“I approach school board issues with a consistent philosophy – it’s the responsibility of the entire community to take care of the community’s children… School has a bigger impact on our children’s lives than it ever did. In addition to education being more important- it’s important to the community itself.”
On revenue…
“We need to increase the communication between the school, the community and the rest of the city so everybody feels the school’s value.”
On Common Core…
“We’re going to be successful with Common Core, we have a very well run organization. We’re 35th in spending for kids and 5th in spending for teachers, which means there’s a lot of students in front of each teacher. With Common Core and the same tests across the country the state’s models will be competing – it will be interesting to see how that turns out.”
On overcrowding…
“We now have kids in every crack and corner of two campuses. We probably need to build a third campus. Every asset in the city is an asset of the citizens of Hermosa Beach. The community center could be a potential school again. Before we spend $20 or $25 million on North – which I’m willing to do – how could we buy it back, and perhaps the community center should be in North School and the school there? We shouldn’t be afraid of building schools – it’s what communities do.”
On sustainability…
“If we build a new school it would be a very efficient building. The last time we did renovations was the 2002 timeframe… Other than making sure North School is as efficient as we can be, sustainability isn’t a core issue for the schools. Being green often is the right economic choice, but I’m not willing to make bad economic choices for the appearance of being green. You can’t sacrifice core educational stuff for the appearance of being green.”
