 Good evening. This is what's going on. I'm John Lee. Our guest this evening is Barbara. I'm sure a member of the Davis School Board of Trustees Barbara, I want to thank you for being on our show. Thank you for having me for sure pleased to be here for sure so We're gonna talk about the school board and Davis politics and how it all fits together and you're in the middle of it So why don't you just start out with an overview of the school board politics? Sure. Well, I'm a relatively new member of the school board. I was elected in November 2014 So I've been on the board for 18 months. I was sworn in December 2014. I love it. I love my service on the school board It's you know, big commitment We meet every other Thursday for many hours sometimes more than others and we go to a lot of community events as a matter of fact last week We were part of four Graduations in town and I have another graduation tomorrow night We have the Davis High graduation Divincy Charter Academy Davis School for Independent Study King High and then tomorrow night the Davis Adult School And so I wrote five different speeches for five different graduations and was happy to do it Doesn't bother me. Well When you said you go visit other places, that's your home town. I mean, that's that's your home turf That's that's the victories. That's that's the success of the whole program is giving a good graduation It is it's one of the happiest times of the year to and you know And we haven't really had a huge part in graduate these kids It's really the teachers who have done the work and the students and the families who have done the work But it is a real nice Cap to the year to see these students going into the world whatever they might be doing whether they're going on to their careers or to college the happiness of that night is really contagious and It's just you know, really great to see these young people growing up and having You know, hopefully gotten a lot out of Davis schools. I Know people that went to you see that think that Davis High was harder. I have heard that too actually so I've also heard that there's a lower third and a middle third in Davis just like there is every place else and People have to succeed in school. It doesn't happen automatically. It's hard work. Yeah, that's true. I think that We like to you know, talk about the kids who take all the AP classes and who you know get into MIT But we do have a lot of different types of students As evidenced by all those programs that I just referenced We really need a path for everyone a fit for everyone And I think that's an area where we can do better is helping Kids on all different paths thrive and not just the traditionally good student So the big headline news is you just hired a new superintendent So why don't you talk about here and then talk about the relationship between the superintendent and the board? Wonderful. So yes, we just hired Dr. John Bose as our new superintendent. He starts July 1st All five of the trustees are thrilled with his hiring he the process was we did use a search form at firm for the for the superintendent search because we in DJUSD are not equipped to do an executive search of that magnitude and The search firm was one that was really Steeped in education. It's run by a number of former superintendents It was the search firm that we used When we did the search for our previous superintendent James Hammond. They did a great job. They did a Wonderful job getting us all the information we needed to make a good decision and Dr. Bose just hit it out of the park. He wowed us in the first interview. He wowed us in the second interview and We couldn't be more thrilled that he's coming on board. He has a classroom teaching background. He's bilingual he Has had administrative experience in a large district and a smaller district His district. He's coming from right now is a bit like Davis a little wealthier than Davis. It's Rancho Palos Verdes in Southern, California So I think that he will be a great fit for Davis both from his Educational philosophy and his personal philosophy. I think you know, he talked to us about What he wants to do with technology once what he wants to do with education and the fact that we and Davis have great schools But we can be even better and and we believe that I believe I think we do as a board that you know We don't want to rest on our laurels. We want to be even better Than we are now. Well, you've got new kids coming every September August sure do you got to start over? And it's a whole new year and you've got a whole new set of challenges Yeah, no, you're right about that each year brings its own set of challenges and I think that That's another reason why I believe our new superintendent will be very successful and Davis He seems to me to be very proactive a forward thinker a strategic thinker an educational leader And I think he can handle Whatever might come along So talk about the relationship between the superintendent and the board Yeah, it's a very interesting relationship People assume that we're the boss of the district, which is not true at all We are policy makers the one employee who reports to us as a superintendent but We have to be very careful as board members not to Get into the weeds, you know, we don't talk about the broken fence at the school That's that's not our role. It's not that we don't care about it It's just that we are supposed to take a 40,000 foot view and talk about What we want our district to be overall what policies can help make our district the best and so our superintendent is really our link to policies