It’s a crowded field with eight viable candidates running for a
seat on the Morgan Hill Unified School District board. But, four
stand above the others. Incumbents Don Moody and Shelle Thomas, and
first-time candidates Claudia Rossi and Ron Woolf.
It’s a crowded field with eight viable candidates running for a seat on the Morgan Hill Unified School District board. But, four stand above the others. Incumbents Don Moody and Shelle Thomas, and first-time candidates Claudia Rossi and Ron Woolf.
What the two incumbents and two newcomers will bring to the board should provide a broad perspective of ideas and help move the district forward as it struggles to close annual budget deficits. These four have said the opportunity to work with new Superintendent Dr. Wes Smith played into their decision to run, but the new board needs to also examine Smith and his staff’s ideas. They’ll need to provide oversight to the schools that are in Program Improvement – and the district, which is year two of PI.
Don Moody is a quiet but thoughtful force on the school board. Never flashy, always thorough, he knows the budget and will provide wise guidance on how to deal with the continuing deficits the district faces. His experience – he’s served six years and has sat on several school site councils – and demeanor are sorely needed by the district as it navigates these difficult fiscal times.
Shelle Thomas has a backbone. She was a critic of the previous superintendent, despite the risks to her personally and even though she was in a minority on the board. Properly, her first loyalty is to the students of the district, not to the system or to staff. She understands that many of the problems facing the school district – personnel issues, negotiation with labor, the Cinco de Mayo controversy – boil down to one word: respect. This doesn’t translate into becoming a doormat – witness her justifiable and correct criticism of the previous superintendent – but to advocacy of policies and implementation that are respectful of all district stakeholders.
Newcomer Claudia Rossi is a passionate parent of two elementary-school-aged children who has volunteered extensively in the classroom. A native Colombian, Rossi understands the struggles of English-language learners and has practical, inexpensive-to-implement ideas for helping them succeed that she’s been a part of in other communities. Rossi also is the parent of a special needs child and can serve as their voice on the board. Currently, there are no minorities on the board. To that point, Rossi said it’s something that would be helpful in communicating with the district population, which includes a large group of parents whose first language is not English.
Finally, Ron Woolf is an experienced educator who has worked as a classroom teacher and principal. He knows how school districts operate. He will provide valuable insight to school board deliberations about how policies and decisions under consideration will really affect classrooms. Like Moody, he’s not flashy, but he’s done his homework on the budget and district operations.
The other four each have strengths, but the depth of this year’s field found them on the outside looking in.
Bart Fisher is a good-hearted incumbent who we’re not recommending in part because of the depth of this year’s field, and in part because we’re concerned that he took too long to fully grasp the serious problems with the previous superintendent. With a young daughter about to enter kindergarten, we’re confident his heart is in the right place when he says he wants to bring learning to the child, not just teach children.
Kirsten Carr has a public policy background that would serve her well on the board. Perhaps with more study of the budget and more time volunteering in the district, she might earn our endorsement in 2012. We applaud her decision, however, not to campaign at back-to-school nights – she rightly notes that those events are about students, parents and their schools, not about candidates – and we hope that becomes the standard operating procedure for MHUSD trustee candidates in the future.
Armando Benavides is involved in the district through his extensive volunteer work with the Coalition of Education Achievement Defense or Co-LEAD. However, he advocates a 5- to 10-percent across-the-board cut which we find to be an easy way out that avoids difficult decisions.
Brenda Cayme also needs more understanding about issues facing the district and a more thoughtful approach to solving them. During her interview with the editorial board, she could not provide specifics on where she would make cuts that we know will be required as the district faces multiple years of multiple-million-dollar budget deficits.
