Sausalito Marin City School Hopefuls Face Key Question - Marin IJ - 10/6/2006 - Reporter Don Speich

Sausalito Marin City school hopefuls face key question
Marin IJ
10/6/2006
Don Speich

The four incumbents seeking re-election to the Sausalito Marin City School District board say they want to continue the job of trying to move district schools from the worst in Marin to the best.

Two of the three challengers said the job of propelling the predominantly minority district of 283 students out of a 40-year history of failure should be much further along than it now is, and that what is needed is new leadership.

The election, in short, is turning on whether board members, most of whom were elected on platforms dedicated to education reform in the district, have done what they promised to do.
George Stratigos, Shirley Thornton and Whitney Hoyt are incumbents seeking re-election to four-year terms. They are being challenged by Mark Trotter, a real estate agent and contractor and a former board member who lost to Hoyt in 2004, and Peter Romanowsky, a waterfront resident who has run for numerous offices without success.

The fourth incumbent, Robert Fisher, who was appointed to the board in 2005, is running to serve out the final two years of the term. He is being challenged by Elizabeth Todd-Gallardo, a realty agent, who like Trotter is a board member of the Willow Creek Academy, the district's charter school in Sausalito.

Hoyt, 45, the political director of the National Abortion Rights League and the former principal of the Mill Valley Middle School, said, "I love being on the board. It is the most important work that I do.

"It is challenging and there are thousands of balls in the air at any one time. I absolutely adore the work, and I think I am good at it. I feel we are in the middle of lots of things."Speaking of Debra Bradley, the new superintendent, as well as Cherisse Baatin, new principal for the Bayside Elementary and the Martin Luther King Jr. Academy schools, she said: "We finally have the leadership in place that is focusing 100 percent on teaching and learning. I feel responsible for bringing them in, and I want to keep working with them."They are going to move mountains in the district."

Trotter, 53, said he believes Willow Creek, the district's kindergarten through eighth-grade charter school, is "being short-changed" by getting less money from the district than the other two schools

"There is a serious disparity in one out of three schools that needs to be corrected, and the board is not going to do anything about it."Willow Creek spends about $6,700 per student annually, putting it far behind the average of $22,232 spent on each pupil in the district's traditional public schools. Willow Creek Principal Carol Cooper said the disparity is largely attributed to the district's higher administrative payroll and special education costs.

Trotter's chief complaint is that though enrollment has grown at Willow Creek, the district has failed to provide the school with adequate classroom space.

When asked about this, board president Stratigos said the charter school did not cap enrollment when it should have a couple of years ago, and is faced with larger classes in kindergarten and the first grade. Stratigos said the district had provided a portable classroom and that others would be available by the beginning of the 2007 school year.

Trotter is also upset about the construction of a new MLK middle school, which he said is costing too much money. Voters approved a $15.9 million bond measure in 2004 for the construction as well as the renovation of Bayside. Earlier this year, the board was told an additional $1.3 million was needed to construct MLK, which the board secured through adjusting lease agreements with the city of Sausalito.

Trotter said the board is building a monument to itself backed by projected growths in enrollment that are more fanciful than real.

The incumbents say the new middle school is needed to provide a setting that is both attractive and functional, a combination they say they believe will facilitate the pursuit of academic excellence. The current MLK is a group of portable modules.

Stratigos, 45, a former member of the Sausalito City Council, was, along with trustee Thornton, a key player in a 1998 recall of several board members who they accused of failing to turn around the district's failing ways.

Pointing to test scores that have risen in all three schools last year and at Bayside for the past few years, Stratigos said the district is well on its way to achieving Vision 900, the board's slogan denoting the achievement of a 900 Academic Performance Index score - which would be a jump of more than 200 points from the current ranking.

He stresses the appointment of Bradley and Bayside and MLK principal Baatin, as major steps in bringing "standards-based" education to the district, meaning the installation of a curriculum and instruction that emphasizes basic academic skills.

As to the board's accomplishments, Stratigos outlined several, including "developing a plan for the district, implementing that plan, bringing in a new administration and a high level of new teachers, bringing to fruition Vision 900."

He said his only regrets are "not being able to do things faster."

He said he did not regret the board's decision to have drug-sniffing dogs inspect the MLK campus once a month - a decision it reversed after being harshly criticized by civil rights groups, residents and students - because it led to greater involvement by the public in the affairs of the schools.

Thornton, a veteran educator, retired Army colonel and an adjunct professor of education at Sacramento State University, was asked why she was running for what she said would be her last term.

"We haven't finished the job. We promised with the recall that we would have schools that are on a par with the other (districts) in Marin County, and that will be done in my last term."

Thornton, 67, stressed the need for improved education at MLK in order to end the high failure rate of MLK graduates at Marin high schools. She said the board had "worked closely" with Tamalpais High School by bringing in a Tam instructor to teach math, and hiring Bradley and Baatin, who brought a positive "change in attitude" to Bayside and MLK.

Todd-Gallardo, 42, said she had never dreamed of running for the board until she became active at Willow Creek and saw what she believes is a need for new leadership to assure academic achievement.

"They are bright kids and they deserve the best. If that means talking to other school districts" about what should be done, then officials should do so, she said. She said it is unacceptable the district has no full-time librarian.

"I want to find out where all the money is going," she said, referring to the district's per-pupil expenditure of $22,232 - compared with the county average of $10,895.

Perhaps, she said, "the district should have a forensic audit" by an outside firm to nail down expenditures, which she indicated are difficult to track because they are not outlined in "in plain English."

She said that Vision 900 is "great but that there are many ways to measure ability. I don't know if the stress should be on Vision 900. I don't know if it is my vision. It is George Stratigos's.

"If they can get there, fabulous, more power to us. But honestly, teaching kids about everything, about how to address people on the playground, social skills, being responsible" is important. "And we've got to get the parents to take an active role."

She said she thought the board's decision to bring drug dogs on campus "was just plain stupid. We're talking about 36 kids (at MLK)."

Incumbent Robert Fisher, 59, who is retired, declined to talk about his education. Earlier this year, the Independent Journal reported that his claim to have a degree in engineering from San Jose State University was false. Fisher is on trial for failing to make child-support payments. The trial began Tuesday, but was postponed until Election Day, Nov. 7.

Fisher said "that from my standpoint, there is no one on the board with a better connection with parents" in Sausalito and Marin City.

Like Thornton and Hoyt, Fisher is a resident of Marin City and said he deals with Marin City kids "on a day-to-day basis, making sure they are protected.

"My son attends Willow Creek. I am the only person on the board with children in the school district."He said he is committed to the notion that every child "be given an opportunity to get a quality education. That child has to be at the 900 level on the state test.

"Since I have been there I like to think that my insistence on keeping the focus on education has made sure that has happened. Since I have been there I have spent a lot of time working with children in the (Manzanita) learning center tutoring in regards to the STAR test to make sure students were able to perform well.

"All the other stuff, the (drug) dogs, they need to keep in mind that I was the one É to present a motion ceasing the dogs."

Trustee Hoyt was prepared to make a motion to end the proposed drug dog program, but she deferred to Fisher.

Noting he, along with the board's four other members, voted for the drug dogs last November, he said, "I took a lot of heat for that. I just feel that there is a need to follow the law and focus on giving the children the opportunity for an education."

Candidate Peter Romanowsky of Sausalito, who over the years has run for numerous offices in Marin, did not respond to interview requests by the Independent Journal.

Read more Election stories at the IJ's Election page.
Contact Don Speich via e-mail at dspeich@marinij.com