My goals
Manage our money wisely, looking at the futureAs a taxpayer, I want our tax dollars to be used wisely and prudently. This means getting the most effective quality public education out of our limited funding. Let's maximize the funds that go into the classroom, especially for K-3 students who need to learn the basics well, so that they can reach their potential in the rest of their years in school. But balance that with reasonable spending in infrastructure, maintenance and classified personnel, so that schools are supported and we are not penny wise and pound foolish and end up spending more than we should at a later date.
For the many small and large maintenance and construction contracts that the district has with external companies, let's make sure that we are getting not just the lowest price, but the best value for our dollars. And invest a small percentage of the money spent for those contracts to monitor and audit like we do for our large construction projects.
And let's work with our representatives in Salem to find ways to help our district and all the public education system be more efficient, keeping health care costs from spiraling out of control and optimizing the value of the services we receive through the Educational Service District.
Communication, communication, communication
There are many reasons to be proud of our public schools and of how they are managed, but in the past few years the district has not done a good job at communicating to the public about it. You can't have transparency and trust without good and plentiful communication.
If elected, I will be accessible. I will "adopt" a group of 5-6 schools in the district and I will attend school councils, PTA meetings, and other gatherings in these schools at least twice a year, to be able to listen to teachers, families, students, classified workers, and all citizens in those neighborhoods, and to establish personal relationships. I will do all I can to get the district to be much more active in its communication efforts, but in these days of lean budget I pledge to be an active part of the solution, at the very least.
I would also like to see the board and the district play an active role in building a stronger dialog with our elected representatives in the North Plains and Hillsboro city councils, in the Washington County Board of Directors and Metro, and in the legislature. Public schools must be represented and heard when decisions that impact them are made.
Bring new ideas to the table
While I don't yet have the in-depth knowledge of the workings of the district that the current members of the school board have, I can bring a fresh point of view and new ideas.
Let's all get together and think out of the box to find low cost ideas to improve education. Some examples: Train volunteers to tutor and read to K-3 students, especially in the English learner communities. If we want kids from families where English is the second language or where the parents work two jobs to succeed, we should involve them and help them. Offer classes for parents and volunteers so that they can be better prepared to play an active role. As a community, we can add to the great work done in our classrooms to help our kids do their best.
Why not have teachers share some of the outstanding work that they do in their classrooms with their colleagues, so that we can all gain from their knowledge? Sharing experiences among colleagues is a best practice in many professional organizations, we should encourage more of it within our schools.
These are just two examples of what we can do in the short and long term if we put our minds to it. Think of what we could do if we were to tap the minds of the people of the district for more and better ideas. In the next few months the district will work on its strategy for the next 5 years. I want to see that process evolve into a constant source of input from the community and of renewal of our vision and our goals.
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Some good news
The Governor announced that we may see more money for all public education (pre-K to college) compared to his initial budget. The
$5.25 billion for the next biennium for K-12 education that he talked about yesterday translates into 7-8 million dollars in additional funding for the Hillsboro public schools. This means no further increases in class sizes and perhaps enough funds to spend wisely on restoring a few of the things that were cut in the past three years. This is still not enough for quality education for the long term, but at least it is a step in the right direction.
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Last Friday, my wife and I attended the
hearing of the Lottery Commission on the rate proposal for the new line games. Tavern owners came from all corners of the state to testify about how dependent their business is on the income from gambling. But it was not supposed to be that way. The profits from the gaming in their establishments were supposed to be in addition to their normal food and beverage business, which was supposed to be viable on its own.
Instead, we heard from tavern owners who claim to be losing money since they agreed to lowered rates on the video poker gaming last year, from those who claim that thousands of jobs will be lost due to the lower rates. We have created an industry that survives only thanks to the public funding in the form of rates that are higher than necessary. We have an industry that is addicted to the revenue from gambling.
In the testimonies of the tavern owners we also heard the stories of folks in rural Oregon who already spend all that they can afford on gambling. The owners argued that the new games would not get them to spend more. It is very sad that because of the lack of courage on the part of our elected officials (starting from our governor), we are forced to depend on people's destructive behavior to finance important public services, from schools, to parks, to the police.
