[Editor’s Note: School Board candidate Patricia Siever submitted this essay that she described as “the philosophy and educational priorities of a proponent of student success.”]
Education is a lifelong continuum.
At all levels of the educational spectrum, our students must be prepared for the “global context” in which they will be living and working after they leave our schools, colleges and universities.
With the current economic downturn, all of us — parents, teachers, staff, counselors, administrators, business and community members — must affirm our “collective investment” to the education of our youth.
Together, we must create and foster an “educational coalition” whose main purpose is to ensure that our Culver City students have an environment and educational culture in which dynamic teaching and learning prevail.
My proven experience and expertise as a teacher, administrator and active board member are exactly what our CCUSD students need right now.
If elected to the School Board, these are my main priorities and ones that I will actively promote to the new Board.
The First Priority
Stabilize the budget so that vital programs are not cut. This can be done by finding and bringing in new revenue in the areas of Special Education, coordinating the writing and application of grant funding, exploring the improvement/renovation of District facilities that could be leased and/or used as multipurpose facilities and last, but not least, budgetary expenditures should be revisited and evaluated as to how they relate to the success of our students and programs.
Maintain competitive salaries, retain and reward quality teachers, staff and administration. Teachers, staff and administration who are student-centered, friendly, innovative, experts in their academic fields, have good relationships with students and parents, and whose students show persistence, are models that show students the value of teaching and learning.
Expedite the District’s movement toward student educational success. Study and evaluate how our students succeed after graduation. Form an alliance with the CCUSD Alumni Assn., the PTSA, and the local community college so that we will know how well we have prepared our graduates in the academic or vocational/workforce areas. This kind of documentation can help us strengthen those areas in which our graduates may not have been prepared as well as we thought (math, English, critical thinking, vocational education).
Ensure that all of our students get the best education possible. Explore expanding the Spanish Immersion program both vertically and horizontally. In regards to the English Language Development program, strengthen it by using some of the same strategies and methodologies used for the Spanish and Japanese programs. Consider building a “bilingual learning community” by combining the ELD program and the Spanish/Japanese program in Middle School and then into High School. It can be team taught, and both student groups could interact bilingually.
Number of Students Is Crucial
Maintain small class sizes and support the strengthening of the foundational skills: reading, writing and math in the primary grades. It is extremely important that our students have strong foundational skills. (In some schools, third graders are learning geometry.) I would want to look at other programs that succeed in teaching students to be proficient in math and in advanced math in the primary grade levels.
Actively set the stage for the encouragement, communication and participation of our parents and community. I will suggest to the Board that the School Board meetings be held at our site locations, and that an interpreter is there also, so that our parents who work can get involved, talk to the Board and recognize their importance in Board business. This would broaden the participation of these parents in the educational lives of their children. El Marino has shown us that parental involvement can lead to student success.
Technology in the Classrooms – We can build “smart classrooms” equipped with technology; wherein both the teacher and the students benefit, i.e., podcasts can occur where the instructor can send his/her lessons, notes which can be posted and received for student examination and feedback. In some cases we could develop hybrid classes: combination of online and in the classroom. We could pursue- and get-grant money for this enterprise.
Introducing New Faces
Intersegemental relationship. Strengthen the CCUSD’s relationships with West L.A. College (teacher-teacher or counselor-counselor) in regards to ensuring that our CCUSD students and their parents benefit from this K-12-College relationship. Middle and High School students can take classes for free at the community colleges and complete their first two year college requirement, while still in their Middle or High School. At West, about 2 years ago, a student graduated from West with an AA degree and was a 12th grader! When she graduated from high school, she went straight into a 4-year university as a junior – and the parents were able to save money because they didn’t have to pay for the first two years of their daughter’s college.
Intergenerational relationships. Invite the seniors at the Senior Center to come contribute their talents, experience and, in turn, have the students come to the Senior Center and learn. We could give high school credit for the students.
Fight for full funding from Sacramento. Our Board should strengthen its ties to the City Council. Both should meet and discuss, among other things, how to obtain a lobbyist (in Sacramento) who can lobby on behalf of the city and CCUSD.
Accountability for CCUSD School Board. The members of the School Board should not only set the vision and make policy for the District, but they should annually set objectives and goals that will guide them each year. At the end of each year, the taxpayers would have the opportunity to see whether the Board has accomplished what it was elected to do.
Ensure a safe, clean and invigorating environment for the best education of our students and the best working conditions for our faculty, staff and administration. I am in favor of the anti-bullying policy that was written in 2008, and is now just being implemented.
Prof. Siever may be contacted at sieverpg@aol.com
