The Candidates Forum produced many questions from the community, but we ran out of time to address them at the event. The candidates were very enthusiastic in addressing the community's concerns and provided their responses via e-mail. Below are the candidates' responses to the questions.
1. Cupertino Schools are well known to be excellent public schools. What are your specific plans (not general or vague answers) to get us to that level?
Don Bordenave: As a long time resident, parent, teacher, administrator and current member of the Board of Education of the Santa Clara Unified School District, I share your concerns regarding school performance. The District has experienced a positive growth in test scores this year with Laurelwood Elementary School being recognized as a recipient of the California Distinguished School Award by the State Department of Education. I am committed to support the programs that have been responsible for this to happen so other somewhat like district schools might achieve the same success. At the same time, I recognize the diversity within the district that might and does call for different program support at other schools.
Albert Gonzalez: Accountability! If you don't see a problem, there is no need to find a solution. Please inform you constituents to watch Comcast channel 26 to see the forum that was held a week ago between the candidates. At the forum the incumbent said that he disagreed with my belief that there was an achievement gap. I can tell you and you can see from the presentation I sent you that the API achievement gap at Don Callejon is 280, this is the worst in all of SCUSD's 25 schools. This should not be the case with the great infrastructure that exists there. As a board member I would review school data on a regular basis to look for discrepancies which I would make the board aware of. That way, we can share our concerns with the superintendent so that he can take the necessary steps to correct the problems.
Ashish Mangla: I understand your frustration, and appreciate your looking to aim high. But each district has certain demographic realities. Our district has a large number of kids where parents could not provide sufficient attention and time, as most do 2-3 jobs a day, to make their ends meet. so I am proposing to create a small pool of funds for providing incentive based approach to help our kids who are under achievers(due to lack of sufficient parental involvement) along with special after school help for all kids who are low and average achievers. Idea is to take all our children to higher education standards, not just certain pockets of our community. For more details please visit www.ashish4people.com. I will have more rigorous programs for our kids on the same lines as we have in some of our open enrollment schools to target maths, science and English. Basically we have to remove achievement gap, start from couple of schools every year, and then ultimately target to bring higher API for all our schools. We have to involve our bay area scientist, engineers, environmentalists to donate their time and dollars to this special SCUSD fund for removing achievement gap.
2. Seeing the increasing demand for preschool, what are your plans to help accommodate the crowd from the Rivermark community?
Don Bordenave: The problem of growth at Don Callejon School is not a one time happening this year. Next year you can expect more with an additional kindergarten class and another one the year to follow. There are solutions, but nothing should happen without including the school community in the process. I have not spent the better part of my life as being a close friend of Don Callejon without working for a solution to this problem concerning a school in his name. I have already made a commitment to become part of a district committee, which I recently approached the Superintendent to form so the problem can be addressed. This committee will encompass the total growth problem within the district and will address your problem which the last committee turned away from and centered on San Jose/North 1st Street.
Albert Gonzalez: I have various ideas such as adding portables, reducing enrollment or changing to a K-5. There was a charter school opened in Alviso this year, but only 10 students that would have gone to Don Callejon (previously Peterson) are attending this school. We could probably see some reduction in enrollment by expanding that school and looking at Peterson as well. With the economy the way that it is, we can expect enrollment to increase, as parents of students in private schools may choose to cut costs and enroll their children in SCUSD schools. The district and community will need to work together to address this issue.
Ashish Mangla: I know fully well how you feel as a community, when you do not have even one preschool now, after the only preschool at Don Callejon has been put on near closure point, moving it elsewhere due to lack of space. As a community you all should be given due representation in district by opening more preschools, if space is issue, then we should open portables as temporary measure. I promise you that if I am elected, this will be one of my most important priority to make sure all preschools and their teachers are provided enough funds with the involvement of parents, industry and district.
3. What type of parental education and courses will you offer to help students prepare for STAR testing?
Don Bordenave: As far as parent preparation for Star testing, I feel The Board and the District has and is providing the schools with everything they need to keep their community informed as far as test preparation.We have also provided Don Callejon School with an outstanding principal in Hans Barber who I'm sure does and will keep all informed. As a former school principal, I wouldn't want it any other way. I would want my school community to look to me as their resource and trust me to look elsewhere if I did not have the answers. I'm totally confident Hans Barber will do that.
Albert Gonzalez: Parents should be given specific information about the STAR test, including what topics are tested at each grade level, along with some sample questions and websites that are available to parents for the purpose of preparing their children. However, our schools should set high expectations for our students and be teaching to the state standards so that our students should be prepared to take this test.
Ashish Mangla: Parental education and involvement is one of the most important factor in Children education in general and performance in standardized tests like STAR in particular. To make sure parents become a understanding hand in their children's preparation of such exams, I will help organize workshops and seminars to make parents understand the contents of these tests and provide guidance to them, for helping their wards. Many of the parents who have not studied in California schools, do need necessary understanding of the goals and curriculum of these tests, so they can involve themselves in their children's lives. We should use PTA forum, and other community forums to organize volunteer driven counseling sessions for such parents.
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