It should not be that way.
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Rainy day (fund) blues
Tuesday's Argus has an opinion piece (not available online) written by
Senator Bruce Starr on his proposal for a rainy day fund to be voted into the Oregon constitution,
JSR 23. The proposal was discussed earlier this month in the Senate Revenue Committee.
I think that it is time to vote on a proposal for a rainy day fund. I am not convinced that cutting expenses by an additional 3% to fund it is the best way to go.
In the USA, the vast majority of state revenue falls into three categories:
- Property taxes. Very stable and reliable.
- Sales taxes. Moderatly stable and reliable
- Income taxes. Unstable and unreliable, they are higher during times of booming economy.
Oregon does not have sales taxes, and since Measure 5 the percentage of total revenue generated from property taxes has declined. This leaves us with the only option of funding everything mainly with the revenue from income taxes. But there are expenses that will need more money when the economy is weak and the revenue from income taxes is low, for example programs that promote job growth or that target the poor, such as the Oregon health plan. And you have long term investments like public education that need to be funded at an adequate level during good times and bad times.
I am hopeful that both sides of the isle in the legislature will find a compromise on how to fund a rainy day fund to get it on the ballot next year. I just wish that our representatives in Salem had the courage to fix the structural problem of funding for Oregon.
For more solid information on Oregon's revenue and expenses, I highly recommend visiting the website of Citizens for Oregon's Future.
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What I believe in
Education – key to a stronger, more competitive OregonPublic schools have always been a foundation of our community. They provide a better future for our children and grandchildren and an opportunity for people of all backgrounds to be part of the American dream. We need a well educated workforce to create jobs, reduce crime rate, and eliminate poverty.
Public schools – a great long term investment
We must manage our limited financial resources well, by being smarter, more efficient, transparent, responsive and accountable. But at the same time we all need to work towards stable and adequate funding that matches the growth in the student population in the Hillsboro school district, to keep our great schools from declining.
Students – the focus of our schools
We should not forget the goal of public schools: To provide a quality education to a new generation of students. We should strive to preserve those activities – from music to art, from theater to sports – that enrich the minds of students of all ages and keep them excited and motivated. Public education needs to be recognized as an essential service.
Teachers – we value their work and their commitment
Teachers should have more opportunities for training, and to learn best practices among themselves. We need to maintain an adequate level of support personnel, and funding for programs for English learners and special needs children. We should also work with the home/private schooling communities to see what lessons we can learn from each other.
Parents and families – their involvement is critical
Parent/family involvement in teacher-led, family-oriented programs can dramatically improve the quality of our education system, especially for younger students, and should be encouraged.
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My life experience
I am turning a round 40 years old this year, a couple of weeks before the election. Time to write a few short paragraphs on my life, to see what, if anything, in my past makes me a good candidate to vote for in the upcoming Hillsboro school board elections.
I was born in New York (in Queens, to be exact) from wonderful and caring Italian-American parents. My middle name John honors my Sicilian grandfather Giovanni Napolitano. My parents moved to Italy when I was 18 months old, and I lived in Rome and Milan for a large part of my life. I went to public school in Italy, and to a public university, the Milan Polytechnic, where I studied and graduated with the equivalent of a MS in Electrical Engineering. The Milan Poly was the second largest school of engineering and architecture in the world in terms of number of students, with about 30,000 students total and well over 1000 members of the faculty.
During my years at the Milan Poly I ran to be one of the student representatives on the board of directors of the university, and served one two year term. I was heavily involved in all the matters discussed by the board, especially the budget for research and teaching. As is the case with our own K-12 education school district budget, we had to make tough choices to stay within our means. It was an incredibly rewarding experience, but also a lot of hard work.
After I graduated from college, I moved to California and started working in the semiconductor industry, first as a process engineer and later as a manager of a department of about 20 between engineers and technicians. I got married to my loving wife Kathy and moved to Texas with her. While in Texas, my wife's older daughter was in high school, and I had the pleasure to see first hand the disaster that is the test-and-metrics-driven Texas school system (I will write about my opinion of Texas schools in a later post). I spent most of my evenings for three years to study at the University of Phoenix, where I earned a Master in Business Administration. After my daughter Anna was born, I left my job to take care of her during her first year of life, which was possibly the most rewarding year of my entire life. After that I started working as a translator for companies the IT industry, and later started my own translation company. I also served for two years as the Administrator of my professional organization, the Italian Language Division of the American Translators Association.
