Friday, September 22, 2006

Chron BOE candidate profiles

The Chron surveyed the BOE candidates in this article: Wide array of candidates vie for S.F. school board. I've taken the liberty of reformatting their candidate profiles and included it below. (And yes, I'm working on those questions. This weekend for sure!)

Joel Britton
Age:65
Occupation:retired industrial worker
Resides:Ingleside district
Joel Britton, a longtime member of the Socialist Workers Party, said he identifies with the working-class communities of San Francisco and believes children are "being trained to be obedient producers of wealth for people who run this country." He said he opposes the California High School Exit Exam. Britton has worked in oil refineries and a hog meat-packing plant.
James Calloway
Age:61
Occupation:retired educator
Resides:Bayview district
James Calloway was a teacher, counselor and principal in San Francisco before retiring in 1994. Calloway, now a substitute teacher, said he wants to focus on the achievement of African Americans lagging behind their peers and believes the district should use race to assign students to schools.
Bayard Fong
Age:52
Occupation:human rights compliance administrator
Resides:Bernal Heights
When Bayard Fong attended the first PTA meeting at Thurgood Marshall High School two years ago, there were 10 parents. This year, there were 72. Fong said that as a board member he wants to help spur similar involvement across the city to improve the schools.
Dan Kelly
Age:59
Occupation:pediatrician
Resides:Forest Hill
Dan Kelly has been a San Francisco school board member for 16 years. Kelly supports incorporating race back into the student assignment system to address increasing segregation and the achievement gap. He is also leading the charge to eliminate the district's JROTC program.
Omar Khalif
Age:44
Occupation:juvenile justice ombudsman/mediator
Resides:Bayview
Omar Khalif said he wants to boost teacher pay in underperforming schools to help balance resources while creating a student assignment system that should set aside 75 percent of each school's slots for neighborhood students.
Jane Kim
Age:29
Occupation:Youth education director
Resides:Richmond district
Jane Kim wants more discretionary funding from Sacramento and additional parcel tax revenue. She also believes it's important to maintain diversity in the schools, which she said would be difficult to do without including race in student assignments.
Kim Knox
Age:47
Occupation:Environmental educator
Resides:Richmond District
Kim Knox's top priority is to close the achievement gap. She also wants to increase after-school enrollment opportunities and boost salaries of district teachers and workers and market the schools to those currently attending private schools.
Kim-Shree Maufas
Age:43
Occupation:Policy analyst
Resides:Mission
Kim-Shree Maufas believes insufficient resources are the heart of the problems in urban education and she wants to help increase the district's funding. She would like to look for a new superintendent in nontraditional applicant pools such as nonprofit organizations or in higher education.
Hydra Mendoza
Age:41
Occupation:Mayor's education adviser
Resides:Bernal Heights
Hydra Mendoza believes it's important that parents have the choice of where they send their child to school in San Francisco, improving the quality of all the schools so the student assignment process "is no longer an issue."
Wilma Pang
Age:65
Occupation:College instructor
Resides:Chinatown
Wilma Pang, a singer and music teacher, is concerned about declining enrollment. The system "is bleeding," she said, adding that the Chinese community urged her to run. "I'm getting so popular in the community, like an idol."
Roger Schulke
Age:55
Occupation:Self-employed in finance
Resides:Lower Pacific Heights
Roger Schulke said he wants to stop the "unnatural assignment" of students away from their neighborhoods. "Do you know why they're doing busing?" he said. "To hide the failing schools?"
Bob Twomey
Age:41
Occupation:Labor liaison
Resides:Sunset
"The working conditions and the learning environment in San Francisco must be the finest," said Bob Twomey. He would also like to see race brought back into the student-assignment equation to address segregation. "I would think it has to be included as one of the elements."
Richard Van Loon
Age:58
Occupation:Food distributor
Resides:Sunset
Richard Van Loon believes the schools have problems: declining enrollment, financial problems and the fact that many of the district's graduates need remedial courses when they get to community college. He believes improvements can happen from the "bottom up" using the dream-school model and proven teaching methods.
Mauricio Vela
Age:46
Occupation:Community consultant
Resides:Bernal Heights
A perennial candidate, Mauricio Vela said he would focus his efforts on underperforming students. "I'm upset that not enough resources are going their way," he said, adding that he wants to bring parents into the process to help students who need it.
Boots Whitmer
Age:58
Occupation:Parent
Resides:Richmond
Boots Whitmer wants to see more vocational education in the schools, more money in classrooms and better oversight of the district's budget. The new superintendent, Whitmer said, should be someone with a strong financial and education background.
 

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1 Comments:

At Tue Sep 26, 12:30:00 AM, Anonymous Anonymous said...

"Mayor Gavin Newsom threw his support behind four candidates including Kelly, Mendoza, Twomey, and Omar Khalif."

Omar Khalif? WTF?!

 

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