Another heartfelt thank you goes to my fellow candidates who cared enough to run: Sharon Congdon, David Foltz, Jim McGowan, and Richard Weathersbee. The quality and quantity of candidates makes me proud of our Valley, and I hope each will still put their skills and experience to work for the benefit of our children. Congratulations are in order to Paul Zamoyta and Bev Grabe on their successful bids and with whom I look forward to serving along with continuing Board Members Ken Turney and Debra Sarkisian. Last but not least, I want to acknowledge the service of our departing School Board trustees, Phil Hamilton, Larry Poland, and Julann Warren. My own children’s extraordinary experience in our Schools is in no doubt due to the hard work of many caring individuals throughout our District, like them, who have come before me. As Superintendent Ferraud said, we have big shoes to fill. And I am grateful for that.

Please continue to let me know what about our schools is important to you.

1. I currently have children in our School District. My daughter and son started in Big Bear Elementary and now are at Big Bear High. As a parent, I have a current perspective and first-hand knowledge of the impact our schools make on children and their families.

2. I am not retired and I am not an ex-educator. All of the other candidates running are one or the other, and many are both. My background is in business, communications and technology, which gives me a breadth of real-world experience I think will be refreshing and helpful on a well-balanced School Board.

3. I am strong in technology. I’ve bought, taught, fixed, and made technology solutions for many different organizations for many years. I understand computers, and the important role they play in preparing our children for careers after graduation. My technology expertise will helpful to our District as we increase technology proficiency among our educators and students.

So we started building some smaller rocket kits and have worked our way up to our Tripoli Level 1 Certification, which we achieved at this month’s launch. We had to successfully build, load, launch, and recover our rocket with an “H” size engine. With this certification, we can now fly bigger engines in bigger rockets. This kind of amateur rocketry can eventually lead to scratch-built, cutting edge missiles like we saw at the BALLS 17 experimental launch in Northwestern Nevada over Fall Break. Probably an appropriate past-time for the budding astronaut in the family.

(Here’s some video of our 4″ Goblin ascending on an I-115 W.)

Easy - I have had an extraordinary experience in our School District with my children and I want to help make sure that same kind of inspiring experience continues to grow for other children and their families.

As a parent, it is quite something to pick up your teenage daughter after school and have her gush about what a great day she had, how much she loves her teachers, and how much she enjoys learning in school. And have that be a regular occurrence.

Or have your son, who flirted with Ds and Fs in Middle School, get inspired by a teacher who helps uncover a passion that propels him to As and Bs. And more importantly, have that inspiration change his focus from what trade he would consider after high school, to what college is best to pursue a career in astrophysics and a dream of traveling to Mars in 2030.

My family has been fortunate enough to have experienced these kind of life-altering experiences because of our Valley’s schools and teachers. I simply want to do my part to help make sure other families have the same or better experience. I appreciate your vote and support to help me do that.

Ryan Hall’s latest personal blog entry reminds me WHY he is a champion. Yes, he is probably gifted with physical attributes that makes him well-suited for running, but that alone cannot make him, or anyone, a successful athlete. Success relies on attitude. After his 10th place Beijing Olympic Marathon finish, Ryan doesn’t complain or blame, yet he is still honest about his feelings. He is grateful for what was, chooses to see the good, yet still presses on. He has the ATTITUDE of a Champion.

Read the words of a Champion - Ryan’s post-Olympic Marathon blog: http://www.thefinalsprint.com/2008/08/ryan-hall-post-olympic-blog-entry/

I bet most Americans would echo the cheers of Obama’s crowd and be in favor of increased accountability for our educators. After all it is our money, a huge chunk of our money, that goes to education. Half of the California State Budget goes to education. Over $50 billion each year, that’s billion with a “B”, in a State that would be the 7th largest country in the world if it stood alone. Education is a huge business in California with many dollars at stake. So with numbers like that, why wouldn’t we as taxpayers want more accountability?

In my efforts to serve our children and community as a prospective School Board member, I have been talking to a lot of people, many of which are educators. And I’ve heard rumblings and grumblings over current accountability issues, with some going so far as to say that the “emphasis on accountability and testing has taken the joy out of teaching.” Is that true? Perhaps we should hang on just a second when suggesting increased accountability.

