You get to vote for up to two of the four candidates for School Board.
I am definitely voting for Beatriz Leyva-Cutler. She sounds competent, has good politics, and has support from a wide range of people. She has been active with, and is supported by, Latinos Unidos de Berkeley, a group helping make sure the voices of Latino parents are raised and heard in Berkeley's schools. She's got a lot of inside knowledge on that as head of BAHIA, a bilingual providing childcare, parent/teacher education, and other services for 2-10 year-old kids serving preschool and school-age kids in and around Berkeley. As a parent of a kid in the English-Spanish immersion program, I see the need for those voices.
I'm less certain of my second vote.
Priscilla Myrick sounds competent. I like that she wants to improve fiscal transparency, served as a Treasurer on the BOSS Board of Directors, and has professional experience as a CFO and Controller. Her endorsements mostly don't speak to me, in some cases because they're not people I would vote for (Dean, Olds) but mostly just because I don't know who they are. Exception: boona cheema of BOSS, whom I respect. Her focus seems to be on academics.
John Selawsky has been on the board since 2000. He helped pull the board out of its turn-of-the-century fiscal crisis, and he's done a lot, particularly on environmental issues. He's concerned about reducing traffic danger to kids around schools and supported the Safe Routes to Schools program my organization runs. But a friend and trusted informant, who has a kid at Berkeley High, disapproves of Selawsky's support for Berkeley High Principal Jim Slemp.
Toya Groves sounds passionate, but her statement sounds too generic and lacking in a clear-eyed analysis of problems. She has shallow support, and I can't find a website or SmartVoter page for her.
I'm torn between Myrick and Selawsky. I'll probably go for Myrick. Comments welcome!
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2 comments:
Jeff,
Thanks for the info on propositions. I confess to never researching them as much as I should, so your comments were helpful. As for Berkeley School Board candidates, I'm going with Priscilla Myrick. My second son is a junior at BHS and believe me, the math/science program there has been destroyed. My older son learned so much, the deterioration over the past 5 years is tragic. Have you read Myrick's piece in today's Daily Planet about math and science? She is a strong proponent of a stronger curriculum and my experience makes me support that position. Others are pushing proposals such as advisory which reduce academic instructional minutes, something no kid needs. The achievement gap has also gotten worse since the high school dismantled their great science dept. and as far as I can see, the 2020 Vision plan has no specific details at all. Myrick also wrote a very interesting report on what happened to Measure AA bond funds--we were supposed to have new classrooms at BHS by now, but the $100 million is gone and no new classrooms. The ballot measure specifically called for new classrooms at BHS, and why current board members won't explain what happened is beyond me.
I got several off-line comments on this race, mostly telling me why NOT to vote for Selawsky or Myrick. Few, besides Maureen (above) gave positives.
LOTS of people agreed with the comments I'd parroted about Berkeley High. One person said Myrick is a bit difficult to work with, but I figure they'll work it out.
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