We moved to Oregon three years ago, finally settling in our wonderful community, where we plan to spend the rest of our lives helping Anna reach her potential and become a productive member of our community.
In my forty years I have learned to value the essential role that public schools have in our communities, as a student, a parent and a board director. I have seen first-hand school systems that are very different, in Italy, California, Texas and Oregon. Now it is time to give back to the public schools that gave so much to me, and use my experience to benefit of all us.
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This week in Salem
A couple of events related to public schools are happening in Salem this week.
On Monday March 21, the Oregon Education Association, Oregon's teachers' union, is taking advantage of spring break to have a
OEA Lobby Day.
On Friday March 25, there will be a hearing of the Lottery Commission at the state fairgrounds. I will post additional information as they are available.
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Diesel bus emissions
The Oregon Environmental Council has published a pamphlet on
School bus emissions. With diesel prices climbing steadily and approaching 3 dollars a gallon, it may not be a bad time to look at the cost of alternative (and potentially less polluting) fuels to run our school buses. The Hillsboro school district covers a very large area, and transportation costs are significant.
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Contractors and living wages
A couple of school board meetings ago, one of the routine items voted by the board was a couple of relatively small contracts for some
fire alarm upgrades. One thing I noticed was the very large spread in the amounts of the bids: In one case the lowest bid was less than one third of the highest bid, in the other it was less than half.
When I was a member of the board of directors of my university (a long time ago, in a far away land...) we were legally required to assign contracts to the lowest bidder, but we also had to exclude those that offered a bid that was too low. The idea is that if someone offers you a deal that looks too good to be true, it probably is. We did not want to be penny wise and pound foolish and have to pay more at a later time because of poor workmanship and lack of quality.
In a case like the one of the HSD fire alarm upgrades (and other "small" contracts) I would really like to know if the contractors bidding are paying their workers well enough to attract qualified people. Let's ask what they expect to pay the people working on the project that we are going to pay for. Are the workers going to get a living wage? Or will their children qualify for reduced cost lunches if they attend Hillsboro schools?
I think that we need to pay more attention to the people who work on our contracts, and make sure that they are treated fairly. It is the right thing to do, and in the long run it makes more financial sense.
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As of last Friday, five people (including me) had filed to run for the four seats up for grabs in the Hillsboro school board elections on May 17. The Oregonian asks the question "Why don't more people run for school board?" in its weekly
Community Snapshot.
I would add to that the question "Why don't more people VOTE in the elections for school board?" In the May 2003 election, right after a season of severe funding cuts for our K-12 public schools, less than 25% of the registered voters in the Hillsboro school district cast a ballot. Local and state government have a significant effect on our daily lives, yet the large majority of people are not aware of who their representatives are and of what they do. The reality is that only a handful of people are informed and passionate enough about local government. And that is one of the reasons we lost the November levy by a landslide. One of my goals, if elected, is to improve communication with the local community.
And based on what I know about the other candidates running for the Hillsboro school board, we may lack in quantity but we are big on quality. The people who are running are knowledgeable about our schools and our district, are passionate about them, and they will bring a lot of new ideas to the table.
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I missed an interesting article in the Oregonian a few days ago:
For most, $5,000 may not be enough to quit teaching
While the reality of the current funding for K-12 education is not pretty, I have to say that I noticed that the attitude of some people during the recent school board and budget meetings that I attended is to consider experienced teachers as an expense, and one we can't afford. Experienced teachers are more expensive, and the cost of salaries and benefits is a very large percentage of the budget, but they are not just line items in an expense spreadsheet. These are a valuable resource and our classrooms may not be as enriching once we trade a dozen veterans of the whiteboard for some less costly new teachers. We need new teachers, and we also need experienced teachers. When the choice we have to make is between a bad teacher to student ratio and a worse one, when we focus on the numbers that will look good on the paper, we lose track of the big picture, and that we are all in this together for the future of our students.
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