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Peter W. Alfvin
Craig E. Brown
Lynette Y. Campbell
Joseph P. Loverich
Mary A. Rogers |
Candidates schooled on issues
by Jerry Roberts
Better budget planning, better relationships with unions and more attention to special-education students are the issues defining the Manhattan Beach School Board elections. Three incumbents and two challengers vie for three open seats on Nov. 6.
Hoping to regain four-year terms are board President Peter W. Alfvin, Lynette Y. Campbell and Mary A. Rogers. Craig E. Brown, a full-time child advocate who received an out-of-court settlement from the district in a case regarding the special needs of his son, is also running along with Joseph P. Loverich, a career educator and former principal now working in the Inglewood school district.
On the their priority lists, Alfvin and Rogers would like to build better relationships with the unions that collectively bargain for both the teaching and non-teaching staffs to avoid adversarial contract negotiations that have slowed district progress in past years. Campbell would like more accurate budgeting. Brown wants that budget used as wisely as possible, particularly by eliminating legal fees. Loverich wants more cooperation overall in the district among the administrators, teachers, students and community. The district’s schools are amid renovations from $73 million in voter-approved bonds. Grand View School celebrated its reopening last Thursday.
Alfvin, 47, a software engineer, wants more of the district’s students placed in four-year collegiate programs. "Teachers are key," he said. "Attracting and hiring the best teachers is a top priority. Good teachers have shown to be overwhelmingly the most important factor to why students learn, way beyond class size, even though that’s important, too, and other demographic factors. We have to identify successful teachers. Evaluating the teachers, looking at their performance, is linked to effective staff development." Alfvin is dissatisfied that only about half of Mira Costa High School’s graduates go to four-year colleges and universities.
Campbell doesn’t feel that’s a pressing issue. "For some students, El Camino and other two-year schools are the place to go," she said. "What we need to do is make every student successful at what’s appropriate for him or her. Everybody on the board needs to recognize that students come in all shapes and sizes. A four-year school is not for everybody. It’s dangerous to move all kids toward a four-year school. Eighty-six percent of Manhattan Beach kids go to four- and two-year schools. I think we’re extremely successful."
Campbell thinks that the district should return to basing its enrollment predictions on past numbers when it makes spring predictions. "We’re always 160 to 180 kids off," she said. "Multiply that by the $5,013 it costs us per pupil per year and that’s quite a shortfall. We always receive recession numbers coming back from private schools. Some are kids more into the area of specialized services. Some cost us $20,000 or more per year. We have to get a better handle on the budget. I have studied historical numbers. They are more accurate than predicted numbers. One year, we were only off by 12 students. By law we have to take in Hermosa kids who want to come here. We have to do some bridge building with Hermosa to better predict the student population. It’s a priority."
Rogers agrees that, after reparations with the unions, the board must have more philosophical agreement. Like Campbell, she doesn’t think that attendance of a graduate at a four-year college is necessarily a measure of success. "To me, it’s not the college or university that accepts them, but the life choices they make," said the 10-year board veteran. "Ultimately, we want to graduate people who are productive and happy in society."
The novice candidates both have long experience with children with special-education needs, Brown, via a long feud with the district over his son Daniel, and Loverich through his position as a resource specialist at Monroe Magnet Middle School in Inglewood. Loverich also was principal for 12 years at Canyon Verde, a nonpublic school in Hawthorne.
"I feel that we shouldn’t be judgmental in any way," Loverich said. "We have to develop strategies to meet the needs of the kids. I bring 25 years of experience as a teacher, principal and resource specialist, and I can bring a fresh approach to the board. I have an educator’s perspective. I want to promote financial accountability while streamlining bureaucracy."
Brown’s son was diagnosed by a Manhattan Beach School District psychologist as having dyslexia, a visual processing problem and a lower IQ than was determined by a privately hired psychologist. Brown placed the boy in a private school, where his reading improved. Brown, a former financial planner, has since become a full-time child advocate, advising school districts to cut their lawyers’ fees.
"My concern is money," Brown said. "Lawyers who are hired by school districts take so much of the districts’ money. They say, ‘I am under no obligation to save anyone any money whatsoever.’ I am also attempting to stop closed-door sessions and have the public gain entry to every board decision."
The women incumbents have endorsed Loverich for the board, citing the philosophical differences with Alfvin, who has been on the short end of several 4-1 board votes. ER