Home

¨ From Visalia, for Visalia

¨ 30 years in education

¨ Create a community-wide consortium to solve our gang problem

¨ Improve communication between administration and all staff

¨ I WILL listen

Text Box: To the Community, Visalia is my home; it is a great place to live and raise a family. I want to contribute to making Visalia an even better place to live, and I believe my deep roots in Visalia and my 30 years in education give me a unique and valuable perspective to contribute to our community as a member of our school board. The existing school board is comprised of good people, and the administration is stable, but it is time for a fresh perspective. I don’t believe enough is being done to control our gang problem, which is my primary focus. The safety of our students and staff is my top priority. As a community and county we need to get tough on this issue and stop coasting. It is a problem that will not go away unless we collectively decide to stop it. The school campuses are the first and foremost area of focus for this effort. As I have said from the beginning of my campaign, all identified gang members must be removed from all campuses and educated at an expanded Packwood facility. No exception. At the very least, a 3 strikes policy should be implemented. However, I would like to make this decision immediately and not wait for more “incidents”. It depends on the will of the community. Personally, I think we are sitting on a time bomb. In addition, we must immediately install security cameras on ALL campuses. If we have to I will head a donations campaign to pay for this. Security cameras are an obvious tool for improving campus security. If students and teachers do not feel safe, learning and educating are greatly impeded. ALL campuses must enforce the dress code and the behavior code. All teachers must be backed up when they rule a child to be inappropriately dressed or their behavior indicates an impending problem. There can be no exceptions to this. If parents want their children to have a public education they must abide by the collective wishes of the community. Our teachers are our greatest asset in the education business, and currently teacher retention is a very serious problem for VUSD. Last year we had over 40 teachers leave the district. They went to surrounding districts in Tulare County where the pay was commensurate with their experience and was significantly increased. Some teachers were given a “signing” bonus. I think this is a negative commentary on the appreciation and value that our district has for our teachers. The teachers are in the trenches and they must be valued in a concrete way. We must also listen to what they are saying. So far, what I’ve heard is not positive. No school can run effectively without valued classified employees. This includes aides, cafeteria workers, janitors and all non-certificated employees. The dialog between the staff, the administration of each school and at the district level needs to be two ways instead of top-down. Our classified staff needs to be appreciated and respected for the job they do. We can have the best facilities, curriculum, and methods and still not get the job done if our employees who are on the front line are not compensated well and do not feel safe. If you want to strengthen families, you strengthen the parents. If you want to strengthen education, you strengthen those who are doing the educating. I welcome your questions and advocacy for these issues and others that may be of concern to you. Please vote for me on November 6th.