By Khalida Sarwari
A candidate forum for Campbell’s elementary and high school district governing boards brought important issues to the forefront just weeks ahead of Election Day.
The forum, held Oct. 10 at Westmont High School, was sponsored by the League of Women Voters of Southwest Santa Clara Valley and featured three candidates for the Campbell Union School District and four for the Campbell Union High School District.
During the hourlong forum, the elementary school candidates addressed everything from school finances, student health and wellness, to the achievement gap and a pair of ballot measures that will affect funding for schools. The candidates, incumbents Juliet Tiffany-Morales and Leah K. Read and newcomer Michael Snyder, are running for two board positions.
Tiffany-Morales, a 41-year-old research analyst and board member since 2008, said she is considering voting yes on both Proposition 30 and 38.
“I hope that something comes to the schools,” she said.
Read said she, too, would vote in favor of the measures, while Snyder said he would not support either measure. Read, 46, has been a board member since 2006 and currently serves as board president.
“If they don’t pass, we’re going to have to tighten our belts, but there’s no guarantee that they’re going to the schools,” Snyder said.
Snyder, a 42-year-old third-grade teacher at Ellis Elementary School in Sunnyvale, said that if elected, he would tackle the achievement gap by encouraging teachers to work with students in smaller groups in the classroom and ensure that students have a firm understanding of basic math and reading skills.
Tiffany-Morales advocated taking advantage of after-school programs and summer school to help close the achievement gap. Read said she’d place more emphasis on helping English language learners.
One of the most challenging questions the panel was asked to address was on the topic of teen pregnancy.
“This is obviously more than a school issue; it’s a societal issue,” said Read. “It’s not an easy issue [that] I can tackle right here, right now.”
Asked to discuss qualities that set him apart from the competition, Snyder highlighted his 15 years of experience in education, his ability to be a team player and his willingness to be visible in the community.
Tiffany-Morales said she looks forward to being involved in initiatives such as construction of a central kitchen facility in the district’s maintenance yard, a project funded by Measure G dollars.
“From traveling across the state, I truly believe we are one of the best districts,” she said.
The high school district forum featured four candidates–incumbents Rick Costanzo and Diane Gordon, newcomer Kalen Gallagher and retired teacher Linda Jopp Goytia–running for two positions on the board.
Costanzo, 65, is nearing the end of his first term on the board and currently serves as its president. Costanzo, who retired in 2006 after 30 years of service in the district as a teacher, coach, dean and principal, said the achievement gap and retaining teachers are among the most pressing issues facing the district.
“I’m not running a campaign,” he said. “I care about the kids, I believe in the teachers and I believe in the district.”
Gordon, a 51-year-old insurance professional, is running for her third term on the board. She said it is important to her that students have the same quality of education and opportunities that she had.
Maintaining a balanced budget and addressing the issue of bullying are areas she said she would focus on if re-elected. It is also important, she said, to continue providing quality adult education, tackling truancy and strengthening the district’s AVID program.
At 29, Gallagher is the youngest candidate. He touted his background in law–he graduated from the UC-Davis School of Law–and familiarity with the district as a graduate of Westmont High School, as well as his experience at an educational startup called ClassDojo and teaching at San Jose’s KIPP Heartwood Academy, as his strengths.
The biggest concerns in the district, said Gallagher, are low test scores and dropout rates. Both are symptoms, he said, of larger issues in the community.
“Many teachers I talk to feel that they don’t have a voice on the board. … I think that’s troubling,” he said. “We need to make sure they have everything they need to succeed.”
Some of his goals are modernizing the school district and implementing technology in the classroom.
Goytia, who retired in 2009 after 38 years of teaching a broad range of subjects in the school district, said she has been able to keep current with student needs. She said she’d like to see the district bring back summer school and enrichment programs.
“We have to create classrooms where students feel they can make a contribution. We can’t teach only what is tested,” the 64-year-old said.
All four candidates emphasized the importance of being visible in the community.
“Listening is a very strategic thing we need to know as board members,” said Costanzo. “There are many stakeholders, and you have to be there and listen to them.”
