What Are School Board Candidates’ Top Priorities

This week, the Santa Monica Democratic Club published the responses to their questionnaires for all four city elections: City Council. School Board, College Board, and Rent Control Board. In a random order determined by ChatGPT, here are the answers from four candidates for the Santa Monica-Malibu Unified School District to the question, “What are your top priorities for SMMUSD over the next four years?” 

Laurie Lieberman (Dem. Club Survey)

• Continuing and comprehensively addressing the use of AI/screens/technology in our schools, following a research-based, inclusive, collaborative process.

• Continuing to focus urgently on closing the achievement/opportunity gap by expanding programs and initiatives that engage all students and improving specialized programs, e.g., the District’s English Language Development (ELD) programs. This includes promoting culturally relevant and inquiry-based curriculum, implementing the social justice standards that our district has adopted along with the American cultures/ethnic studies requirement that we have adopted as well. Our goal is to ensure equity and excellence for ALL students, which involves finding ways to promote a love of learning. SMMUSD is a highly successful district but one of the most important challenges continues to be closing the achievement/opportunity gap and it remains a top priority for me.

• Creating cross-curricular opportunities to help students explore career paths and better prepare them either for college or jobs right after graduation, ensuring that they graduate with academic skills and the ability to think critically, collaborate and contribute positively to an increasingly complex world. At the high school level, our district has created “academies” in various fields that are designed to introduce career pathways while using cross-curricular tools. It is vital to recognize the speed with which the job and career market is changing; we must equip students with the versatility and ability to adapt to those changes as much as possible.

• Ensuring that the introduction of TK is successful and continuing to expand and improve preschools so that students are kindergarten-ready, while doing what we can to increase the availability of chidcare.

• Continue to support and monitor modernization of school facilities to ensure that SMMUSD has learning spaces and facilities that are safe and supportive of high-quality learning.

• Having been deeply involved in the effort to find a “fair and equitable” approach to “unification” (separation of SMMUSD into a Santa Monica School District and a MalibuSchool District, I plan to continue working to complete what we have started. Both the City of Malibu and the SMMUSD School Board have unanimously approved three agreements which will govern the unification, but pushing the unification across the line, whether through legislation or through the County Committee and the State Board of Education, remains our charge.

Stacy Rouse (Dem. Club Survey)

I want to serve on the school board for four primary reasons.

First, I want to continue to contribute to the vision-making and the decision-making for our district. Second, I would like to be a more direct part of decisions including the current move to change educational practices, budgetary practices, and focus and to bring improved methods of local representation, not just for Malibu, but across the district and on pressing matters including our English language learners, special education, and technology.

I continue to be committed to represent unheard or misheard voices within our district. I have seen some shifts in these areas in the last four years. At the same time, we are always adapting and learning to what our students need most so the work continues.

Third, I want to continue to be a representative specifically for Malibu schools and Malibu community as we forge ahead with a joint plan for Unification to create SMUSD and MUSD – both communities agree this is best for all students in both cities and are committed to finding a way forward. While I am not serving on the SM-MUSD subcommittee for unification, I strive to be a presence for both the district and city of Malibu subcommittee members and help provide feedback and perspective.

Fourth, I bring with me practices of healthy conflict engagement, strong collaboration skills, warmth and empathy, and good communication skills; these have been valuable in the work our Board carries out and I want to continue them.

Harry Leshner (Dem. Club Survey)

These priorities are specific and achievable within four years:

1. Improve the approach and processes around public engagement and transparency.
2. Adopt a resolution to ban plastic turf, pilot organic field management, and work with the city to develop more field space.
3. Adopt a district-wide policy around screen limits, including how these tools are used for instructional purposes.
4. Adopt a resolution to recognize that families come in all shapes and forms and prioritize affordable after care access for everyone who needs it.
5. Form a committee to investigate the best path forward to place term limits on this office; short of that I will use the position to recruit new candidates to run, building a culture of expected turn-over and competitive elections to give voters choice and hold office
   holders accountable to their constituents.

Alicia Mignano (Dem. Club Survey)

My top priorities for SMMUSD over the next four years are keeping student well being at the center of every decision, maintaining the staffing needed to support students, improving outcomes for multilingual learners, and expanding evidence-based interventions that help students succeed academically and emotionally.

This includes ensuring that students who need additional support, such as our Olympic High students, have access to the resources, programs, and caring adults that help them succeed. I also want to ensure the district remains fiscally stable while continuing to invest in strategies that improve student outcomes.

Robbie Staenberg (Dem. Club Survey)

● Ensuring engagement, collaboration, and transparency with our Santa Monica community
● Focusing on academic excellence for all students
● Decreasing the gap in outcomes between our students with the lowest and highest academic performance
● Bringing the discussion/study of the role of artificial intelligence in the classroom to the Board and the school community. We must ensure that our students are thinking critically and independently, and that they are as prepared as possible for an uncertain technological future.
● Championing sound, data-driven fiscal and educational policy

About The Author

Damien Newton

Damien is the executive director of the Southern California Streets Initiative which publishes Santa Monica Next, Streetsblog Los Angeles, Streetsblog San Francisco, Streetsblog California and Longbeachize.

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