School Facilities

• Follow through on Measure T commitments for teacher housing and school site improvements
  • On time, on budget.
  • Appropriate Board oversight and strategies to manage project cost and quality.
  • Continually working with our school communities and neighborhoods to communicate plans and get feedback.
• Ensure MVWSD works with city and high school district leaders to develop a long-term strategic plan for Mountain View school facilities:
  • Locations for new middle and high school campuses.
  • Improved resource sharing.
  • Right-sized for post-COVID realities of Mountain View population growth and school enrollment.
• Explore expansion of MVWSD facility use by the broader Mountain View community
  • Middle school auditoriums.
  • Underutilized field space.
  • Safe, modern play structures.
• Ensure solid maintenance and upkeep of facilities and surrounding school property.  Facility quality should be a source of pride for the community, and an inspiration for arriving students.

Academics

• Continue MVWSD's pursuit of developing well-rounded students who are ready for high school and the world ahead:
  • Strong socio-emotional learning focus.
  • STEAM programming.
  • Raise the bar on expectations for academic rigor and reinforcement.  Students do not need a mountain of homework, but more than today.
  • Close the writing expectations gap that exists between MVWSD 8th grade and MVLA 9th grade.
• Close the achievement gap with a comprehensive approach that puts socio-economically disadvantaged students on a faster track to success:
  • Ensure equity with respect to elective assignments and academic tracks.
  • Expand Pre-K programs to equip preschool-age children with essential skills and emotional development.
  • Expand community outreach resources at schools with high S.E.D. populations.
  • Build on lessons learned during COVID-19 by continuing to address Internet access and technology issues which disproportionately impact S.E.D. students.
  • Support diversity and unconscious bias training for all staff and parent volunteers.
• Charter district leadership, teachers, and families to develop a long-term strategy to recover from the impacts of COVID-19 on our students.
• Review distance learning practices and capabilities vs. the short-term needs driven by the coronavirus pandemic, and longer-term opportunities where distance learning can satisfy a clear community need.
• Ensure we review and fund our long-term Learning Management System (LMS) needs, so that we can utilize all the benefits of today's LMS technology for improving academic outcomes.

Teachers & Staff

• Continue to elevate teaching as a profession essential to the success of our community through increased compensation and benefits.
• Scrutinize the MVWSD budget​ for all opportunities to reduce operational spending: utilities, professional services, consulting, etc.  Redirect savings towards improving teacher recruiting and retention.
• Make sure our teachers have the bandwidth needed to address specific student needs and execute their academic mission: support class size reduction and course load reduction where it will have the most positive impact on teacher job satisfaction and student success.
• Increase the average tenure of MVWSD principals by at least one year & reduce the number of early exits; ensure a learning culture is in place with respect to hiring and retaining our school leadership.
• Strengthen local leadership at our elementary and middle schools.

Communications

• Ensure District leadership is continuing to raise the bar on quality, quantity, and form of school communications, to ensure we meet every family with the information they need, when they need it.
• Continually review opportunities to leverage new technology, and ensure we are funding the required technical training and infrastructure needed for the task.
• Maximize transparency of Board discussions and deliberations to the maximum extent of what the law allows, while protecting individuals' privacy and the negotiating position of the District.
• Support proactive strategic discussions and benchmark data reviews as tools for facilitating public input on contentious areas such as compensation or performance management.
• Collaborate with local and online media to improve the public reporting of what's going on at our schools - both our successes and challenges.
• Make Board meetings more accessible to the public by supporting finely-tuned agendas that do not require the public to stay up late in order to participate.

MVWSD Culture

• Expect our district to role model the highest standards of ethics.  As an example, I will recuse myself from any Board decisions on product purchases where my employer is directly competing for business, or contracts involving customers/suppliers of my employer.
• Ensure all staff are trained in diversity and inclusion best practices; review District practices to ensure equal pay is upheld as a principal regardless of gender, race, or position in the District.
• Review anti-bullying programs and disciplinary practices to ensure quality, consistency, and freedom from racial bias.
• Role-model a collaborative spirit that brings our diverse community together to find common ground.

The Environment

• Ensure District policies and plans are driving towards reducing the carbon footprint of MVWSD.
• Continue support of the annual 8th grade Yosemite trip as a crucial environmental learning opportunity (and personal growth opportunity) for our students.

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Special Needs

• Ensure the District is ready to solve problems and create the right opportunities for student success, across the very diverse set of needs that our students have.
• Periodically review District performance to legal requirements and standards, including timely processing of IEPs and other plans.
• Our special needs students are part of the diversity that makes MVWSD great.  Let's keep recognizing this.

Performing Arts and Sports

• Ensure equity across middle schools: similar arts and sports programs available at both schools.
• Review the needs of high school performing arts programs, and their growth goals, to ensure MVWSD is developing the right quality and quantity of students to feed the MVLA high school programs.
• Ensure any gaps in District support of music program equipment and supplies, including sheet music, instrument needs, and auditorium ease-of-use are closed.
• Continue to support team and ensemble travel as a critical part of the student experience.
• Celebrate the accomplishments of our school teams and clubs.  Recognize team championships at Board meetings.  Also, chess is a sport!  :)