Briefly, and without going into too much history, here’s my understanding of the looming accountability crisis. Yes, crisis, because it’s that big a deal. Prior to 1998, teachers in California schools had, within reason, free reign to teach however they wanted. A school district would adopt certain curriculum via published text book materials and teachers would follow those materials as they saw fit. Other than some inconsistent school and district-level efforts, there wasn’t any state-wide testing coordinated with universal academic standards to insure consistent student proficiency.

In 1998 California started moving towards state-wide testing and measuring of academic performance. Then in 2002 came No Child Left Behind (NCLB), a Federal education initiative with bi-partisan support who’s goal was to provide education accountability and proficiency by tying performance standards to Federal funding. Individual states were free to adopt standards, even define these standards for their own schools. But they had to put in measured accountability if they wanted to continue to receive the significant Federal money. Like other states, California set their own standards and participated in NCLB, which included certain penalties if a school or District did not meet State standards of student proficiency.

Today, academic proficiency of California schools is measured two ways: the API (Academic Performance Index) is the state measure, and the AYP (Adequate Yearly Progress) is the Federal NCLB measure. Both rely on input from the California Standards Tests that our children take each year. Perhaps you have noticed increased emphasis on these annual tests, and for good reason. The AYP has significant consequences for failure to make established targets.

It is important to understand that the “corrective action” required for low-performing schools can have significant impact on that school’s students, educators, and District. Corrective action redirects funds and resources in an already strained District budget. In moderate cases, districts can be forced to pay for extra tutoring and to bus students to other schools. In extreme and extended cases, whole schools can be dismantled. I’ve heard from those who have been associated with a low-performing school on probation (termed “Program Improvement”) that “you don’t want to go there.”

It is also important to know that this required student proficiency level, as defined by the State of California, increases each year. By about 11%. And that’s where the crisis comes in. Right now for 2008, required proficiency levels are around 35%. That may sound low, but that figure is a complex issue in itself and includes English Language Learners and Special Ed students, which can have a significant impact on test scores. Many schools now struggle with proficiency, and even more will next year when the required level goes up to about 47%. By 2014, 100% of all students are expected to be proficient in Math and English no matter who they are, where they are, or where they came from.

It is interesting to note that while our Bear Valley Schools overall continue to perform very well based on our Valley’s demographics, the current method of measuring proficiency is catching up to us. Two of our District schools may have failed to reach the required proficiency growth targets this year. If they miss the same targets 2 years in a row, they will go into Program Improvement.

So what’s a District to do? In my opinion (and more importantly in the opinion of experts who’s careers center around this very issue) you do everything possible to stay off of probation and out of Program Improvement. You do that by insuring the necessary level of student learning that in turn produces the necessary test results. But you also rely on your skilled educators to creatively keep the joy in teaching and learning while moving students towards required proficiency. And you encourage those responsible for setting education policy at the State and Federal level to revamp the current system of accountability as soon as possible.

Increasing teacher accountability may sound good to Senator Obama on the campaign trail, but we already suffer from an unrealistic accountability system. Different accountability could be good, but I don’t think we need more of the same. Thoughts? Please let me know below.

What a thrill last night to watch our own Ryan Hall run the Olympic Marathon in Beijing. Seeing him line up in China with the fastest marathoners in the world gave me chills. Ryan was considered a medal contender and the build-up, especially here in his hometown of Big Bear, was huge. While Ryan’s 10th place finish means he won’t be returning home with any extra hardware, his performance still is exceptional and points to an increasingly bright future. Remember, Ryan is only 25, his first Olympics was only his 4th marathon, and yet he already ranks among the running world’s elite.

It sure is nice when things go perfectly, and admittedly it would have been incredible last night if Ryan Hall had medalled in the Beijing Marathon. But in my experience, a perfect performance can be hard to come by, and the times that things go perfectly are in fact rare. And that is why they are so special. If perfect was commonplace, no one would care. Perfect, again? Ho, hum.

The thing about Ryan that resonated most with me from the very beginning was they way he dealt with challenges, setbacks and disappointment. It’s easy when things go well. It’s when things are tough that we really discover who we are and what we are made of. To me, it’s not Ryan’s accomplishments that are most impressive (even though they are pretty impressive), it’s what he endured on the way to those accomplishments that are most inspiring. I am curious to see what Ryan does with this latest gift of 10th place.

Last week at Big Bear High School’s Back To School Night, I was in my daughter’s AP US History classroom with her teacher, Mr. Hahn. He had a quote up on the wall that seems especially appropriate:

“Success is not final, failure is not fatal, it is the courage to go on that counts.”

Amen. Keep Running, Ryan.