The last word: Come together … right now
By:
Martha Fluor
Published: March 17, 2011
In my speech to the CSBA Delegate Assembly last December, I told the delegates I wanted the theme of my presidency to be one of recognition. Recognition of school boards, recognition of school board members, recognition of staff, and recognition of the teachers, parents, administrators and all of the others who tirelessly advocate on behalf of California’s children each and every day.
In the past few weeks we’ve seen this tireless advocacy demonstrated in the work that school board members and others have done to ensure that California voters have the opportunity to consider a measure to extend temporary revenues as a means to protect education funding.
I know that this is a difficult issue for a lot of people, one that puts them in conflict with long-held beliefs about the role of government and taxes in our society. I appreciate and respect those points of view; in fact, I’ve held them myself on many occasions. But as an elected school board member and now the president of the California School Boards Association, I firmly believe that my priority has to be the kids. And in looking at my own district’s budget, I know that unless revenues are a part of the solution, we are looking at cuts that can only be described as catastrophic.
So I’d like to salute the parent-led group Educate Our State, a grassroots campaign to unite the voices of Californians in support of high-quality K-12 public education. Right now the group is conducting a “Let Us Vote!” campaign, which has resulted in (at the time I’m writing this) more than 30,000 e-mail letters asking for the revenue extension measure to be on the ballot. The members of this group are not professional educators—they have jobs and lives of their own—but they are united in their support for public education and their recognition of what further cuts would do to the education of their own children. For more information about the organization, please see the website at www.educateourstate.org.
I’d also like to recognize school board members Rachel Norton, from the San Francisco Unified School District, and Shelly Masur, from the Redwood City School District, for their support of Educate Our State. Both Rachel and Shelly are members of the CSBA Delegate Assembly and are acting as campaign advisers to the organization.
But Rachel and Shelly are far from being the only CSBA delegates and board members who are going the extra mile right now. I’d also like to salute a group of board members, many of them from Contra Costa and Alameda counties, who participate on a regular basis in e-mail discussions about important education issues. Many of these exchanges are initiated by Charles Ramsey, a CSBA delegate and board member in the West Contra Costa Unified School District, but by the time they run their course, they include contributions from many board members in that area, including CSBA Region 7 delegates Anne White, Mike McMahon and Gary Eberhart. I thank all of them for their efforts, as well as the other members of this informal discussion group.
If I’m determined to achieve one thing during my term as president, it’s to take the kind of ongoing, sustained conversation among board members that is currently taking place in Region 7 and replicate it across the state. Our terrific staff is working diligently to make that happen, because they know as well as I do that in this critical period for public education, CSBA must develop new strategies to engage all of its members in support of our common cause. The things we are doing now are great, and are effective. But at the end of the day, they may not be enough.
So let’s keep the dialogue going. I know, and the rest of CSBA’s leadership knows, that there is a great deal that we can learn from our members. We are currently engaged in a process to reinvent how the association works with and utilizes the members of the CSBA Delegate Assembly. But I don’t want that work to stop there. I want to hear about other advocacy efforts, and hear what ideas and thoughts you have regarding CSBA. Whatever they may be, please don’t hesitate to send me an e-mail at mfluor@csba.org.
Martha Fluor is president of the California School Boards Association.