As someone who has been active as a parent in the Morgan Hill
School District, Kathleen Sullivan said she has learned a lot about
how the district works and would like to take the next step.
As someone who has been active as a parent in the Morgan Hill School District, Kathleen Sullivan said she has learned a lot about how the district works and would like to take the next step.
Running for one of the three four-year terms in the November election, Sullivan said, is the next step for her because she has something to offer that the board needs.
“I believe I can bring a fresh perspective and balance to the school board,” she said. But what really contributed to her decision to run was the recent effort to recall the four senior board members, Board President George Panos, Trustees Jan Masuda and Del Foster and former trustee Tom Kinoshita, who resigned March 15.
“When we found out it (a special election to vote on the recall) was going to cost more than $300,000, and they (CARE, Community Alliance for Responsible Education, the group that initiated the recall effort) were still going through with what would be a political exercise, I was very worried,” said Sullivan. “The four trustees were going to be leaving, or there would be a vote if they decided to run again, and the voters would decide. I felt it was a small group of people spearheading this.”
Sullivan’s concern said, was that those who didn’t agree with the CARE point of view were not represented.
“I am really not sure they represent everybody,” she said. “If I ran it would really be a better balance for the community … I have worked with, on various committees, some of the people I know to be involved in CARE, and I respect them and their hard work. I just don’t believe they represent everyone.”
Although she may not agree with all of CARE’s concerns, she still sees areas where the district needs improvement.
“There is a perception out there that we are in horrible shape,” she said. “Communication is obviously a problem … And the board needs to have some direction, some goals, some plans.
“I don’t think we can keep doing it the way it has been, putting out fires. I’m hoping to make a difference. I don’t want to put out fires; I want to help propel this community to an excellent education opportunity.”
If the district is to rebuild community trust, Sullivan said, communication between the district, School Board and the community must be improved.
“As part of my work on the Ed Spec committee, we worked really hard coming up the new ideas on how the district can do this,” she said. “Most of the ideas concerned the board, and how to improve communication during meetings.
Right now, Sullivan said, the district needs to work on student achievement.
“We have four schools with over 800 API (academic performance index) and one under 700, but six of our schools lost growth this year,” she said. “Our dropout rate is way too high and we have too many students with more than two ‘F’s’ which puts them at risk for graduation. The good news is that over 84 percent passed their high school exit exam last year.”
Sullivan said as a mother of a special education student, it is important to her that every student in the district be challenged.
“That’s the person I’m the candidate for, the person who thinks not just the GATE kids need to be challenged,” she said. “My own son will quite possibly not be going to college; we’re keeping our options open now. But that’s the point, we always have to look for other options because not everybody is going to be a professional.
“I’m going to keep kids on an academic course as long I can, keep their full options open as long as I can. But I really worry with the lack of school counselors and school nurses, so many things cut to bone, there’s nobody out there looking out for kids way they should be.”
