August 19, 2005

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Palo Alto Online

Better communication, fiscal management hot topics in board race

by Alexandria Rocha

Better communication with parents. More long-range planning for curriculum and construction. Fiscal accountability.

These are the hot topics so far among the four announced candidates for two open seats on the school board. Claude Ezran, Barbara Mitchell, Steve Mullen and Dana Tom -- all parents of district students -- will vie for outgoing incumbents John Barton's and Cathy Kroymann's seats in the Nov. 8 election.

The candidates have not been specific about issues they will tackle in their campaigns. However, the four say they're busy detailing their platforms and will hold campaign kick-off parties in the near future.

With three supporters of the district's recent parcel tax -- Ezran, Mitchell and Tom -- and one anti-Measure A campaigner, Mullen, competing for the seats, the race is sure to heat up when it comes to the budget.

All realize that any future planning, which has emerged as a major priority, has to happen in the context of the district's finances. For the next six years, the district can count on about $9 million per year for teacher salaries and the districtwide class-size reduction program from Measure A.

With the extra funds, each candidate emphasized the importance of keeping a close eye on the budget.

"It is critical because it's the foundation for everything that the school district wants to accomplish. It has to be used wisely. We have limited funds, and we have to make choices," said Tom, a software engineer with two sons in district schools. "We want to make sure we're spending it in the best way possible."

Fiscal responsibility is at this point solely guiding Mullen's candidacy. When asked Wednesday to elaborate on any other issues he found important to the district, he wouldn't. But neither would the others, except for Ezran who has gone into a few specifics.

"Unless we have fiscal responsibility we won't know what kind of programs we can expand and refine," said Mullen, who besides campaigning against Measure A, is a former PTA member with a daughter at Palo Alto High School and another who recently graduated.

Of the broad issues already mentioned, however, Ezran and Tom are particularly interested in improving discourse between board members and the parent community. Mitchell says now is the time to look ahead and plan for the future.

As last year's co-chairman of Duveneck Elementary School's site council, Tom created a program called the Duveneck Partnership to raise and aid communication between teachers and parents. The program included two sets of brochures -- one for parents; the other for teachers -- with tips on communicating with each other.

As a school board candidate, Tom now wants to turn his attention to helping correspondence between the board and parents. Recent contention over certain board action, such as ski week, possibly could have been avoided with a better flow of information, Tom said.

"I want to ensure that the school board is accountable and responsive to the community," he added. "We have to make sure we're effectively communicating and delivering information that meets the community's needs."

Ezran, a high-tech executive with three daughters, is also interested in the issue. While Tom wants to leverage the Parent Teacher Association network, Ezran wants to hold informal "coffee chats" that allow for two-way conversation.

"Right now it's very much one way. You go to a school board meeting and you talk for three minutes," Ezran said. "I would like to see, from time to time, some community meetings to talk to school board members, or as a member, I would do it myself."

Increasing conversation could help the district plan for the future, which is one of Mitchell's main platform issues. Although there are many pressures on school boards to act in the short-term -- during mid-year budget cuts, for example -- Mitchell wants more focus on long-term planning.

"I figure the school board has about 66 hours as a group to offer the community per year in public. That makes it pretty precious time. I would like to see that time include more engaging discussion," said Mitchell, a long-time district volunteer with two children in the schools and two that have graduated.

"Even if we could spend 30 percent of our time figuring out where we want to go. We have to have some sort of plan in place and we have to work very hard to get to that proactive sort of thinking," she added.

Ezran agrees that long-term planning is critical, expanding with a few details. In terms of future curricula development, he said the board should begin thinking about where the world will be career-wise in a few decades. He said it's likely that many jobs will be outsourced and district students need to emerge from high school prepared to deal with that.

He also said the district needs to look at its foreign language offerings, possibly adding Chinese instruction and bringing back Latin and Greek if there is an interest. Regarding facilities, he said a future bond measure is a possibility.

Mitchell, who spearheaded the 2001 campaign for the district's current class size reduction program, has avoided specifics, but she did say the board needs to "think big."

"Now that we have reason to feel optimistic about surviving three quite difficult years financially with the passage of the parcel tax, we have a tremendous opportunity to get back to the educational issues, to look long-term about what kind of vision we have for Palo Alto as a premier international school system," she said.

Technology, course development and career guidance will all have to be examined, Mitchell added.

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