Article on my candidacy in the Los Altos Town Crier

Los Altos candidate faces incumbent in county school board election

Overall the article does a reasonable job summarizing my position: charter schools must be held accountable to a higher standard for approval and renewal than the county is currently applying, and the county needs to take a much more active role in charter school oversight.

I do feel the need to point out that I have complete understanding of the role and responsibilities of the county board. It is all laid out in the board bylaws (document 9000), which can be access from the Policies and Procedures page on the SCCOE web site. From there:

Primary Duties of the County Board of Education

1. Adopt, evaluate, and update policies consistent with the laws of California and the County Board’s vision and goals
2. Keep a record of its own proceedings
3. Approve the annual budget and review interim reports of the County Superintendent
4. Review, as a scheduled agenda item at a regularly scheduled public meeting, the report of the annual audit provided for by the County Superintendent
5. Conduct appeal hearings for student expulsions
6. Conduct inter-district attendance appeals
7. Conduct hearings and appeals for petitions to establish charter schools
8. Provide management and oversight for any charter school whose petition is approved by the SCCOE
9. Provide for the administration and operation, adopt a course of study, evaluate the programming, and adopt a calendar of operation for juvenile court schools.
10. Approve the curriculum and maintain accountability for student learning in schools and programs operated by the SCCOE.
11. By order of the State Board of Education, serve as the Santa Clara County Committee on school district organization.
12. Appoint the County Superintendent
13. Perform other duties as prescribed by state law or regulation

The items I intend to focus on when I am in office are #7 and #8. For #7, my position is clear: I promise to only approve charters that have a clear program in place to place special emphasis on academically low achieving pupils, as required by education law section 47601(b).

Additionally, I feel like social and emotional learning practices could really improve performance for #9, so I intend to dig in there and understand how things are currently working and how they could be improved.

For more information on me and my platform, visit davecortright2012.com.