procedures and culture in our district and so typically Each trustee will meet with a superintendent once per week and The board president who this year is Madhavi Sunder next year. Usually the vice president becomes the president We just take turns. It's not the top vote getter. It's we just take turns on the school board and so the the board president will meet with the superintendent to set the agenda for the meeting and really though the The superintendent, you know is the educational leader of our district the buck stops with him or her and so That's you know, that's our you know relationship in a nutshell so I Never really got to talk to Wilford the most recent. Oh, yeah, but I got to be really good friends with James Hammond Yes, and and James Hammond had a major impact on our community. Yes, he did I I worked with Dr. Hammond on the superintendent's parents advisory committee I was PTA president at that time and worked with him closely. I thought he was a great superintendent Now, you know, he is the highest-paid superintendent in the state of California. I don't know if you knew that So he's he's moved to a much larger district than Davis Winford Roberson was a very able kind Man, he was with us for six years. I don't know if you know this I know a little the the average superintendency in the state of California is about three years So people jump in this industry and so, you know, we would we would love someone who could stay with us for as long as possible and And Winford stayed with us for six years like I say so Dr. Bose has a four-year contract and we hope that he'll get an extension that he will get an extension Stay with us as long as possible Well, we had Bob Trigg is our Superintendent for a year and then Elk Grove stole him and they added four new schools and a new high school every year for Like the 20 years after that and then he became the head of the state school board So we've had some great superintendents Sometimes it doesn't work out, but sometimes it's fabulous and that's what Davis is is that we attract people and you have the Responsibility of holding them accountable. Yeah, exactly. You know, the board does an evaluation each year for the superintendent we work closely with that person and You know, it's people joke that the it's a hard to be a superintendent because you have a five-headed boss And so I think Winford was successful in making us all feel like we were all heard And he did not play favorites and I think that is real key to a successful relationship between a superintendent and a board lots of humor Lots of you know, Frank conversation. Those are all really important qualities to have in a relationship between board and superintendent So how'd you get involved in school politics and tell us about your kids because I think that's part of school. Yeah, so Education became my passion issue in Maybe a weird way. I don't know. Maybe maybe a lot of parents Pick education as their passion issue once they have kids in school But I remember before I had kids I read an article in the San Francisco Chronicle about two side-by-side districts one in Oakland and one in Piedmont and Piedmont School had all the money in the world because of fundraising and they had a new science lab And they allowed their PTA to fund positions and three miles down the road This school in Oakland was falling apart. They had no money raised. They had no science labs They had peeling paint and I said what is going on in the state of California? I mean, I knew what was going on having lived in California Since prop 13 had passed having been a student in California since the sixth grade but I read that article and it It really started me thinking about how do we fund education? But I was younger at the time didn't have children when my children Started going to school. I started realizing wow, you know, they need the parents to pay for the clinics and they need the parents to pay for pencils and markers and field trips and They really are having a tough time and so that's when I started getting involved in PTA And so I have three children. I have a junior in high school a son He goes to Davis High and I have twins a boy and a girl who are 14 and they will Be well, they will be ninth graders at Emerson and I should say that my High school son. He'll be a senior. So he was a junior this last year. So when the school year starts have a senior and two freshmen Graduation was last week. I know you have a senior and two freshmen, right? They aren't in last year. They're in there in next year That's right. Congratulations. Yes. Thank you another one So So when my first child entered kindergarten, I started volunteering in the classroom I started seeing firsthand the challenges that the teachers faced and at that point We were actually at a really small class size. My oldest son's class size was 22 to 1 But of course that went by the wayside when we when we hit the recession and so I continued to volunteer in classrooms. I I Working with different teachers taught me a lot taught me a lot about classroom management taught me a lot about parenting to be honest See because they're experts there, you know, I I think every parent has you know, their Test cases or their, you know sample set of two three one kid and but teachers I know have had hundred and twenty there in hundreds thousands, you know of children over their career So I I really observed them keenly when I was in the classroom So I became PTA president at the school and the PTA president is you know, you're running a 501c3 Most of the PTA's tax exempt non-profit ordinance. Yes, you are