Los Gatos Weekly-Times


Dorothy "Dot" Rouse	Gail Schwartz	Stephen Parsons

LGUSD candidates share their opinions

Los Gatos voters will cast ballots Nov. 5 for school board members in the Los Gatos Union School and the Los Gatos-Saratoga Joint Union High School districts. This week, we present written responses to questions we gave to candidates Dorothy "Dot" Rouse, Gail Schwartz and incumbent Stephen Parsons, who are running for the LGUSD board. Next week, candidates for the high-school district will have their chance. Responses have been edited for length.

What are your qualifications to be on the school board?

Rouse: As a student, parent and teacher, I have been involved in California public education most of my life. I have attended many board meetings during [my] 30 years of residence in the LGUSD. I have an understanding of history as well as vision of the future. During the years, I have watched educational philosophy swing from one extreme to the other. I understand the need for balance.

Schwartz: I have earned several teaching credentials, including an administrative credential, and have worked in the educational system for more than 16 years. I have been a teacher, a project coordinator, a teacher trainer, a parent educator and a volunteer. I currently run my own business. I have been trained by Coro, the prestigious Public Affairs Training Foundation. This is a unique background of both education and experience, all relative to serving on a school board.

Parsons: During my six years on the board, we've dealt with financial pressures, several changes in administrative personnel, contract negotiations, multiple site maintenance issues and curriculum adoptions, to name a few. I've gained valuable experience that I'd like to continue to offer the community. I also bring to the board the perspectives of a homeowner and a parent of children attending district schools. My children will be in this district for many more years, so part of my interest is the long-term financial stability of the district and continuous improvement of its educational goals. I'm not an activist. I prefer to consider options carefully and select the best, while trying to minimize any personal agenda.

What do you feel you can bring to the district that makes you stand out above the other candidates?

Rouse: My life experiences give me an understanding of the needs of the students. I am available to the community and, as a retired teacher, I have the time to devote to being a board member. I plan to visit each school and to attend Home and School Club meetings.

Schwartz: My unique educational and employment background gives me skills and a perspective the other candidates probably do not have. Also, I have proven my ability to create, organize and implement exciting programs that have outlasted my tenure. The science fair I started at Fisher is a good example of this.

Parsons: I am an electrical engineer and computer scientist. I am deeply aware of the challenging areas that the growth of technology is presenting to our district, the children, the teachers and the parents.

How can schools use technology to their best advantage?

Rouse: It is difficult if not impossible to keep up with all the changes [in technology]. Many of the changes will be costly. To best use our resources, we must learn how to incorporate technology into the daily learning process. Technology itself should not be the goal; maximum student development should be. Students should have access to a balanced program including art, music, physical education, language arts, social students, science and math. Technology should be part of this program. At this time, we need to teach students to use computers, but the use of computers is only a small part of technology.

Schwartz: Technology today gives us the ability to communicate with the world from our classrooms. It also gives us the ability to let a student spend more time or less time learning a skill; it encourages students to engage in the writing process more fully; and it brings history into the classroom so students can read about it and can see it. It can give teachers incredible support, educationally and administratively.

Parsons: Computers and other "high tech" items need to be viewed as tools in the classroom, not as replacements for teachers or substitutes for other important subject matter, which we cannot allow to fall by the wayside. Teachers have been spending necessary time to learn how to use these tools and have embarked on discovering ways to apply them. As teachers begin to explore the possibilities, children will be exposed to more and more ways that computers can be used, and will, in turn, make discoveries of their own. The allure of technology can obscure the need for cooperation among individuals. Students are being prepared for entry into the workplace, so we must ensure that they continue to learn cooperative skills. The district must [also] be very careful to provide for safe Internet access, whatever form it eventually takes.

What is your major concern about the district? What do you intend to do about it if you are elected?

Rouse: Class size. The changes in state funding have lowered class size in first and second grades. I am pleased with this change, but it puts new pressures on the other grades and on our valued special programs. We must find creative new ways to ease these pressures. We must pursue all avenues to create space in our schools.

Schwartz: One concern I have had for several years is that we have not had a long-range plan. Every year, the focus seems to change. We need a plan that will take us into the next century, complete with goals for teaching and learning, curriculum, technology, and the inservice and staff development coupled with parent education to implement it. I have the experience and skills to facilitate this type of planning.

Parsons: Technology and its impact on the educational experience of students concerns me. Coupled with recent changes in administration personnel, which can affect the curriculum, one major concern is to see that we don't lose focus on what we are trying to accomplish. The board must be aware of the philosophies driving the curriculum, what the expected educational outcomes are, and how the programs we provide contribute to the goals we have set.

What solutions do you see for the steadily growing school populations?

Rouse: Adding classrooms is costly and takes time. Our district has been acting on a plan for adding classrooms. We must continue to develop long-range plans to increase the number of rooms at each site. We have an opportunity to look again at the use of all of our spaces in the schools.

Schwartz: One solution that has been very successfully implemented has been year-round school. Since we are no longer an agrarian society, the traditional calendar may have lost its validity. We know that students lose a portion of what they learn over the long summer vacation and that the first several weeks of school are spent reviewing and relearning. The year-round schedule eliminates this problem. Some districts with year-round calendars use one track, with everyone attending school at the same time. Others, with overcrowded facilities, use more than one track, so that the classrooms are always occupied. This is just one solution to a very complex problem.

Parsons: I believe that the district will need to acquire another school site eventually. This will be expensive and will require high community support to be feasible. A local bond to fund acquisition and building would likely be needed. Until then, adding modular buildings seems the only viable short-term solution. Moving the district offices off the Daves Avenue School site would free up some much-needed class space at that school. Longer term, however, we will need some innovative solutions for all the sites. An interesting possibility is to lease classroom space from the private sector to create satellite school sites or bona fide schools.

Should the district push for renewal of the parcel tax in 1998?

Rouse: Yes. The parcel tax has enabled us to have smaller class numbers than our neighbors. Because we had the parcel tax, we were able to take advantage of the new state funding in first and second grades. The parcel tax is the only way we have of keeping our local school tax money in our local schools.

Schwartz: Yes. It would be unwise at this point to depend on state funds, even those that have been promised. Although we will be receiving per student allocation funds for reducing our primary class sizes, we will not be receiving the added funds allocated for facilities because the district is not considered crowded enough by state standards. The parcel tax has allowed us to keep the class size average lower than neighboring districts and has allowed us to continue offering electives, music and science programs that other districts have eliminated.

Parsons: Yes. We have been able to keep many programs that have disappeared in other districts for lack of funds. A sudden loss of this income would cause a severe impact on the quality of the service we are able to provide. Until such time as the state decides to fund education properly, we must rely on the goodwill of the citizens to continue to provide this much-needed enhancement to the district's budget.

What maintenance and upkeep issues would you like to see addressed for district schools?

Rouse: Maintenance and upkeep expenses are often funded differently than other general fund items. Sometimes funds used for maintenance can also be used to build new rooms. It would be nice to see all the schools newly painted inside and out, and to have plenty of blacktop for sports and parking. It would be grand to have all broken and worn out items fixed or replaces, but we live in a world of choices. I would choose to move along slowly as we have been and to use our funds for new rooms and changes in use of space.

Schwartz: I would like to be sure that all the schools and all the classrooms and offices are secure and comfortable.

Parsons: Our schools are old, and they need significant expenditures for upkeep. They are energy-inefficient and do not meet the wiring demands of current and future technology developments. Almost anywhere could be a starting point for improvement.