The Committee for Good School Governance, a concerned group of civic and business leaders, announced Trustee voter recommendations for the November 4th Election in a press release on Tuesday. The Committee was formed in 2006 to identify Trustee candidates who would enhance Board leadership effectiveness and accountability in accelerating District student achievement.
All candidates, both new candidates and those seeking re-election, were invited to submit a Questionnaire regarding their leadership skills and experience, and participate in an Interview with Committee Members. Candidates, receiving a two-thirds or greater approval vote of Committee Members, are recommended. In accordance with the Committee’s rules announced previously, the Committee does not release the names of candidates interviewed.
The Committee’s recommendations are: Doug Keegan, Area 2; Geri Simmons, Area 3; and Ed Tzimbal, Area 6.
“It’s been inspiring to be part of the candidate interviews and to recommend these candidates for Trustee election on November 4. Each of them brings the needed vision, integrity, and enthusiasm for hard work to our School District especially important now that progress is being made but student achievement results need to be accelerated,” said Rocky Franich, Committee Member and president of Marty Franich Ford. Doug Kaplan, also a Committee Member and co-founder of Lomak Property Group, stated that “we are recommending candidates to be elected who will be responsible for the education of our children. What could be more important? The three candidates we support understand that responsibility and have promised to work together, as a Board of Trustees, for the benefit of all of our children.”
Based on the information learned from the Committee’s questionnaire and interview process, the Committee prepared a Recommended Candidate Qualification Summary Description for each recommended candidate. The Committee hopes this information will provide helpful voter information regarding the link between each candidate’s skills and abilities and effective Board of Trustees’ leadership.
Area 2 (Eastern areas of District including Salsipuedes)
Doug has demonstrated repeatedly that his dedication and commitment are to serving one goal – student achievement success for all PVUSD students. He presents his views in a thoughtful and constructive fashion, and works to balance input of parents, teachers, and administrators so long as decisions maintain focus on student achievement. Doug profoundly believes that failure is not an option; all students have the potential to succeed and it is the responsibility of public schools to drive-the-system to deliver the results students and parents expect. Despite vocal criticism by some political groups in the community, he maintained his constructive leadership posture of presenting a calm and clear explanation of his views and did not allow the groups to sway his decisions from what he believed to be in the best interest of all students. If Board leadership is to be effective now and into the future, Doug says Trustees must not shy away from making those key decisions even if some groups or individuals in the community oppose them. He served as Board President during a difficult time and encouraged the Board’s careful consideration of alternative public viewpoints and then encouraged Board decision making regardless of the political consequences. Armed with valuable experience from the last four years, Doug wants to improve District’s goal setting and academic performance measurement tracking. He believes that schools and classrooms benefit from clear student achievement performance goals – goals understood and supported by parents, teachers, and students -- and wants more Board results measurement review to confirm goal achievement accomplishments and encourage more performance improvement feedback. Doug’s experiences during his first term have provided him with important skills and knowledge useful to a Board that seeks to improve its leadership effectiveness.
Area 3 (North Monterey County and southwestern Watsonville to Coastline)
Geri is described by two words – tireless and dedicated – and by a single goal -- achieve academic success for all students. She has been extensively involved in volunteer work in all the schools her children have attended in both the Aptos and Watsonville areas. Also, she has actively participated in numerous District-wide committees. Her commitment and time spent at the schools and Board Meetings have occasionally caused her to be mistaken as a paid employee. In fact, she did later spend six years as a District employee and shares their desire to help our students succeed. She would like to encourage more parents to participate by making schools more inviting to them. She feels that parent involvement is most important to their children’s success in achieving educational goals. She would bring a very positive, can-do approach to her Trustee role working to address student achievement deficiencies. She understands the distinct roles of the Board of Trustees and Superintendent, and the leadership roles that each must play in speeding student achievement progress. She believes that a Trustee’s essential responsibility is to ensure that education standards are being achieved. To see if this is happening, she supports testing as an objective measure of student performance. Geri would like to see greater priority given to District academic goal setting and more frequent Board results assessments to confirm progress is being made. She views her team contribution as helping the group of seven Trustees to achieve greater unity on District goals and decisions. She is a strong advocate of the value of all people and welcomes differing points of view. When it comes to decision making about what is best for students, Geri will make her own decisions.
Area 6 (Freedom Area)
Ed is driven to accomplish goals and to implement solutions to problems. While his personality moves him to solutions and results quickly, his experience as a general building contractor has taught him that he cannot do it all by himself and better solutions often arise from an exchange of ideas among people. Ed demonstrates good listening skills, enjoys hard work, and is not driven by an outside political agenda. Ed doesn’t allow himself to make excuses even when problems prevent easy solutions. Ed is dissatisfied with District student achievement results especially among the District’s current lower performers. He believes in the potential of all students. Ed thinks that a first priority for all students entering the District is to master English writing and speaking skills. English skills are the foundation for success in academic subject areas. Ed also wants the District’s academic high performers as well as students now poised to dropout to be motivated by challenges and opportunities in their classrooms. Ed believes that career-directed vocational training may hold an important key to keeping many more high school students in school, and in increasing the passing percentage on the high school exit examination. He believes that the PVUSD Board should accelerate student achievement progress by learning best practices from successful school districts matching our language and family income demographics, who have achieved faster student achievement progress. Ed supports testing as the best objective means of determining that educational standards are indeed being achieved. Ed plans to attend Trustee training conducted by the California School Boards Association in order to more quickly assimilate Trustee responsibilities and learn from trustees in other districts how they have accelerated academic performance progress. Ed’s family attended PVUSD including Ed himself, his grown children, and now his grandchildren. Ed decided to run for School Board because he believes it is vitally important that Board leadership becomes more effective in driving results and to fulfill his personal responsibility goal to give back to the Community.