so you're you're Responsible for those rules you're responsible for PTA rules You're you know responsible for between 30 and $50,000 in terms of a budget You're also responsible for talking to parents about what their needs are what their concerns are So it was really good training for being a board member and then after that I was on the school site council at Willard elementary each school site gets a very small amount of money From the state through the district To administer and to you know pay for things on campus And so that was another interesting assignment for two years. That was an elective position and then in 2012 I co-chaired the parcel tax Because I knew a lot about school funding I knew what we were facing and I ran a full-out campaign With my friend Laurie Duesenberg who's now the president of Davis schools foundation for the measure C Campaign it was successful. We passed that with 73 percent of the vote And so when it came time to think about running for school board even as outgoing as I am I was Humbled I was boy. I I didn't know if I had the the courage to do it Because you really you put a lot of yourself out there especially in Davis, I mean we're a very engaged community and you better be able to Hold your own in this community if you decide to put yourself out there in a public way So I thought about it for a long while and I decided if I didn't do it I would regret it because I had at that point ten years of Volunteer leadership experience in the district. I knew a lot about how the district ran I knew a lot about how the district was financed and I thought that it would be irresponsible Not to run given the knowledge that I had and also I thought that my skill set Lent itself well to being an elected official because I'm not shy as you noticed and I like talking to people. I like hearing their stories. I like helping people So how has it turned out compared to what you expected? Well, it's interesting. I think that I Knew the time commitment if anyone knew or had their eyes wide open It was me because I'd gone to board meetings for many many years I had friends who were board members and I knew that they had a tremendous time commitment and But just like anything else you'd never know until you're really in it and so I think that You know the the when you're living through the time commitment. Yeah, it's it's a lot It's a big commitment. I mean, I'm I'm totally up for it and I really you know enjoy serving in this way I think that I was a little bit surprised about how the Community can engage you. I probably shouldn't have been And and you get all coming on the other side. Well, you get all comments I mean you get very positive comments. You get very negative comments. You get very personal comments and so, you know, you have to have a pretty thick skin and so I've been developing that I'm probably not all the way there yet, but You know, I'm trying to do the best job I can for students. You don't want to get all thick skin No, you got to have a little heart. Yeah. Yeah. Well, the heart's there but being able to get to it That I mean you want to be able to open you. You know what I'm saying. You understand I can access it pretty well. Yeah. You know, so How are your kids doing in school, they're doing fine, they're doing fine I think a loaded question. It's well, it's you know, it's a little weird for them, you know having their mom on school board I think I try to really keep what I do very separate from what they do. I mean my parent hat is different than my School board hat, but even though my kids actually have different last name than me everybody knows that I'm their mom and So, you know, I'm very cautious about my You know interactions with my kids schools. I don't want any misinterpretations And you know, they're old enough now and this is part of the reason I waited to run I thought about running prior But I wanted to wait until they were self-sufficient enough to be doing their thing and at 17 and 14 They can fight a lot of their own battles. They're responsible enough to do their own thing And that's that's the way that it should be And you know, I don't have a problem, you know, if there ever were to you know to be an issue I'm sure I could approach it in a respectful way But you know, we need to be cautious about how We work with administrators and teachers at all times So there's some real good reasons why she was so articulated in that and her name's Nancy Peterson We had a problem with the school board member who confused those two things. Yes. Yes And she had to resign from the board and it was a very controversial thing. I'm sorry. No, it was You know, I think that was a very unfortunate situation, but it was also Kind of a reminder to those of us who came after about how you need to act right as an elected official as a parent who has children in the schools and so I think we all Realize how it needs to go. Well in in the city. It's weird because it's property If if you own property, then you can't make a decision that affects the area around that property But within the school board the property the thing that matters are your kids. Oh, sure. And so when you call a teacher Do you go this is Barbara Archer? And she goes oh the school board member You don't say the school board member because she knows but Right. So yeah, you've got to be careful I mean, I I still feel like I can advocate for my children, but you have to do it in a respectful Way that talks about them not about you well what they need because you know, that's what the teachers want Or all kids hopefully they want to be able