Saratoga News
Letters & Opinions
Speak Out
Concerned by comments
of board candidates
As a parent, alum and taxpayer, I read with great concern the comments of our Los Gatos-Saratoga High School District board candidates.
There are only two top priorities of a school board member: 1) fiscal responsibility: Are we providing the maximum educational value to the students and the taxpayers, and 2) educational excellence: Are the students we educate prepared for the educational demands ahead of them and do they have the life skills necessary to function in our society.
Our top priority is not to focus on the administration or faculty. If the school board has a commitment to excellence, then our district will continue to be a desirable place to have a career as an educator. More importantly, the job of the board is not to help an administrator transition to a new position; rather, the board is his boss and needs to objectively observe his job performance free of personal ties or prejudice.
Stress in the educational environment is a natural test as well as being part of adolescence. Excellence demands that we push our students, but parents must communicate with and prepare their students and, at the same time, partner with educators to ensure student-specific goals are being met. Are we properly preparing our students and their parents to succeed? That is not always the case.
Ethics, as evidenced by recent cases in both business and government, is clearly a skill that has been undervalued. Harvard University did not offer a class on ethics at either the undergraduate or graduate level until recently. The Internet and collaborative learning are imperative today, but student-specific deliverables and self critique, together with performance-based tasks, will help attain the highest ethical standards.
Open campus is an important test for our students, but not-so-subtle behavioral reminders from the administration need to be made more frequently. Our schools, not just the students, are responsible to the community and most especially to the neighbors around our campuses. Students need to respect themselves and others and realize the responsibility they have if they leave campus.
Finally, I wholeheartedly support the idea of older students tutoring our younger ones, but I want to carry it a step further. A significant number of local students attend other high schools in the area and they should be included as a resource for the benefit of all our students as well as providing a benchmark for faculty, administration and the school board. This outreach can only enhance our students' education.
As evidenced by the STAR test results, a majority of our students come well prepared for academics at the high school level. Now it is up to the school-parent-student partnership to help these adolescents achieve their educational and life goals.
Douglas Rice
Los Gatos
Trustee will support
Polk, Lucas, Cordero
As a trustee of the West Valley-Mission Community College District serving a fifth term on the governing board, I have worked with many trustees since 1988, and I highly recommend you vote for the three candidates below in the upcoming election.
Buck Polk is the appointed incumbent in Area 2, Santa Clara. He was appointed to fill the vacancy when trustee Kevin Moore was elected to the Santa Clara City Council. The board interviewed several candidates and was very impressed by the research Buck had done before the interview. He knew what being a trustee means. In the past two years he has proved to be an exceptional trustee. For 36 years, Buck served in the Santa Clara Unified School District as an instructor, coach and principal.
Jack Lucas is the incumbent in Area 1, Saratoga-Los Gatos. He served the Los Gatos-Saratoga High School District for 35 years as a teacher, coach, dean of students and principal. He has been a past president of the board of trustees and is a valuable member of the board.
Don Cordero is a candidate for the open seat in Area 1. He retired from the West Valley-Mission Community College District in 2004 after 30 years of experience, including counselor and faculty member. Don has received a number of honors from his professional colleagues. I have known Don for more than 30 years, and believe he would be an excellent addition to the governing board.
Buck Polk, Jack Lucas and Don Cordero have a real interest in serving students and the community, and deserve your vote on Nov. 7.
Joy Atkins, trustee
West Valley-Mission Community College District
Supporting Kahl in race
for high school board
Having read the statements and reviewed the candidate qualifications for the Los Gatos-Saratoga Union High School District board, we have a good amount of individuals to choose from. All of the candidates would serve our schools well, but one candidate clearly stood out from the rest.
I was most impressed by school board candidate Steven Kahl. He came across as an experienced individual with a very level head. The San Jose/Silicon Valley Chamber of Commerce honored him as Teacher of the Year. He even has a master's degree in educational administration and supervision from San José State University.
Steven's approach, coupled with his extensive experience, is what our schools need.
Philip Hsia
Scotland Drive
CTA member would be
good addition to board
Ideally, school boards represent and reflect the entire diversity of a school district--students, parents, community members, teachers and staff, gay or straight. To suggest that the presence of a member of the California Teachers Association would somehow wreck the "integrity" of a school board is absurd. Current and retired CTA members serve on school boards throughout the state, including Santa Clara County.
Rather than being a contradiction, it reflects the community's best interest in having all its members' voices at the policy-making table. In fact, there is a crying need on most school boards to have access to someone who actually knows something about schools: how they work, how they fail, how they succeed.
