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Suzanne Robins
Recalling that Sue Robins was the only one of the seven School Board candidates not invited to the Culver City Democratic Club’s endorsement meeting, an audience member fired a question of curiosity at a Robins campaign event yesterday.
“How does that work if you are a minority?” a woman asked. “I believe you are a Republican.”
Ms. Robins promptly corrected her. “I am not,” said the candidate. “I am an independent.”
In an informal setting, Ms. Robins was giving her perspective on the undisputedly sagging facilities throughout the School District as they relate to the temporarily stalled bond measure and its many dangling accoutrements.
She said there was no value in rehashing the momentous, much-debated School Board vote of last July 1 to immediately end the bond campaign a month before the deadline for putting it on the November ballot.
“A big piece of what was missing (three months ago) was that as we build or repair facilities, everything has to come with a plan of how you are going to take care of things,” Ms. Robins said.
A former teacher who has operated her own training business for the last two years, she was asked:
“Who or what group would be ultimately responsible for implementing an ongoing plan for maintenance and repair? Would it be the School Board, the superintendent, the principals of the schools? All of them working together? The voters?”
The Way It Works
“When it comes to maintenance,” said Ms. Robins, “the Board would set the expectations and require a plan. Then it would go through the superintendent to the facilities department. They would have to create the plan and implement it. Funding would be determined by the School Board.”
At this point, the minority question bobbed up.
Persisting, the inquisitor followed up by observing that if Ms. Robins is the only non-Democrat, would that affect School Board decisions.
“It should not,” said the candidate. “Board membership is not supposed to be partisan, although the Democratic Club does not invite non-Democrats to speak.
Strictly Neutral
“Political affiliation is not supposed to be associated with any Board decision. The School Board is supposed to be non-political.”
As the only non-Democrat, an audience member asked, “Might the Board be fighting you? How do you see your role?”
“I would like to think my role might be somewhat that of a mediator,” Ms. Robins said. “One of the things I teach in my business is how to find consensus. That is a big piece of leadership. Board members should recognize that they are there with four other people. It is their responsibility to contribute to the effort of finding consensus, finding the right answers.
“I would constantly encourage people to do that because that is the only way to make progress. I am not a big fan of what we see going on in Washington now. We don’t make progress when everyone engages in brinksmanship.
“Frankly, a lot of it has nothing to do with our children.
“What I offer is someone who is not affiliated with a particular group,” Ms. Robins said. “I am just not.”
