Garden of Stone

    

     Memorial Day is a day of remembrance. I remember.
     I never go to Washington, D.C. that I don't stop by Arlington National Cemetery and the tombs of the unknown soldiers. I remember.
     I come from a military family. My father was a retired Army colonel. My grandfather was a retired rear admiral. My family has fought in every war ever waged by America. My mother used to tell me that I couldn't throw a stone at Arlington and not land close to a relative's grave site. I remember.
     However, when I am at our National Cemetery, the people I think about most are not there. They are not home, either. We don't know where they are because they are missing in action. But, they are not forgotten, because we remember.

     If elected to the Board, I will work with our other Board members to honor our Missing in Action (MIA) by approving the installation of the official MIA flag on the empty flagpole at the District Office. We will send a message to our young men and women who choose military service, should they become missing while defending our country, that we will never forget them. At the same time, we will honor the memory of those already missing and extend our prayers for their families. The dedication ceremony of that flagpole to our MIAs will remind us that some have paid the highest price for our freedoms. We will remember.

     The military training classes at Deer Valley High School and Sandra Day O'Connor help build leaders. I would like to see other such programs on the campus of our other high schools.
     I deplore those who, by word and action, demean the work these students do. Sometimes, in our eagerness to demolish the reputations of our elected board members, some of us think it's "cute" to make fun of the honorable actions of our JROTC students, such as their sabre salute to open a board meeting. It's a military tradition and deserves our respect. Using it as a ridicule of others was shameful.
     We should encourage that training for our students. Leadership will build our country, our state, and our school district to new heights.
     This Memorial Day, for those who gave all, let us remember.

Highly Qualified Candidates are Good for Students

(Shelley Rosas, a parent in DVUSD, used Twitter to ask about my relationship to Valley Schools and my opinion of Tom Boone and Valley Schools. My response is below.)    

     While I can understand the advantages of throwing mud through innuendos, most people know that I am only a part-time worker for Valley Schools and am not directly involved in any request from the Office of Attorney General. I only work a few hours per week for a small salary.

     I have spent nearly 20 years building a reputation in Deer Valley on the basis of my commitment to the students and voters in our district. I am proud of the things I have accomplished, including removal of the previous superintendent, restoring wood shop to DSMS, helping to protect the de-annexation of part of our district, opening superintendent committees to the public, helping to insure God is not closed out of our schools, and raising more than $450 million for our schools. I even contracted for the brick on the wall at the Anthem library that reads, "God Bless Our Deer Valley Schools." I am proud of the long heritage I have built with DV Support Our Schools along with the numerous other services to our district, such as the weeks I invested in writing a nomination for DVHS which won the first-ever K-12 Environmental Award from the Valley Forward Association (photo above). The award is proudly displayed in the lobby of Deer Valley High School.
     Over those years, I have been a working member of more than a dozen important committees, including the Calendar, Strategic Planning, and Bond/Override committees. I have done volunteer photography for our schools for many years. I attend a multitude of school events all over the district.
     As to Valley Schools, I have the highest respect for the irrefutable savings they bring to the member school districts. I have never talked to a single school district that was not aware of the money they saved by being part of VS. Those savings directly help our teachers and, thus, have a direct affect on our students' classrooms. I have witnessed the careful process that VS uses to protect member investments and assure insurance coverage for our school employees at significant savings to the worker and the district. I have seen how hard the Valley Schools administrators work in each area to help school districts protect their insured properties and workers.
     As to Tom Boone, I have known him since 2001. I know he committed his life to public service, first as a district administrator during some very difficult times in DVUSD and virtually helped keep the district together. Few people know how perilous those times in the 1990s really were for DV. After he retired, Tom became a legislator for the people in LD-4 where his peers elected him to be the House Majority Leader. Later, he wanted to do more to help the school district and became a board member. I have respected Tom Boone and his accomplishments with Deer Valley from the day I met him. His service in the Legislature was admirable. I don't think the issues surrounding his management of VSMG even hint any personal gain for him, while his efforts have benefited over twenty state school districts.
     Over the years, and long before I agreed to part-time employment with Valley Schools, I came to know Tom and his family well. That does not mean we always agree and have strongly debated many issues from opposite sides.
     The issues Shelley Rosas has raised are being reviewed and decided at levels way above my pay grade. If changes need to be made, I'm certain that Tom and his staff will make them. His growing organization has been good for our schools. Any required changes that may be made isn't going to change that.
     I already have a track record of speaking my own mind at pubic school meetings, sometimes to Tom Boone's consternation. But, he realizes that I have the best interests of our students in my heart and tolerates my critical remarks because of that. Most of the members of the board agree with each other on about 98% of everything that comes before the board. I expect that as a board member, I would be pretty close to fitting that mode.
     Many people know, due to my health, that I will not have another chance to serve our district. If you review my list of qualifications on this blog, you will notice that I have earned my claim to being highly qualified to run for the Governing Board. Some people don't like my assertive tactics, but they don't argue with the results. I hope to continue the trust with voters that I built over the past two decades helping our students, teachers and staff.

