Here are some additional viewpoints of the SDUHSD school board candidates that were featured in the October issue of the Mustang. They weigh in on Common Core and other public concerns they heard about during the campaigns.

Question: Are you in favor of the Common Core system that is beginning to be implemented into district schools this year? Or is there anything you don’t like /do you foresee any potential problems with it? What would you do to support parents, students and schools through this transition?

Amy Herman:

From my own research and from the multiple workshops I’ve attended on Common Core, I believe that our students will adjust well to the new standards and teaching methods.  By putting the focus on creativity, critical thinking, collaboration, and communication I think   our students will be better prepared for the 21st century no matter what college or career    they choose.  I have been impressed with how our district has started implementing Common Core in a slow gradual process by focusing on teacher collaboration and training.   We have also communicated with our parent communities, by having information nights at each of our district schools, as well as our feeder elementary district schools.  As a support for our parents and student, especially with the change to Integrated Math, we are offering online support and examples to help our families through this transition.  I am committed to ensuring that our students and teachers are provided with the resources that they need during the transition.  Knowing that ACT and College Board’s SAT and AP testing are aligning  their tests  to reflect common core standards, we will need to make sure that our students are prepared  for these important tests.

Rimga Viskanta: Common Core is here.  I am not opposed to the standards and feel that teachers and students need to be supported during the transition.  The teachers still can be creative and develop their own curriculum for those standards.  My worry with standards is when testing mastery of those standards takes away from a child’s learning experience.  If there is too much time testing and focus on test preparation versus learning for learning’s sake then I believe that’s the wrong balance.  However, testing can help provide a snapshot and benchmark of student mastery.

Barbara Groth: The caliber of our staff, we are having a slow, deliberate roll out of this paradigm shift. You can’t do it from top down. Our staff has gone out to every school site to give parents an opportunity to listen to how it will be rolled out slowly and ask questions. The groundwork has been carefully, thoughtfully laid. People go from 0 to 60 when you just mention that word. It’s the discussion that we are trying to get to problem solving and actually thinking, which is in fact what most countries are doing that we say we need to compete with. I don’t know if the Common Core name should be changed because it’s a little lighting rod. Every good teacher that I remember go beyond the memorization, it’s the application. Our staff has supported the teachers in coming up with new books, texts, and syllabus. Teachers are driving it, parents are learning what we are planning to do. I think it’s exciting. I never did like memorization. This goes beyond that and shows why knowledge is useful.

Simeon Greenstein: As a parent of 3 graduates of the district and as a person who has dedicated my life to this school district, from my deepest professional and personal point of view, I am gratified with how the district has responded to this mandate from the state. I believe that it is the responsibility of all staff, from teachers to administrators to counselors to students that participate to help explain transparently about changes in the curriculum.

John Salazar: I do support the common core. I think we have graduated for many years students that knew a little about a lot of things and didn’t really understand subjects. While we are just starting common core, I like what I’ve seen of it. I think our teachers and administration are doing an excellent job. I definitely support it. I think we have incredibly excellent teachers at all of our schools. Will there be bumps in the road, yes but I think it will all become smoothed out.

Maureen Muir: There are great schools in this district – supported by great parents, teachers and administrators. This is a great community

Steve McDowell: Common Core has already been mandated and the district has to put it in place. It can be done successfully and I believe the district is moving in the right direction by putting together instructional materials that not only expand upon the critical thinking skills that was one of the goals of the program, but also continues to include learning the subjects that they can apply when out in the working world.

Question: What are the issues you are hearing parents and people in the community talking about? What are they concerned about? What do they want done?

Amy Herman: As a longtime volunteer in the local school districts, I have served in PTA and school foundation leadership positions at every school my children attended.   I have always tried to listen and act on the concerns of parents, students, and other members of community. One of the issues that has been of concern in the southern part of the district has been the need for a new middle school in Carmel Valley.   I’m happy to report that next fall we will be opening our 5th middle school that will reduce the enrollment at CVMS, which has been an important issue in the Carmel Valley community.  I know that equity of facilities is another issue for our communities, which is why we are working to update our older facilities and provide every student with an enhanced learning environment

Rimga Viskanta: I hear a concern for school safety and that takes several forms including safe buildings, safety from bullying and safety when getting to and from school.  I hear parents who wish for more nutritious and tasty school lunches.  I also hear parents who want an environmentally conscious school environment.  Finally, I hear parents who want financial transparency, prudence and to feel secure the Board is making sound fiscal and contracting decisions.

Barbara Groth:  What the plans are with the proposition money and how its going to affect their kids. One thing that is below the raider for the public is there is a bill making its way through the Senate in California that would count the amount of reserve we can have in our budget. We have always built up healthy reserves and we can because you never know when a recession is going to hit us and that is what we use to keep from cutting the programs the last couple years when it was so bad. So we passed a resolution saying this wasn’t going to work. It gets away from local control. We should know what’s best for our district, students and community. SD858. We want more than they are allowing us to have and they are putting a limit on how much we can have. It seems kind of counter intuitive to me. How does Sacramento know what we need? It’s a one size fits all kind of thing.

Simeon Greenstein:  There are always people that have concerns. Our district has a first rate track record of responding to concerns. As a long time administrator in our district, one of my main goals as a responsibility was responding to concerns. The excellence that has marked tis school district for the past three decades is more than just addressing problems as they come up. It is in proactively developing policies and programs that solve problems before they are problems. That’s great leadership. That’s what I see in our district.

John Salazar: We are getting many people who want a flexible start time for high school students. They want to have the ability to come in earlier and get off earlier or come in later and get off later. I absolutely support that. I would have liked to have had that flexibility of my kid coming into school at ten in the morning and staying until five. The fact is we have a lot of teachers that feel the same way. We have the facilities, we have the personal. I think in this world we should have flexible start times.

Maureen Muir: Overall, parents are proud of this district. It is a great place to raise children

Steve McDowell: Parents and families in the neighborhood worry their children will be stuck paying off the bonds in place currently, when they leave college fifteen years from now in many cases with substantial student loans.  In fifteen years, lots will change: technology will upgrade, sport fields upgrade, air conditioning and lighting will need replacement again, but funds will not be available to borrow or use because it already has been spent. This is where I come in- most current board members are not passionate about the finances and numbers behind what makes SDUHSD schools a success. My goal in working for the SDUHSD as a board member is to reduce these fears by putting limits on what interest rates can be charged on the bonds and by saying no to some vendors whose focus is on their own bottom line instead of the success of the students and schools.