to do their best job for each student And so it's just all how you approach it. Hopefully you're so successful at doubt that when it's your kid That's on the line your role model For how other parents can be effective in being successful with their kid Of course, they would never know because it's all done in private. Well, but but that is the point I mean then part of what you do to advocate for your kid is just have the teacher hear your point of view Yeah, and the way I look at it is we're partners in education. We really are I mean I've before I ran I remember, you know a teacher asking me. Hey, can you come back in a little bit? I need a little bit more support with your student Or you know, I might need some help like hey, you know, what do you think about this? And so that's the way I look at it I look at it as a partnership whether I'm a school board member or not sure but like I say I'm always cautious But again, I think it's because you're successful that you're a role model for other parents And how to be effective in being advocates for their child I hope so and that you're modeling that when you're up there on the board. Oh, yeah. Yeah, I mean, you know Being in public life You know, I mean, it's not like we're celebrities or anything, but we you know, we are you know out there at all times I mean my kids will joke when we We go into the nugget parking lot. They're like, all right get ready And you know, they're fine with it, but you know, a lot of people want to engage you and they want to talk to you And and that's part of the deal, but celebrity is having the image without those substance You have the substance and the responsibility for the image Oh, yeah, I mean I I do look on it as as a great responsibility because You know, if if you're not respected in your community and you're you are you know Acting, you know, silly or using your position in a strange way You can't be an effective policymaker. I mean, it's just done at that point So um to preserve your ability to be an effective policymaker Oh, first of all, I think you just need to have respect for the office and and really love what you do and Then maybe a lot of um, it just comes from that But yeah, you you just have to Make sure that you're um, you know cautious and thoughtful and intentional in your actions At the risk of being subtle we have a presidential nominee you subtle We have a presidential nominee who doesn't understand what you just said. That's true. I was subtle Yeah, that's pretty subtle. Yeah, they will look back on this in the historical archives and they may not know who you mean Yeah, well, I Good luck. Hillary. I mean, I trump is going to do a lot to abuse whatever that Responsibility is that goes with being in an elected office or even being a nominee Yeah, where the the country is going is going through a major earthquake because of that Yeah, I think so. I mean I I watched the news or you know, listen to the Radio or go online every day just to hear what said Well, the chinese say may you live an interesting time. So we do So let's talk about what you do during the day. What's your day job? So my day job is i'm the public relations manager for farm fresh to you, which is Csa community supported agriculture business and produce delivery service so we um our company delivers produce to homes throughout the state of california And it started as a smaller company But now as I say delivers to thousands of homes throughout the state. So my job is to Basically get good press for this wonderful company that I work for and it's not hard to do. I'll tell you I I have an easy job. I have a great spokesperson. I work with in the owner of the company. He's a natural Media savvy person even having grown up on a farm. It's just he's natural at it And it's a great story. It's a family business It is you know about healthy eating. It's about Sustainable agriculture. It's about sustainable communities. So I will Have worked there six years in august As long as I've worked anywhere. I'm a jumper normally get bored jump, you know Off to doing something else. I've been in pr my entire career I started in book publishing. I worked for harbour and row which became harbour collins publishers I worked in high tech in a number of capacities And then I took a five-year hiatus from work Because my older son was two when the twins were born. So I needed to get my sea legs after having three children in two years And plus the childcare Money alone would have killed me So when the twins went to preschool, I went back to work And I did Some editorial work at uc davis for a short time and then I started working for farm fresh to you And that office is located in west sacramento And uh, it's a wonderful job. I I love going to work every day So I don't have a way to ask this as a question. So I'll just say it The farm fresh for you is part of the k-pay organics. Yeah, we have two brands. So I'm I'm in charge of Telling two brand stories k-pay organic is the name of the farm. It's celebrating its 40th anniversary this year It started as a farm to start the davis farmers market And that's that's the kind of the funny part about how the farm started the the farm The company right now is owned by three brothers and john knows the story, but I'll repeat it Please that's what I tried to get you to do so but it was founded by martin barns and cathleen barsotti in 1976 martin was a community development student at uc davis and he wanted to change the food system and Had this idea to start a farmers market with some other farm You know knowledgeable families And then he thought oh