The District’s effectiveness is most certainly accelerated by a unified, continuous leadership voice focused on goals, plans and measuring progress toward the goals. “In order to move student achievement forward faster, there needs to be more focus on District goals and results. A requirement for this to happen is that the School Board spend less time on special interest political agendas,” said Gary Smith, Committee Member and former Watsonville and Aptos Fire Chief.
“I have appreciated the opportunity to work with the Committee for Good School Governance to identify ways in which our community group could help schools. It has also been a pleasure to meet the candidates for PVUSD School Board. I am impressed by the recommended candidates’ commitment to accelerate student achievement progress not just at some schools but at all District campuses. I am sure that the candidates recommended by our Committee will justify our confidence in their ability to work hard as part of a dedicated Board toward improving achievement for all students. I can’t say it strongly enough that their election is essential to the need for a strong capable Board and these candidates need our community support,” said Janet Bell, M.D., former Trustee and Watsonville pediatrician.
The Committee developed Governance Standards based on both the recommendations of the California School Board Association (CSBA) and added other standards to clarify Trustee and Superintendent responsibility for goal setting, planning, and results progress measurement. The Governance Standards demonstrate the importance of effective leadership in both the Trustee and Superintendent roles if classroom performance is to dramatically improve. Not surprisingly studies of school district student achievement performance success were strongly positively correlated with district leadership effectiveness. Are there goals, are they clearly communicated, and are results measured and improvements made?
“Our Committee got involved starting in 2006 because we found that District time and energy got directed away from student achievement, which is a public school’s foremost responsibility. Keeping a focused priority on student achievement is the responsibility of the Board of Trustees. While public involvement and input needs to take place, Trustees can lose track of schools’ principal responsibility because they respond to hundreds of other matters advocated by an individual or special interest group. In this case, what is vitally important to our children’s future, a high quality education to support careers and life’s success, receives diluted attention. This is especially problematic at a time when our test results lag behind expectations,” said Jess Brown, Committee Member and Executive Director of the Santa Cruz County Farm Bureau. “The Governance Standards are a very helpful tool to ensure focus is maintained on student achievement by District leaders, academic improvement goals are set and results measured against those goals.”
How are candidate recommendations made? The Committee recommends candidates who receive two-thirds or greater approval vote by individual Committee Members. Candidates completed a background questionnaire and were interviewed by the Committee in early September. Committee Members who may present a conflict of interest with any candidate did not participate in the selection process for that candidate. All candidates, both new candidates and those seeking re-election, were invited to seek the Committee’s endorsement. The Descriptions are our work and not the Candidates’. The Committee wrote the Candidate Qualification Summary Descriptions. Candidates were given an opportunity to review the summaries for factual accuracy in advance of this press release, but were not given editorial authority regarding content. The Committee maintains confidentiality regarding all information gathered from the questionnaire and interview process, and provides no information regarding candidates who did not receive a recommendation. Some candidates for School Board decided not to seek the Committee’s recommendation.
Committee Members are:
Jim Abendschan President, Spectra-Mat, Inc.
Janet Bell, M.D. Former PVUSD Trustee and Pediatrician
Jess Brown Executive Director of the Santa Cruz County Farm Bureau
Judy Doering-Nielsen Former Mayor and Member of the Watsonville City Council
William G. Dorey President & CEO, Granite Construction Company
Rocky Franich President, Marty Franich Ford
Evelyn Volpa Former Trustee
Hal Hyde Former Vice Chancellor UCSC and Cabrillo College Trustee
Doug Kaplan Former PVUSD Trustee Aptos Area and co-founder of Lomak Property Group
Kevin Jeffery Associate General Counsel, Graniterock
Christine Quinn Associate Superintendent of Hayward Unified School District, formerly PVUSD Assistant Superintendent for North Zone
J. Miles Reiter Chairman and CEO, Driscoll Strawberry Associates
Diane Siri, Ph.D. Former Superintendent of Schools, Santa Cruz County
Gary Smith Former Fire Chief of Aptos–La Selva Fire Protection District and Watsonville Fire Chief and Assistant City Manager
Elia Vasquez Farmer, Director of California Farm Bureau Federation, and Past President of the Santa Cruz County Farm Bureau
Evelyn Volpa Former PVUSD Trustee Aptos Area
Bruce Woolpert President & CEO, Graniterock