Endorsements

Many of the candidates for the Lowell Joint school board have been endorsed by a variety of local school board members, city council members, state representatives and others. I can’t say how any of these endorsements have come about, I have not sought out any of these type of endorsements and have not received any either.

I have participated in a couple of forums with the other candidates. Here is a summary:

Whittier Daily News

Seven of the eight candidates met with Steve Scavzillo and Tracey Garcia at the Whittier Daily News office on October 6^th. Mr. Scavzillo is the paper’s Opinion Editor and Ms. Garcia is the paper’s education reporter.

Mr. Scavzillo facilitated the meeting and each candidate was given the opportunity to speak on a number of topics throughout the 90 minute meeting. The candidates were invited to provide any additional documentation on their qualifications for later review.

Ms. Garcia was there primarily to do research on an article on the campaign which ran in the paper on October 10^th. You can view a copy of her article here

While it was noted that “all the candidates would be qualified to serve on the school board”, Mr. Scavzillo’s final recommendation was for Darrin Barber, Gene Dunford and Anastasia “Staci” Shackelford. You can view a copy of his article here.

Lowell Joint Education Association

Each candidate was invited to a separate 30 minute interview with five representatives of the teacher’s union on October 11^th. The candidates were asked a series of ten questions and given the opportunity to provide any additional documentation on their qualifications for later review.

The panel was also present for the League of Women Voters candidate forum held at Rancho Starbuck on October 13^th. During the two hour forum each candidate was provided time for an opening and closing statement as well as the opportunity to answer questions posed by the audience. You can view a replay of the forum at www.ljsdforum.com.

The panel notified the candidates of their selections on October 14th and they decided to support Gene Dunford, Bill Hinz and Patrick Rockenbach.

At the end of the day the final decision will be made by the voters on November 2^nd. As I have stated from the very beginning I think that it important for voters to learn as much as they can about the candidates and make an informed decision.

I think one of the best opportunities to learn about the candidates was at the League of Women Voters candidate forum on October 13^th. We were fortunate to have the forum videotaped and you can see in on Time Warner cable in Whittier, La Habra and La Habra Heights or at www.ljsdforum.com.

Endorsements are nice, but in the end it is best to make up your own mind who you will support. After you review all the information available, I hope that you will give me one of your three votes on November 2^nd.

Know Your Candidates for the School Board

Here is a great chance to get to know the candidates running for the board up close and personal. There will be a candidate forum on Wednesday, October 13th from 7:00PM to 9:00PM.

Details are below. Hope to see you there!

Lowell Joint School District Candidates Forum

Moderated by the League of Women Voters of North Orange County

Rancho-Starbuck Intermediate School - Multi-use Room

16430 Woodbrier Drive, Whittier, CA 90604

The Power of Sharing

There was a book out a few years ago titled All I Really Needed to Know I Learned in Kindergarten by Robert Fulghum. You can see a good summary of the book’s lessons by clicking here.

Number one on the list is “Share Everything”.

Unfortunately that is not always the case. Where I work, we call it “working in silos”, which basically means that each group works independently to address their own issues and does not share their findings with the other groups. So one group may find the answer to a very difficult problem but rather than share their results they let the other groups try to figure it out by themselves. Why you ask, well here are a few reasons:

· “I worked hard to figure it out. Why should I share with somebody else?”

· “That other group never tries to do it on their own, they always wait for us.”

· “My results will be better than yours.”

· “I’ll get a better performance review and will be in line for a promotion/raise before you.”

· “I don’t know the people in the other group.”

· “They won’t agree with the way I came up with the answer.”

I could go on and on, but you get the point. There are a lot of great ideas out there we just have to be willing to share them with each other. It wouldn’t take long to come up with a list and before you know it people are talking and sharing and you’ll be amazed at what gets accomplished.

Sometimes you need to put out some crazy ideas to get things started, but it’s key to note that there are no “dumb ideas”. Here are a few to get us started:

Outside the District

· Seek out members of other school boards to learn what they are doing in their districts.

· Hold a principal or teacher forum or workshop to discuss new ideas.

· Approach local businesses about providing support for the school.

Inside the District

· Bring the various PTAs from the individual schools under the same umbrella.

· Have the school principals meet on a regular basis to share ideas.

· Have a “Teacher Swap Day” and let the teachers work in a different school for a day.

· Invite the parents to be a bigger part of the process.

· Leverage the Lowell Joint Education Foundation to support underfunded programs.

Maybe we do all of these things already. If we do, we sure don’t publicize it very well. If we don’t, we need to start. If elected, I will make sure that we don’t “go it alone” and instead tap into the power of sharing to bring people together to generate new ideas to help solve the issues facing the district.