no What if nobody comes? So I better grow something and so that's how the k-pay organic brand started and today 40 years later k-pay organic has Sales stalls at you know farmers market stands at 16 farmers markets in northern california We sell to restaurants wholesalers. So you'll see you know Our product in everywhere from Whole Foods to Mulvaney's to Grange To a you know nice restaurant in san francisco to buy right in san francisco So that's the k-pay organic brand And then farm fresh to you is the home delivery brand That delivers right to your doorstep, which is a different csa model than many But cathleen started the brand like that from the beginning She really wanted to make it easy And she thought you know a way to change the food system make it as easy as possible give them as much Choice as possible because everyone's trained that we go to the grocery store for food A lot of people a lot of kids think that's where food comes from is the grocery store And then they come to our farm and go oh, I didn't realize this is how food was grown So we do a lot of outreach to young people. We uh have farm tours for students We have festivals at our farm. We Uh host monthly farm tours Because we want to get people out to the land that grows their food. So It's it's really great. I I like working in food and egg Much more than hawking hard drives In high tech somehow high tech is not very sustainable No, no, it's not sustainable or it's not. Yeah, it's kind of boring I mean, you know, I mean i'm thinking about this one media tour I did years ago for this kind of set top box that was You know a hard drive and all is an all-in-one hard drive and server And it was just the most boring media tour ever But you know, I went on it and I did it and and whatever and but now I mean we're I am talking every day about something that can change people's lives I'm talking about something that can Change their community by conserving natural resources by not using pesticides. I'm talking About something that can change their health And so, you know, it really makes Us all I mean, I'm not alone in this all my co-workers feel this way that we Are working for the betterment of society. I mean it sounds corny, but that's how we feel Well, I just have to be sentimental for one minute here. I spent one night on the farm It's up in the k-pay valley. It was 33 years ago. It was right the day I changed my name So martin barns was the first person I told that I changed my name. Oh, what do you know back up in the k-pay valley? So Can you go visit the farm? Oh, yeah, I was just there yesterday as a matter of fact Um, I had a really great day. This is an example. So you're you're an employee Can can somebody from the public come in visit the farm? Well, um Yes and no so you can make an appointment for a tour But mostly the way people come visit the farm is they come to our our festivals So we have the three big festivals. We have k-pay tomato k-pay in july We have k-pay crush in september and we have synco to mayo and may We have march april august and october farm tours. So we have all those opportunities We have the school tours too And then also if you know me then you can make an appointment with me and come out there So if they want to visit the farm they can look at the website and they can see the event calendar And we encourage them to come out. It's a really fun day for the whole family So either k-pay organic or farm. We have two websites k-payorganic.com and farm fresh to you.com. Yes So, oh, yeah, so my day on the farm yesterday We like giving back at our company and so I have Had the pleasure of working with a teacher in the washington unified school district, which is west sacramento She is starting an ag program there. She's going to teach ag bio. She's going to teach Of course, she's calling farm to fork She's going to start the ffa program there future farmers of america And they also have a new 20 million dollar culinary facility in west sacramento that they constructed through a bond And so instead of you know, I mean they still have auto shop for career technical ed or wood shop But they also have a culinary track right for students who want to be trained as chefs and then go into the work world So it's really a signature accomplishment in our region So she called me up and says listen. I I want to I want to make sure i'm telling my students Um, you know what the reality is out there the truth. Yeah, and and that you know They think of ag as someone who rides a tractor So we spent all day together on the farm yesterday. She was meeting everybody who Basically does you know all the different jobs that are done on the farm And then we spent today in west sacramento with our marketing group our it group With our procurement group and then tomorrow She's going to come and we're going to go in our packing warehouse and she's going to spend also time with our customer service because she wants to go back to her students and say Hey, these are all the opportunities that are available for you. Here are some of the skills that you need To get a job in today's workforce And so it's it's been a really inspirational thing, you know getting to know her and hopefully contributing To students knowledge. So I'm allowed to take three days out of my week to do that And to me that's a big deal that they would say, yeah, this is worthwhile This is the one way that we can give back, you know to our local area Because you've integrated The you've vertically integrated the food supply system from the planting all the way To the fork, right? You have the ability to identify