule slightly uh because the benefits uh could be amazing for our students and we must be student focused um the data that um the that Anternis Bellamy wrote about talked about a decrease in depression a decrease in car accidents an increase in academic performance it seems um you know what more is there to say Allen yes I am going to take a cautious approach to this because it depends what we want you know starting later if it comes a company to extending the day at the other end may not be a bad idea and the reason I say that is because um I have lived in Germany and in Switzerland and other places where education is a very high priority in those countries some of those they start before 8 even but they live at 5 so I think uh no if we were really we don't want to short change the students and the time that they need to learn but they starting they might not be an issue thank you like I would take I would take a cautious approach only because um while the while I respect the opinion of uh get going to school early it the under the present circumstance if you don't think your child is awake in the first period don't take a first period you can always go to school second period and I know that because my kids did and so there's a so we have the uh in the in junior high and high school you can do that already I would say this that when you deal when you touch on the minutes we're under strict guidelines by the state for minutes of instruction there's a school district down in uh Southern California that changed the barrel bell schedule by five minutes and the cost the school district was assessed seven and a half million dollars down at Chino because that what they were five minutes short it didn't count as a full day so I would be very cautious about changing the the the bell schedule thank you Mike Bob I personally think it's a no-brainer I mean if there's one thing that could be done uh where there's overwhelming evidence for a positive effect uh this is it and uh I just don't see any reason not to certainly we could open it up to discussion maybe there's some pros and cons I think that's an important thing to do before you make that change but uh I really don't see any reason not to proceed and I think it also extends to junior high students as well okay Chuck yeah I would agree in terms of the uh the seven through twelve primarily not not only because where they are physiologically but um you know they're more able to get to school on their own means and for the uh the primary school students I mean the earlier start time might make more sense because you have parents that need to shuttle their kids to school and they may be a little less susceptible to to the impacts of not getting enough sleep or or at least their sleep schedules are more flexible so I think as the the kids go into the teens and they're able to get themselves to school on their own for the most part that makes more sense uh but then as we've heard tonight there are other considerations taken into account thank you Montevi well as the American Academy of Pediatrics said this is a pressing public health issue we have to take this seriously the well-being of the children is our primary concern I would ask that we have a task force of parents and administrators and teachers look into this to see how we can make it happen what while of course as Mike says meeting our legal requirements uh but but focusing on the how not the you know rejecting it outright all right thank you um okay um this is one of the toughest questions to have to ask Barbara uh you're going to be on the receiving end of this one uh the Daniel Marsh murder trial has been in the news the last few weeks from school psychologists and counselors to bullying Daniel utilized the school system a good deal in your view in what ways did the district services fall short in attempting to help Daniel if you feel that they did and would you uh what would you do to help prevent future tragedies well I've read the coverage like everybody else and it is in fact a tragedy um I've been visiting a lot of pta meetings and in fact I've been asked this question a number of times already um it's obvious that um this boy um has you know severe mental illness um and uh he um you know his care um you know seems to have you know uh I wouldn't I don't know if I'd say slip through the cracks because uh it seems like from reading the coverage that um what he reported was not actually you know what he was feeling inside and so it would be hard for people to make a judgment as to um you know what to do if they didn't have the facts um and also I think what we read and what we hear at the trial you know is not necessarily all the information um I think that it just highlights the need for crisis counselors um in January through April thank you Alan do I get any of the time I saved on my last answer so well here let me just say it this way I said uh definitively yes to the previous answer because really as Monty said the health and well-being of our children are of paramount importance if we don't have healthy and I would add happy students we're not going to get the outcomes we need look uh the that question frankly is is far too complex for me to answer in the next 30 seconds or to opine frankly on who did what but it's very important to note I do support more counselors we have guidance counselors it's very different than the type of counseling that we're talking about here and so that's why I support a parcel tax because we can't make the investments that we're going to need to make to ensure the health and well-being of our students and we have a lot of work to do in that regard Jose well I agree with the counselors I don't agree with the taxes and I don't see that relation but but I believe that um we need to have people who who can recognize these problems you know mental problems are difficult to identify and we do need those specialized counselors to to avoid this kind of tragedies Mike it's a real tragedy it's a tragedy in our community my kids went to school with him and they all said they knew he had some serious problems long before this event happened what we needed more we need counselors are overworked at the high school and we all know that uh young men and their in their early or late teens that is a very difficult time for for them growing up and I believe that um and again it's just counselors but it also is a psychotherapist we we have a duty to take care of our kids even the least of them and uh I feel that um we could have done more we should have done more and we are going to have to do more because as my kids say there's plenty people like him at school still thank you Bob I I think more counselors at schools is uh necessary but I think it's uh insufficient to prevent a situation like this I think we really have to look at wrap around social services within our schools and actually taking advantage of county and city agencies that have more of a presence in schools and having