10 Questions for Al and Al’s Answers
I was asked 10 questions by an organization called Parents United for MDUSD. I don’t know if these are the questions that you would want to ask, as they seem to imply that the status quo is fine and any non-insider might mess it up, but I do think these questions and answers are worth sharing with you.
QUESTION #1
As an Area trustee, you represent communities with differing religious, political, and personal beliefs, as well as voters with and without children in the public education system. How will you represent those varying beliefs and how will that guide your voting decisions?
AL — It would be nice if the trustees would respect and be sensitive to differing religious, political, and personal beliefs…but that’s not what’s happening now. I would suggest that the current sensitivity to differing religious, political, and personal beliefs is close to zero. Here’s just one case in point. We don’t have “Christmas Vacation”—instead we have “Winter Break.” Presumably, this is because we want to be sensitive to everyone who doesn’t celebrate Christmas. And yet at the same time the board happily votes to celebrate “Pride Month” and “LGBTQ History Month” (when our students are likely hazy about American and California history). Now, the number of people who are offended by Christmas are likely microscopic compared to those who are offended by schools celebrating “Pride Month.” You can label people who object as “bigots,” and “close-minded” or whatever, but don’t call yourself “open to diverse views.” We all know that isn’t true. This is supposed to be a “public” school district, and it’s supported by all taxpayers, so it should aspire to appeal to all people in the district, rather than advocating for any one political or cultural philosophy. Why would we possibly want to offend anyone? If I am on the Board, I would like us to avoid controversial topics that are tangential to actual education and find common ground where at least 90% of us can agree on some basic principles. Let’s cut the politics out.
QUESTION #2
How will you vote for resolutions and policies that may oppose your own personal beliefs but may be supported by the majority of your constituency?
AL — This question seems to contradict the premise of the first question. It suggests that rather than all constituents being represented, only the majority should be represented. It implies that the majority can vote according to their personal beliefs, but the minority must set their personal beliefs aside. Many people have very vague personal beliefs, and will just follow the crowd in every decision, but the unexamined life is not worth living, and everyone should consider why they are here on earth, and what their purpose is in life, and consequently aspire to form a solid set of personal beliefs that will not sway with every breath of wind. I take my personal beliefs seriously, as everyone should, and so I will never toss them aside. So, I guarantee you that I will vote “No” on any proposal that I consider immoral, illegal, foolish, or worthless. But, of course, the main function of being a “Trustee” is not centered on personal beliefs, but on judgment. I am not running for a “personal” reason, but to exercise good judgment on behalf of the community. I did not aspire to this position for personal gain—I was asked to run, and would not have run except that many parents and teachers encouraged me to be their representative on the school board. Based on the broad dissatisfaction with the current state of our schools, I suspect that even people I don’t know might prefer my judgment to that of the current incumbent.
QUESTION #3
How will you communicate and engage with your constituents - caretakers and students - in order to best represent them? Please include your current methods and any future methods should you become the Area trustee. What will be the best way for constituents to contact you once elected?
AL — I will have a website where I will regularly post school board updates, and I will have an email address where any concerned person can send me an email and I will certainly respond. I also like the idea of having an in-person “town hall” meeting every quarter or semester. I’ll be happy to communicate. If any concerned person writes me an email with complete sentences and no profanity, I will promise to respectfully reply in kind.
QUESTION #4
As a focus on “parents’ rights” and “back to basics” increases, how would this influence your voting choices, resolutions and programs relating to diversity, equity and inclusivity? What programs, resolutions, or curriculum should be removed or added?
AL — Of course, we never should have gotten away from “parents’ rights” or “basics” in the first place. Parents are our customers and we are supposed to educate their children on their behalf. The purpose of education is to guide our youth to be well-informed, productive citizens and community members. Public school is not a platform to promote political causes. If we fail to teach the basics, our schools serve no purpose. As a general matter, I am skeptical of Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion programs in the public school system. Each student is a precious, sacred individual, and they should be dealt with as individuals, not as members of a group. If a child has a problem, that’s an individual problem. All of our students will be part of our great country’s future and need to consider each other as teammates and not as enemies or “the other.”
QUESTION #5
Do you now, or in the past, have children in the public education system? If yes, how will that experience influence how you hold office and will there be any negative or positive bias that may impact your voting choices? If not, why do you believe you are in a position to represent a community that you have never been part of and has that lack of experience created a bias in how you perceive public education?
AL — Yes, my two children started out in MDUSD and switched to private school later, although one of my children did finish at a public high school (Clayton Valley Charter). I myself entirely attended public schools (San Ramon Valley USD) and have a Clear Teaching Credential where I did some of my student teaching in the MDUSD (College Park High School). Sometime after that I taught full-time at a private High School, and after that (in the spring of 2001) I was a long-term substitute at Concord High School. So, more than almost anyone, I knew first-hand the difference between a private high school and an MDUSD school. I can tell you that in a school where discipline is enforced a lot more learning happens. At a school where the authority figures are accepting of bad behavior, the unruly students feel emboldened and the school starts to drift into “Lord of the Flies” territory. In the past 25 years I have heard some positive things about various MDUSD teachers and the schools themselves, but most of what I’ve heard is negative. While my own experiences teaching in the district came many years ago, the recent discussions I’ve had with current parents and teachers have revealed that the current situation is even worse. One teacher told me that each Board Member should spend a day as a substitute in the District, and then they might understand what our schools are really like.
