When he talks to people about running for the School Board,
candidate Mike Davenport said, people respond,
“Thank God, we need some bright people there.” He said it is
this response that affirms his decision to run.
When he talks to people about running for the School Board, candidate Mike Davenport said, people respond, “Thank God, we need some bright people there.” He said it is this response that affirms his decision to run.
The defining moment, he said, occurred during a School Board meeting.
“I just completed Leadership Morgan Hill, and during the training dedicated to local education, I was sitting through a board meeting,” he said. “I was very surprised at level of leadership and organization that I saw … I saw an opportunity to get involved.”
Davenport was not impressed by what he saw during the school board meeting.
“The word I would use is dysfunctional,” he said. “It was apparent even from an outsider’s view that it was broken.”
Another defining moment was the decision by he and his wife, Terri, to send their oldest daughter, Bryanna, to public school.
Bryanna is in kindergarten at Jackson Elementary.
“I knew I was willing to volunteer, to be involved in her education, wherever she went to school,” he said. “And the decision we made was that I would be very involved … I look at it as an opportunity to improve the district for my children.”
Although his background is in software rather than education, Davenport said he does have some knowledge of the education world through his experiences with the junior high kids at Blossom Valley Bible Church where he and his family attend services.
His years in the business world, he said, give him experience in setting goals and measuring them, something he thinks the district could use some help with.
“We really need to set some short-term, attainable goals,” he said. “Ideally, we should have three buckets of goals: those the board sets for the superintendent and administrators; the second is the goals for those at the school sites, the teachers and the principals, both short and long term; and the last is community goals, for our parents, local businesses, the community.”
But the biggest priority he sees, he said, is replacing Superintendent Carolyn McKennan, whose contract expires June 30.
“When I first met her, I was very impressed,” he said of McKennan. “She has a passion for education, she’s very classy. The big proof, of course, is in the results … I would not support an extension of her contract. In order for someone to be the head of a community education system, you need to have the support of the community.”
Other priorities for him, if he is elected, Davenport said, is “building team unity” on the board and “bringing pride back into our School District.”
“I remain appalled at the condition of Live Oak,” he said. “The first thing we need to do is instill the pride. Sobrato (High School) will look the same way in five years, if you don’t instill that pride.”