a network where these uh kids could be referred for more extensive intervention and uh I think that's really the only way to to handle it thank you Chuck oh so the question did bullying contribute to this situation I think that's a fair assumption but I think there's a lot more deep sea uh deep root issues going on here and I think we're seeing even at a national level that uh this is not just limited to here locally this is almost a nationalemic epidemic and you know to the extent that the people closest to them you know that what they knew and and and when and could they have mentioned that to somebody and and I think finding ways to intervene in non-intrusive manner to to try and head off some of these situations are you going to to catch them all no but I think just paying attention and and letting people know that can can intervene and hopefully get some help for for the kid I think is is important thank you Madavi and when I reiterate Chuck this is absolutely a national epidemic the Surgeon General has said that some 21 percent of kids ages nine to 17 struggle with mental illness and how are we to identify needs the fact is there are many unmet needs in our schools our schools are absolutely implicated in this we I mean in the sense that we're on the front lines that's where the kids are so we need to be looking at how we can address this one way is smaller class sizes where we can have teachers in classrooms more able to identify needs and and and see where we can go but we also have other challenges today the or it was yesterday or today the enterprise wrote that we have three nurses in our district for 8600 kids so we need to focus on making these nurses and more counselors available and having smaller class sizes to help identify these real needs that we know are out there okay time you get the last word on this one okay I'm not going to comment on the trial just because of it but I will say this mental health is key for all students and we have to realize that just like we take care of the physical health of our students we have to for mental in terms of schools and counselors yes that can help that can start things but the reality is this if we're going to be serious about mental health of our students it has to be a coordinated policy with city and county resources and so in essence if we're going to hire those counselors and have them deal with these issues let's make sure they also plug into the rest of the resources of the city and county okay thank you all right uh so this is going to be the easiest question and I just want it to be a yes or no answer and Alan you already have this format mastered so uh you will go first uh do you speak Spanish yes or no um Jose si con mucho gusto Mike very little Bob no Chuck poquito and yes Latavie no Tom my daughter says it hurts her ears Barbara no okay all right um we have about 20 minutes um so what I'd like to do is actually reduce the time down to 30 seconds and I realize uh that that's not going to do some of these topics justice uh but with eight candidates I'd rather cover a little bit more um so uh Jose um do you believe that DJ USD has an achievement gap if not how do you propose we keep it that way and if so what concrete steps do you suggest DJ USD take to address the achievement gap in 30 seconds you know I I have had a dream since the school board decided to uh talk about the grand the property why turn not turning that into a tutoring center so that this achievement gaps could be reduced Mike well I would just say to remember that the achievement gap is a test score discrepancy between groups of people and uh when I was a kid the my teachers would have said a high test score achieves nothing it's what you it's a it's a good indication but what you have to do is achievement is something more than that we have um the way to address the test score discrepancy is give more aid to those individuals and those groups that need the help thank you Bob I think there's definitely an achievement gap it's a problem that this country has struggled with uh in our public education for two decades and uh it's it's worth a lot more discussion than than 30 seconds Chuck yes a persistent achievement gap and I think the the LCAP would be an excellent vehicle for fleshing out those uh steps that we can take in a lot more than 30 seconds lot of me public preschool for kids who can't afford private preschool so kids don't start out already behind just when they're entering school engage families and kids engage them with things like our family resource center at Montgomery and other programs that I'm seeing at the junior highs two-way bilingual immersion a great program for meeting the needs of English language learners getting them to have strong literacy skills in k through three and high expectations for every kid uh we can't have cultural biases sorry okay Tom yes Davis does have an achievement gap and it'll get worse if we don't renew our parcel taxes Barbara uh of course Davis has an achievement gap we need to make sure hungry kids are fed we need to make sure that support services are in place and we need to make sure we have the proper outreach to those populations Alan yes um I think we need to be holistic about our approach on this on the front end as was mentioned universal preschool for those uh kids that can't afford it but on the exit of our district which is the older kids and uh instilling programs like uh one that's currently have it happening at Valley High School a regional school of ours uh a local group called improve your tomorrow has really taken great strides in finding um thank you okay I think 30 seconds a little too short uh let's try 45 seconds for this question uh how accountable should teachers be to parents directly how will increased accountability work within the district chain of command uh Mike you're up first on this one I think of every education process has to have a good communication between the teacher and the parent on behalf of the child I think if the dispute arises that the way to handle that is to um go up through to the principal to the to the up through the uh up through the chain of command I want to say they the the teachers though have a important job to try to they see the whole the whole issue and um I hope that they would be and I expect that they would uh give the parents what they need thank you okay Bob well obviously the the teacher parent uh interaction is critical I guess when it gets to the point of uh you know a problem between a teacher and parent I think that there has to be absolutely clear cut policies and procedures for handling that and uh that's a that's a problem I've talked to a lot of teachers that they're not sure what the policies and procedures are for handling complaints so I would think that would be a very important thing to delineate thank you Chuck I would see it primarily as a time management issue for the teachers I think if you're monitoring and reporting as you go and uh