Here are some of the highlights of my first two terms. I have worked hard and will continue to work diligently to keep pushing LCUSD and our community to new heights.
· Keeping Our Schools Open and Safe
During the COVID-19 pandemic, perhaps the most challenging time of our lives, I led efforts to safely keep our schools open by working closely with the community and the La Canada Teachers Association to provide a safe and secure environment for our students. While many of our neighboring districts were closed, LCUSD was able to keep our schools open to the fullest extent allowed by law. We established a committee of parents, teachers, administrators and students who successfully planned and prepared our schools to open safely and to stay open safely. We provided for safe and secure locations on campus to accommodate our students who did not have a location to attend remotely, and we worked closely with our coaches to get our student athletes back out on the practice fields quickly. We don’t know what COVID will bring next, but we are confident that, by working with our community, our teachers, our parents, our staff and our administrators, we will be prepared to respond quickly and deliberately to whatever challenges may lie ahead.
· Extraordinary Academic Performance
Despite the challenges of COVID, our schools and our students have thrived: our elementary schools earned National Blue Ribbon School distinctions, our high school earned recognition from US News and World Report as one of the top high schools in the state, and Niche recognized LCUSD as the best school district in the LA Area with the best teachers in the state. Our excellent schools are the primary reason that a recent survey by Stacker concluded that La Canada is the best community to raise a family in California. Our high school had a record number of National Merit Scholars last year, and members of our recent graduating class are attending record-setting numbers of top colleges and universities around the nation.
· Stable Enrollment
While many districts across the state have experienced significant enrollment reductions, our district enrollment has remained stable. To provide a world-class education to our students, our schools provide a wide variety of academic classes, AP classes and choral, music, art, band and sports programs. Doing so requires a critical mass of students at the high school level. Without enough students, these programs do not thrive. Thus, it is critical that our district maintain a robust enrollment. We have been successful in maintaining our enrollment via our permit system, allowing parents who work in La Canada to send their children to school in La Canada. We are expanding the permit system to allow grandparents who live in La Canada to send their grandchildren to our schools. This will not only benefit our schools by helping to stabilize enrollment but will also recognize the ongoing contributions of our seniors to our community and allow for their continued involvement with our schools.
· Comprehensive Facilities Master Plan
I led the Board’s top-to-bottom review of all of the district’s physical facilities and infrastructure to allow for efficient allocation of resources over the short and long term. This was an intense effort by the full Governing Board and district leadership, with tremendous community involvement, and it serves as a guide for the Board’s efforts over the next decade. With outstanding community support and leadership, our community passed Measure LC, providing much-needed funding to update our schools and facilities. Palm Crest Elementary has a beautiful, new, (and much needed) state-of-the-art classroom building, and all of the classrooms are being renovated to the latest standards and technological innovations. The high school South Campus Redevelopment Project is nearly completed, replacing our aging and leaking pool with a new aquatics center with much-needed locker rooms and coach offices. It also provides new outdoor seating and lunch areas, a new multi-use amphitheater area with basketball courts, a new landscaped pedestrian walkway in the center of campus and significantly expanded parking. Plans for new classrooms to replace aging temporary classrooms at Paradise Canyon Elementary are nearing completion. Construction of a new, state-of-the-art classroom building and renovations to existing classrooms to the latest standards and technological innovations will start next year. Our focus will next turn to La Canada Elementary School, the newest of our campuses, to bring important updates and renovations.
· Security and Emergency Response
As a career prosecutor, it was important to me to work alongside district staff in conjunction with the L.A. County Sheriff’s department to update the security and emergency preparedness plans for each of the district locations. Our Facilities Master Plan includes additional improvements designed to strengthen our systems even further. We have worked closely with our security consultants, Chameleon Associates, to review safety and security at all of our schools, make physical changes to improve security, use technology to secure our campuses, and train our staff and students on the best procedures to respond to an emergency situation.
· Focused Technology Upgrades
As the Board’s representative to the TRAC Committee (and as a software programmer and technology enthusiast), I led our efforts to create the position of Chief Technology Officer, elevated Jamie Lewsadder into that position, and worked closely with Jamie to make technology infrastructure upgrades to that enabled fast wifi, 1:1 Chromebooks and modern computer technology in our classrooms. This preparation allowed our students and our teachers to quickly pivot to online learning when necessitated by COVID. Having the technology in place prior to the pandemic allowed our teachers and our schools to maximize learning and minimize downtime when learning online.
· Athletic Field Renovations
As a former EMT and current AYSO Region 13 Safety Director, I was concerned with the dangerous state of the LCHS football field and eager to find a cost-efficient solution. I led the District’s efforts to renegotiate our contract with LA Surf Football Club and work out a mutually beneficial solution whereby Surf paid for a substantial amount of the field renovation while also contributing to a fund to replace the field when needed. Surf also recently agreed to new license terms for the use of the stadium, ensuring LCHS sports teams and music programs’ use of the field when needed and allowing community use of the track.
· Stanford University Challenge Success
I am proud of the district’s forward-thinking involvement in Stanford’s Challenge Success program, aimed at creating a more balanced and academically fulfilling life for kids today to thrive in the world of tomorrow. (visit http://www.challengesuccess.org/about/mission-vision for more information). I led the Board’s investigation into the benefits of a later start time for teens, discussed the issue broadly with experts, parents and educators, and worked with the district to modify the bell schedule to address all stakeholder concerns.
· Teacher Motivation and Morale
It has been important to me to develop and maintain a mutually respectful relationship between the Governing Board and the La Canada Teachers Association in order to attract and retain excellent teachers. In each of my nine years on the Board and during both of my terms as Board President, we successfully worked through challenging salary negotiations, and in so doing strengthened that relationship to the benefit of the entire district and community.
· Sagebrush
I have worked with La Canada-Flintridge city officials and the Sagebrush community to facilitate the integration of Sagebrush residents into LCUSD in a cost-neutral manner that benefits the district by maintaining LCUSD enrollment levels and the tax base over the long term. While progress has at times been frustratingly slow, our efforts have been consistent, and we have continued to make progress, with hope of significant movement in the very near future.