Losing Our Minds, Gifted Children Left Behind

    

     One of our gifted students just won the state finals of the Geography Bee. He is a student at Greenbrier Elementary, a school with several remarkable brains. But, that is true for most of our schools. According to experts, we have the right socio-economic climate to create a brain-trust of creative learners, at least at levels one through three. Of course, calling such students "gifted" creates its own problems.

     "In our egalitarian society, you have to be brave to describe your child as 'gifted' with its suggestion of elitism and status-chasing. Many people will tell you that all children are gifted, which is true, but not in the sense that the term is used in the field of education." - On Living by Learning

     The Deer Valley Unified School District claims to embrace "gifted education." We even have a gifted academy at Esperanza Elementary School. But, the embracing we give such learners is more like getting a hug from Vito Corleone. Look at the recent budget considerations for our gifted students.
     With the potential risk for deep budget cuts, some of the budget for gifted education was included in the various reduction plans forwarded to the Governing Board by the district administration. By the time the final budget proposals were presented for a vote of the board, gifted education had already been reduced by the superintendent. So, when taxpayers approved the increase in sales tax, the programs that might have been cut were salvaged. But, not gifted education.

     Why the cuts? Simple. It was a case of blame the students rather than the district. Seems that math scores for gifted students weren't any better than the scores for the normal classroom. I guess, it never entered the mind of the administration that maybe we had missed the mark on teaching math to our best students.

     We've lost something with that decision and we need to recover it. We don't want to lose our best minds.

Building Education for All Students

 

  We should face facts, not every student will be a scientist or a doctor or a lawyer. Some students will struggle with any academic directed career. I believe it's time to direct some of our excellent efforts in career and technical training to develop those students not headed to college for a jump on their careers. If we don't, we will send thousands of our students out into the minimum wage jobs of fast food restaurants and basic retail jobs.

   First, we should look at the career and technical education (CTE) we offer our students and ask why are most of them directed at careers and training that will require many years of college to finish. While we must be focused on college and university destinations for many of our students, we need to equally focus on those students who will either not attend schools of higher learning or never finish. It's one of the reasons that our taxpayers support West-MEC, our local overlay school district for CTE education.

   There is room in our schools to teach students some trades. I suggest that DVUSD strongly consider the options to provide training in plumbing, heating and air conditioning, welding, electrical, carpentry, and even heavy equipment operation. We have the facilities available to us, the trades need educated workers, and our students can go to work immediately after high school graduation.
   The advantages are many. First, we will keep students in school who might otherwise simply disappear and never graduate. Some of those students will be fascinated by learning for the first time in their academic experience and may go on to college to become architects or electrical or civil engineers. Most importantly, Deer Valley won't be sending those students out unprepared and ill-equipped to be productive members of our community.
   As a side benefit, we can train those future doctors, lawyers, and scientists how to fix a leaky faucet in their homes or do other minor household repairs through elective classes within the CTE program.

Deer Valley Deserves Our Very Best Efforts

     It is often easier to be critical than constructive. Fortunately, most of the citizens of Deer Valley are genuinely interested in doing what is best for our students, whether it be improving classroom instruction, adding technology, or insisting on changes.

     Those of you who know me, know that I have been a consistent voice in DV for change when things have not been right. Working with a group of other parents, we were able to stop misuse of public money and district resources by a former superintendent, eventually resulting in his administrative leave and departure from our district. Since, we have seen significant improvements in fiscal responsibility and student achievement.

       Since 2004, literally thousands of you, through direct membership or through your local school organizations, joined with Deer Valley Support Our Schools to promote citizen commitment for our schools. The results have been amazing, as voters time and again said "yes" to making better schools for our students. Parents, residents, support staff, administrators, and teachers all worked together through DV SOS to secure our children's future. I am humbled to have been the founder and chairman of such a worthwhile group in our school district and so proud of what you have all accomplished.

     DV SOS helped create support for the solar energy program in our district, improvements to our school buildings, acquisition of important capital equipment for the classrooms, salaries for our staff, new schools, maintenance programs, textbooks, computers, school buses, and much more. The people of Deer Valley have always done what is necessary to improve our schools.

     It is time for me to do more, to serve the students, voters, and staff of our schools from another position. So, I am running for the Governing Board. I will use this blog to outline my goals and objectives, while opening a dialogue with you, the Voices of our district.