School Safety
Jay believes that school safety should be the foundation and building blocks for schools to thrive. Simply put, if there is not a safe environment in our schools, then most everything else can be seen as trivial. Jay has spoken to parents in the district, and found that there have been some concern on this issue (e.g., potential leaks in safe infrastructure).
Jay will be cognizant to ensure he works prudently with board members to ensure this issue is being worked on pro-actively. It is his desire that parents, students and community members feel comfortable in reaching out to him and managing employees if they need to be heard.
Literacy in K-12 Education
The formative years of a child from Preschool – 3rd grade are the crucial years that kids must learn to be proficient in reading. Much hinges on this—If students are not proficient in reading by the 3rd grade, the likelihood that they do not graduate high school is four times greater vs if they did acquire literacy in school.
As a board member, Jay will be in favor of moving this ball down the field much as possible, when policy comes up pertaining to early childhood literacy. He is committed to student success at every turn, and will advocate for this issue to be addressed.
Jay was the first to graduate college from his family (and his extended family), and knows that with the right tools in place, school can be a place for students to not only learn to read and write, but to have meaningful careers that better society later in life. Competency leads to challenging yourself and ingenuity, which will in turn make for robust entrepreneurs, doctors, teachers, and scientists to solve the many issues in our society.
Tools for Teachers and Educators
Many educators and school teachers are leaving the profession in droves. This trend must be reversed, because we need competent and morally strong teachers to teach our children. It seems sometimes unfair when social media influencers make piles of money, and our teachers with Masters Degrees get left behind and cannot make a decent living doing the important work in educating our children.
Jay believes that we should give teachers the very best possible tools to succeed in their careers, since they have the sacred role of educating our children and having them under their care when they are at school. As board member, he will advocate for policy that favors teachers to have better tools to educate our kids. The future depends on this, and out of the box thinking is needed to ensure that the tools are procured and put into place.
School Choice
Jay feels that the more options that parents have in educating their children, the better it is for the parent and student. Charter schools have emerged as another option for parents, and have found great success in our area and region. This is because sometimes students need a different application of learning, which charter schools provide.
When Jay was in public high school in Sacramento, the school was closed down for poor performance. The next year it was re-opened as a Charter school, and things quickly turned around. Not only were public funds available, but now additional streams of revenue were available. This brought in more funding and new facilities to the school, which years later, is now a stellar and high achieving high school. This is to say that parents should have choices in their kid’s education, vs a one-size-fits-all approach.
When it comes to analyzing inter-district transfers for schools, the overall success of the student should be prime. Jay will vote in favor of student transfers that will tee that students up for success, in the particular circumstance.