each of the job roles as they relate to the track that the food goes through From beginning to end well and as always, you know when you Do an exercise like that with someone you end up learning a lot too I mean I've been with this company for six years and yesterday I learned stuff at the farm I didn't know that's going to help me do my job better Because my co-workers out there told me some things they hadn't had the opportunity to tell me So it was a really great day. Well, and it wasn't that hot your job Well, it wasn't that hot and it was june. I mean that's unusual. I know You're in the position of articulating what they learn You're you're the person that's the mouthpiece for the the better you can do of explaining who they are and what they do The more effective you can be and they can be Yeah, yeah, so, you know, I can't wait to You know work with this school district ongoing Uh, you know as the years go by is there program develops and who knows maybe we'll have some graduates from that program come Well, absolutely. Absolutely makes sense. I mean internships and yeah, you can figure out ways that high school kids can get work credit Oh, yeah, I mean there are lots of things that you can work with that teacher in west sack and Then maybe do one in davis too. Yeah. Oh, yeah. Well, I'm I'm the liaison for Davis farm to school right on the school board Um, I have a lot of uh, each of us gets committee assignments and I should be kind of right Um, so that's one of the committees. I subcommittees. I enjoy Serving on I'm also on the davis teachers association two by two. I'm on the city two by two Yeah, um, so once a month, uh, two school board members meet with two city council members once a month two school board members meet with Two representatives from davis teachers association. Uh, so those are really fun assignments. I enjoy So I'm going to change this up now slightly. Okay, and then um, and then we'll get back to school board politics so We just have a city council election The city council has a new group that's going to start on the 1st of july and They're talking about a new general plan and I'm advocating that davis become a charter city A quarter of the cities in california are charter cities A general law city like davis has certain authority, but a general law City does not have as much authority and responsibility as a charter city can have Nine of the 10 uc Campus cities are charter cities davis is the only one that's not a charter city So The difference between doing a general plan as a charter city is you can do more things you can talk about more things 25 years ago We talked about doing a new general plan and I contributed some ideas that led to our having a group on youth A group on seniors a group on computers a group on economic development A group on health and a group on social services That's in addition to the mandated state elements that are in housing transportation and land use Unfortunately after we went through a three-year process with 300 people All the stuff that wasn't mandated got thrown out So the general plan that we wrote 25 years ago really doesn't have anything about innovation in it What i'm proposing now Is that davis go through a charter process in the next year I've divided the city of davis into 12 communities. So it's kind of like two or three Communities would serve each elementary school Four or five communities would serve each junior hot But the point is that everybody lives in a part of davis not in the whole thing And so the idea that i'm proposing is that we do a process where we involve people in their And then do the city-wide stuff as a result So I have a bunch of ideas. I've been presenting them to the city council And this week i'm presenting the compilation of all of them This is called the davis california charter city community building handbook And i've been presenting it to the city council over the past six months This is a proposal for davis To actually lead the way in the 21st century Most of our institutions were designed before world war two Most of them are real old and slow. So the budget is actually looking at last year It's not looking at next year. It's driving by using a rear view mirror If we're going to go into the future in the 21st century We're going to have to deal with some problems in some new ways I have a lot of ideas about that many of them do not fit in the general plan and they were eliminated 25 years ago I've been very patient about this, but I have a lot of things that I want to talk about This is about community being involved. This is not about the experts and the bureaucrats We need to have a youth group. We need to have a seniors group We need to have kids from every school talk about the future of davis It doesn't matter when people over 50 talk about the future because they're living in the future The future for people under 50 is somewhere in the Out there We need to talk about that. I hope that you'll engage in that discussion The good news is the pta's are the center of that discussion. That's the end of what I wanted to say The the pta's That's that's our our training ground for getting people involved in the community Is one of them that's that's for sure. I mean, there's a lot of ways to to get involved for for sure and you know pta Does it does an amazing job? And booster clubs alike, you know doing enrichment activities for children in our schools Actually, I'm talking about the parents at this point The you know the good news is we have a lot of parents like your parent you That when your children were in elementary