A recent letter-writer ("Voter opposes Kahl in race for high school board," Oct. 11) spoke disparagingly of the Academic Performance Index score at Independence High School in comparison to two local high schools. While judging a school's performance solely by its API score is narrow-minded, the writer conveniently ignored the fact that Independence's API score has increased by 80 points since 2003. This was surely due in no small part to the dedicated work of its CTA member-teachers (even while fighting off the negative political power of the governor's ill-guided ballot propositions).
Don McKell
Los Gatos
Don McKell is the president of the East Side Teachers Association is San Jose. The letter was also signed by John Lindner, a member of the Oak Grove Educators Association and the Franklin-McKinley School Board, and Don Dawson, a CTA board member and member of the East Side Teachers Association .
Unhappy with slate's
campaign mailer
I am writing to express my disappointment in the three Saratoga slate candidates' collaborative campaign mailer. With the power of three, they sent out more divisive, negative and incorrect statements to perpetuate discord and negativity between age groups, lifestyles and neighborhoods, instead of making an example of unification and cooperation.
I have already chosen two other candidates, and was hoping to find a third rational, equitable voice to join the city council. I see there is no fresh start in this alliance, and no willingness to work in the spirit of our diverse community. Support belongs to candidates willing to take the higher road, and these three have sadly fallen short.
Jane Olson
Brookglen Drive
Reader saddened by
state of campaign
I am saddened that our Saratoga politics have turned into a battleground. I am quite sure all of the candidates are good people. I've worked on tree and school issues with Jill Hunter and have seen Chuck Page involved at many community levels. I have personally experienced the leadership, passion and caring of Kathleen King, who I think has accomplished a great deal.
Kathleen King has honestly and passionately carried out her role as a civic leader. She has been exemplary in advocating for issues for our community, and she has gone beyond to be a leader in both health and the arts.
When I asked for help to carry out a colon cancer campaign to help prevent this disease, she was one of the first to step up to the plate. She took it the extra mile and involved other mayors throughout the county, worked with the county supervisors and even the state to help prevent this terrible cancer. She understands health issues.
She supports our downtown more than any other civic leader I've known in 30 years. She has been a key person in helping to save and advocate for Hakone Gardens, a treasure to our community.
She deserves better. Let's stop the attacks.
Gay and Roy Crawford
Aloha Avenue
Voters should support
independent candidates
I applaud the Saratoga News editorial "Clean the slate--elect King, Siam, Page to council" (Oct. 18). I agree that we Saratogans need to elect candidates who are independent thinkers rather than members of Jeff Schwartz's slate. In a community such as ours with so many diverse interests, we would be much better served by council members such as Chuck Page, Kathleen King and Hab Siam--individuals who have the integrity and courage to run on their own, despite knowing that slates have historically won in this town. Even though I may not agree with every decision Mr. Siam, Mr. Page or Ms. King would make, I'd be happy knowing we weren't getting cookie-cutter, rubber stamp decisions made by council members beholden to Jeff Schwartz and his team.
I have to say I've also been impressed with and heartened by the positive campaigns Kathleen King, Hab Siam and Chuck Page are running, by modeling ethical conduct and refusing to participate in "hit pieces" against other candidates in this election. I appreciate their taking the high road and not insulting our intelligence with such low tactics as much as I value their not being part of a political action group.
Charlotte Sparacino
Lutheria Way
Disconnect between
council and residents
During the past four years there has been a serious disconnection between the city council and the residents. For example: The city council recommended the utility tax to fix the roads and other problems and residents apparently did not trust the city council and said no by 80 percent in the election.
The city council voted to sell the North Campus and spend the money on the streets and soccer fields. The residents said selling city land to fund operating expenses does not make sense and defeated the issue at the ballot by 75 percent.
The city council approved a design at the gateway of the city at Prospect and Saratoga Sunnyvale Road after dismissing the community committee. After seeing the landscaping design the residents disagreed and the council was forced to take the pillars down.
The city council spent thousands of dollars on a design for a full regulation sports field for Kevin Moran Park. The neighbors and other city residents said no and the council went to West Valley College fields.
And, there are other additional disconnects between city council and the majority of the residents.
The solution is to elect three new city council candidates. Now let us thank Norm Kline, Nick Streit and Kathleen King for serving and replace them with three new people who will be closer to the residents of Saratoga and have more common sense.
Chester Thuener
Brockton Lane