QUESTION #6
What do you think the job/role of an Area Trustee is? What will be your #1 goal if elected and how will you achieve this goal?
AL — A Trustee is a member of a Governing Board and is not a manager. The manager is the Superintendent. The Board oversees the Superintendent and can hire and fire Superintendents. A Trustee, therefore, is not a rubber stamp for whatever the Superintendent wants, but provides oversight over him. A Trustee also serves as a community liaison, participates in goal setting, approves the budget, deals with personnel issues, and approves curriculum. My sole purpose on the Board will be to improve the quality of education for all students, on behalf of their parents, and especially those parents who feel their concerns are never addressed. The MDUSD bureaucracy appears to exist in a bubble where everything is great and everything is moving forward wonderfully. But it’s not great. Year after year less than 50% of students can read at grade level and less than 40% of students can do math at grade level. This is a lingering crisis for our students, but what is done about it? Very little. And a few virtue-signaling proclamations are not going to move that needle. If elected, I will visit in-person all 12 schools in Area 4, and not for 10 minutes, but for at least a day, or longer, to find out what parents, teachers, and administrators think should be done to improve the school environment and the quality of education. Those people who are actually “in the trenches” know more than those who make lofty proclamations from the serene heights of the School Board.
QUESTION #7
As a community, we raise our concerns through public comments shared at school board meetings - written and verbal - as well as direct emails to the governing board. How do you intend to address these concerns?
AL — I plan to address these concerns promptly and respectfully. In my experience, only a limited subset of concerned parents actually can and do take the time to go to School Board Meetings, which is why I believe it’s important to have open email communication and “town halls,” as mentioned above, so that people have an outlet for their concerns. I sense that many people do not bother to attend School Board Meetings because they assume that the Board will summarily dismiss their concerns or express sympathy but take no action.
QUESTION #8
MDUSD has operated in a fiscal deficit for several years. How will you determine budget priorities when approving expenditures? Do you have areas of spending you already want to cut expenses for? If so, please be specific and state why.
AL — It is very concerning that the district has been operating in a fiscal deficit for so long, because eventually the reserves will run out and we will have a crisis, and at that time those who allowed it to happen will probably be long gone. So, it’s clear that several line items have to be removed, scaled back, or re-adjusted in some way. However, at this time I don’t want to get ahead of myself and make specific suggestions, because I would have to examine the situation very carefully and in detail before coming to any decision.
QUESTION #9
Parents have raised concerns about the limited support and communication for the MDUSD Spanish/English two-way and one-way immersion programs. This includes the recent changes to site locations without what some parents consider to be sufficient notice or community engagement. If elected, how will you prioritize and support dual immersion programs?
AL — While I don’t yet have any first-hand information about the inadequacies of these programs, it is clear that the test scores in the majority Hispanic schools in Area 4 are disturbingly low. Are our immersion programs suffering because of a lack of support, or a lack of effectiveness in our methods? If elected, this is something I will investigate fully. On the plus side for voters, I am completely open-minded about this matter and have no allegiance to what we currently do, or what we have done in the past. If we are doing poorly in this area, we cannot be content with that. Having an excellent and effective program should be our goal.
QUESTION #10
The school board is responsible for the governance of the LCAP, as well as setting goals for the superintendent to assess their performance. What changes would you make to the current LCAP and superintendent goals? Please include how those new goals would be achieved and measured and your reasoning for the change.
AL — For non-insiders reading this, the Local Control and Accountability Plan (LCAP) is a plan the state requires from each district to set goals and metrics in order to be funded. It’s very bureaucratic, and perhaps essentially useless in practical terms, as our metrics have barely moved since the pandemic, and it doesn’t seem there’s any accountability if you fail to meet the goals. So, I will focus this answer on funding and accountability. In our district, most students do not read or do math at grade level. This failure has nothing to with funding—it has to do with execution. Teaching is a hard job and not a great money-making scheme. You teach because you feel called to teach and want to help children and youth. If you take a poor teacher and pay him $4,000 more per year, he won’t miraculously become a good teacher. And if a person will try to do a good job only if he gets paid more, that person does not have the character to be a teacher. Currently, there is no accountability for poor teaching. I would propose that every teacher in a school that raises its test scores by more than 10% in a year should get a bonus. In this way, the good teachers will be motivated to help or apply pressure on the slackers and barely competent (and you know they’re out there). Peer pressure would be a great motivator, because, above all, our schools need to strive for excellence.