school, you become engaged. Yes We have a lot less parents that become engaged at the junior high and even less that become engaged except for a grad night And and grad night is a you know But the great thing about davis is when you go to dpns with your kid and who's three or four years old You're meeting the parents that you're going to be calling for the next 12 or 13 years. Boy, isn't that the truth? Yeah, it's amazing. Um, I was I was thinking a lot about that because When I was giving my graduation speech Um, especially at davis high. Oh, but at other schools too. I You know started seeing the graduates come across the stage and you know their kids that Um, you know, I've known a lot of their lives and I've known their parents and we were in baby play groups together And you know here they are, you know almost adults So yeah, I mean it does come full circle those relationships that you make You know early in parenting well, the They're the I mean what holds society together is moms calling between six o'clock in the morning and 10 o'clock at night to get their kid To wherever tomorrow is I mean that and these days dad's too, of course Well, I'll I'll believe that when I see it I mean, you know, we have a lot of a lot of men involved in pta. Um, the the pta, um, that I was president for We've had two no three male presidents during you know the time I was involved with that school So I think you know a lot of men are very involved in their in their kids lives and schooling The other thing I want to argue for since I'm doing it is having parents engaged in the classroom like you were Yeah, oh, it's it's it's a gift to the parent and like I say you learn good parenting tips too But it also means especially if you're working with somebody beside your own child that they get individualized attention they get individual attention or you know, uh, one parent that one Program rather that we have through davis farm to school is the gardening program where The parent will take 10 students out of the classroom teach them a little science lesson That uh is in the garden But the classroom teacher has time to work with a smaller amount of students on mathematics or reading And so, you know, it's not just about the garden lesson. It's also about lowering that You know student to teacher ratio exactly. Yeah, and that's you know invaluable the The students more likely to learn if they get the positive and negative feedback you've you've got to have both to be able to grow No, yeah, no, that's that's for sure. You need need guidance of all types So back to political reality. Yes, I love political reality. Well, that's why you're here. So Three or four issues that the school district is confronting now that you need to wrestle with in the next six months Well, um, that that is easy to talk about because we've planned for it. We had a retreat last year as a board We identified our two top priorities Uh, we didn't know at the time that our superintendent would be leaving but our our two top priorities at that time were examining the achievement gap and trying to close it and passage of the parcel tax so so those are our two top priorities and then now we'll be onboarding That's a very buzzword type of, you know You just made it up. No, I didn't make it up. I read it in education journals But uh, and so we'll be onboarding a new superintendent and you know, I think we'll be you know talking You know as a board with him about and he'll be talking to us about what our expectations of our relationship How will we roll that out? You know, what are our goals? You know with him for the next year. So that's that's a project for sure And something we're very happy to to engage in and then the passage of the parcel tax as as you know We do um, we will have a parcel tax on the ballot in november for the presidential election We are still deliberating as to how much that parcel tax will be and we are Uh meeting on the 28th and the 29th of this month to decide exactly that We're going to have a special morning meeting on I think it's like eight o'clock in the morning on the 28th And then I believe our meeting on the 29th is at regular time But you'll have to double check you can go to the district website. So normally the district The vacation block is in july. That's correct. We're in recess in july where the the city is in august Yeah, I believe so, you know paris and most of the rest of the world is in august But the school district has to be going full speed. That's right. Our school starts in august We have to be hiring teachers in august. So we are ready for the kids We have to be ready for the kids We have to hire all the teachers we need to hire and so we need to be there to vote on those hires in august So yeah, july is our month when we um, hopefully take a deep breath Um and re-energize and recharge for the next school year So, yeah, I think that um, you know, uh, those are the issues that we're going to be working on The next six months with regard to the achievement gap. We've already started work on that. So wait, wait Let's pretend like I don't know anything about what the achievement gap means. Okay So yeah, that's another kind of education buzz phrase. So the achievement gap to me means that We have some students who Don't perform as well in school as others And this is seen in standardized testing, but it's also seen in graduation rates It's also seen in participation in extracurriculars and typically It is students who fall into a lower socioeconomic status Their parents may have a lower level of education And so how do we reach those students? How do