keeping the parents a prize before something comes to a head I think that's going to end up saving the the teacher and the parents more time in the long run and then they'll be able to use that time teaching and doing other things for the all the students benefits what I mean so we talked a lot about how we've disinvested in our public infrastructure in our schools we uh now we're asking teachers to take care of mental health issues to uh administer epi pens and yet they're the first people that we blame when there's a problem so I think that we need to make sure that we have structures that protect the interests of teachers there are systems in place and we need to review them and be clear about them but in terms of accountability that's the school board the school board are your elected representatives parents should reach out to school board members and school board members need to respond by email or phone call or having coffees and that kind of thing um but there is a chain where the teachers answer to principals principals answer to the superintendent um but in terms of accountability this is the time this election okay tom I just want to say that first of all um a successful uh education of any child depends upon the relationship between the parent and the teacher and so that is a built-in accountability there in terms of me as school board member intervening down to the classroom level I would not do that for the simple reason that it would be a dangerous thing I would make sure though I would talk to the school if there was a date if it was a situation of conflict and make sure that you know everyone got around to talking about the issue but the reality is this most of our problems can be solved if we actually sit down and talk to each other that as adults and do so in a manner that's respectful I just want to remind everybody the question is how accountable should teachers be to parents Barbara um I've never really heard it framed that teachers are accountable to parents I think teachers are accountable to students teachers are accountable to their principals I realized that you know case six certainly there is a very close relationship between you know families and their classroom teacher and then you know as as kids goes on seven through twelve you know then they're more independent so um I don't know that really teachers are accountable to parents okay Ellen yeah I mean I I tend to agree with that teachers at the end of the day are accountable to students you know um there are a lot of students in this community who may not have two parents they may have one parent they might have no parents they may be raised by a guardian they might be raised by a grandparent so truly I think that the the issue of the question was should teachers be accountable to students and the answer to that is absolutely and it's ultimately the board who you know is the final arbitrary if you will and and decision maker with regard to whether or not teachers are in fact doing their job but I I've never met a teacher who isn't in it for the love of it and is a professional in knowing what how to thank you students okay Jose you get the last word on this one as a teacher I would feel uncomfortable even preparing classes thinking what the parents are gonna say my important thing is to see what I what I need to tell the students and what they need to learn I think that relationship however we cannot leave the parents out it needs to have we need to have meetings where the expectations and the duties are well delineated and they understand they can't be like happens at soccer and you know so probably some of you might having on my soccer against when I'm a referee you know with a shelf from the size what the referee should do or so on that can be with the teachers I think you you have to delineate the rules what they are and I the teachers need thank you confidence okay folks this is the very last question I will ask tonight Bob you will start do you have any special interest you represent such as gait sports antagonism towards teachers opposed to tenure or various other things one minute each no I mean I I think I'm here to represent all our kids and that's my main goal and to try and meet their individual needs okay thank you Chuck my answer is no my kids are in particular programs but that doesn't mean I advocate primarily or solely on behalf of those programs so being on the board is about representing all the kids and making sure sure that they get the services they need to meet their particular needs thank you moderate I've always stood up for all people the work that I've done in the 1990s I began writing about gay rights and I'm not gay I fought for Muslim women's rights and I'm not Muslim and I believe that that's what every school board trustees should be fighting for all children and their right to an education thank you Tom I don't represent any special interests and just want to say that for me all students educating all students means that all students because all means all and that's all what all means Barbara no I don't represent any special interests and I'm interested in making this the best district we can for 8600 kids Ellen no as a yes I I represent two special interests the students and the taxpayers and for that reason I am against the sale of the property on the I want to announce today that as a candidate I'll be opposed to the sale of the grant the property because that belongs to the students and belongs to the taxpayers and I would like to see the alternatives on what that land gets developed as opposed to selling it for building houses with no plan where to spend the money okay Mike you get the last say in a minute I'll just say that the the board can't have any hidden agendas and we can't have any a person can't have an axe to grind as a board member you have to be completely fair and honest going this question dovetails of the last one my kids when they were in elementary school there were a few teachers they didn't like it all they were very they didn't like them at all and now they've graduated I've heard them talk and said you know they were pretty good teachers and so when you take a longer view you can see that there's a there's there's a strong education effort here that we have to preserve so I would say no I don't have any hidden agendas I don't don't want to do anything like that my my purpose is my kids went to neighborhood schools it didn't go to any special programs but I believe that a board member has to hold pull those different programs together and work as one unit to advance our school district all right thank you Mike I neglected to thank one group and they very generously provided the drinks and the refreshments and that's the Davis Phoenix Coalition and Gloria Partita and once again I want to thank all eight of the Davis Joint Unified School Board candidates for their time and commitment and thank you Davis Media Access one more time and have a good evening everybody