we identify potential in those students? How do we not only identify it but grow it? And so That's what we're looking at and we've had a number of presentations to the board about how different schools are addressing the achievement gap and so it's an ongoing discussion But then comes the analysis part. Okay, we've been doing this and this works We know this works, but really I think increasingly we need to get better at looking at data to see what works And so it's it's a big challenge for us. I mean, I I think it's is very possible to Help kids better who fall through the cracks. It just it is and it has to be It's also the biggest problem with the education system by definition I mean the the whole point of the education is to earn the a Which means you're achieved I don't know if it necessarily it's earned the a but yeah, but it's yeah to do well in the class To understand to be able to handle the problem to be able to do the math right To be able to recognize the chemistry to be able to see the point in timing history and understand what it meant Right right and so I think you know, we have work to do Like I said, you know, we we have a lot of great things about our district and and we know our strengths but It takes a lot of courage to look at the areas where you have some weakness or some room for improvement and Really focus on that right and no one's interested in resting on our laurels We could do that very easily in our great district But what we want to do is make our district even better By making sure that we are helping all students Sometimes the b does a story about davis that's bad Sometimes they do a story that's good. Usually that's about education When either, you know at the university or in k through 12 They they this is a long time ago But the b did a study of all the high school districts Davis didn't come out first in any one of them. They came out second in every single one the number of uc You know the number of graduates that went to uc the scores on the sat The number of people that went on to phds any kind of criteria you want Within the education system. We have enormous standards We have high expectations every year and it's because The hardest class in davis high school is the second year biology class Because most of the kids mothers have a phd's in polysine. I'm sorry and that was a fray and slip in in Biology and so when you come into class the next day they go my mom said you were wrong And the mom knows more about what the teacher was teaching than the teacher does And you have that every year in every school in every class. Well, like I said, you know, obviously we want to challenge those students But um, those students are being served and doing well. They're going to do just fine and they're going to do just fine Yeah, I mean not to say that we shouldn't have offerings for them And we shouldn't offer them curriculum that challenges them. We should but we also need to look at the students Who are are not achieving at grade level and this doesn't mean just high school This this also means elementary Especially especially elementary if you don't have your math and reading skills. How can you do the rest? Yeah, there's there's no foundation from which to build so Yeah, we we have to look at it at the earliest grades My philosophy is the teacher's job is to bring the c student up to the b level With the dnf student you have a whole different set of problems But the b students should do the work The a students should say give me more give me more I I was coaching a girl in algebra and she said I have to do every single one of the problems in the homework to be able to understand The the lesson and I said the book was designed for you You're a perfect success of the book Most people have to go through the problems and then think about it and figure it out. Yeah, that's what learning is That those are the achievements that we ask kids to make every day in school Yeah, no, we we do ask a lot of our kids and of course ask a lot of the kids, but I think too You know These days they also, you know, they have a lot on their minds life is stressful and they have a lot of activities and So, you know, we I think we need to learn about a healthy dose of balance and try to model that for our kids You know, that's just my two cents. I there's no real policy. I exposed that it goes along with that, but But yeah, I mean so so really, you know in in summary You know working with our new superintendent in his first year passage of the parcel tax and Analyzing how we can close the achievement gap. Those are our top priorities I want to thank you for being on our show. Oh, are we done already if you why? Well, thank you. I see I told you I was chatty. Yeah, well, I knew it wasn't going to be really hard to do So thanks for serving on the school board. It's my pleasure So this is a subtle recruitment for people to run for the school board and the city council Rochelle Swanson and rob davis are now the next two retiring members of the city council They've made really clear they're not going to be running in 2018 If you're interested in the davis city council or the davis school board We need people to run. We need people to learn about the city We need people to learn about the school board We need people to help people run People like brat lee were elected because they work really hard and because people like barbara worked for brat lee And I want to acknowledge brat for the work that he's done in the campaign, which I thought was extraordinary I want to thank you for being on our show. This is what's going on. Good evening