Governing Board Member

SEATS AVAILABLE: 2

Henry Lo

District: Garvey
Position Seeking: Governing Board Member

Question 1: Please share a meaningful experience you had with art (visual, dance, drama, music, media arts) while growing up.

I remember the meaningful impact music education had on me when I was in elementary school. It was fun and useful in learning self expression.

Question 2: What kind of creative solutions would you suggest to support student outcomes such as English language development, closing the achievement gap, and preparation for college and/or meaningful careers?

Promotion of art and music is very helpful to students in developing their proficiency in other subjects, such as math. By being well rounded in all subjects a student will be better prepared to enter college and also be successful in life.

Question 3: What do you think should be the role of the School Board in ensuring that students have access to a broad range of study?

Boardmembers need to be advocates on befalf of students and the community to ensure that all policies and resources are focused on the classroom.

Question 4: In light of the Local Control Funding Formula and development of district Local Control Accountability Plans (LCAPs), what are your creative solutions for achieving goals in the eight priority areas?

Restore programs in music and arts that were scaled back before and focus resources in these subjects. It is importance to give the arts the primacy they deserve as we do with other subjects.

Angela Rios

District: Garvey
Position Seeking: Governing Board Member

Question 1: Please share a meaningful experience you had with art (visual, dance, drama, music, media arts) while growing up.

In elementary school, Ms. Alexander would come into our class with her guitar, and teach us tunes that I can still sing to this day. Unfortunately, my parents were not able to provide my siblings and me with any outside activities, so choir became my haven. I loved being in a group that shared the same common goals and interests. Ms. Alexander displayed a love of the art of music that impacted me in such a way that I will carry it with me forever. I can unequivocally say that choir is the reason I graduated from High School.

Question 2: What kind of creative solutions would you suggest to support student outcomes such as English language development, closing the achievement gap, and preparation for college and/or meaningful careers?

One creative idea would be known as, “Parent Chasers”. Every parent has real reasons why they can’t be involved. What if there was a person, a “Parent chaser”, whose job was to help parents get involved. Once the parent is at the meeting, we can give them real tangible information, educate them, and make it fun at the same time, so they want to comeback. As a parent, I understand that these are true needs and desires of our community. I want to help our parents help our children. I believe in the equation: student + teacher+ parent = success.

Question 3: What do you think should be the role of the School Board in ensuring that students have access to a broad range of study?

I believe that it is the school board member’s job to ensure that students are getting access to a broad range of study. Surveying the students and visiting the schools to find out if the curriculum is nurturing the whole student are initial ways to do this. In addition, board members should collaborate with the feeder schools to assure that transition as seamless as possible.

Question 4: In light of the Local Control Funding Formula and development of district Local Control Accountability Plans (LCAPs), what are your creative solutions for achieving goals in the eight priority areas?

A creative idea I have is to partner with our community. Listening, helping, and educating parents and other community members will foster the success of our students. I currently serve on the executive board of Cuerva Urban Folklorico, as well as several other art committees. One way to partner with the community is to include our local cultural artists such as the ones I work with. They would be from all ethnic backgrounds, including the predominant Asian and Latino community. Our students gain new experiences through new cultures, and the artists would gain by giving back to their community.

Keilley Meng

District: Garvey
Position Seeking: Governing Board Member

Question 1: Please share a meaningful experience you had with art (visual, dance, drama, music, media arts) while growing up.

I was very fortunate to grow up in a very Arts-rich district. I had choir for both 7th and 8th grade year. I became the music director’s assistant for our first musical ever. I have served as a coordinator for several Arts functions, such as the well-attended Dinner & a Show, and a stage manager and backstage personnel coordinator for every musical since 2010. I did everything from building the set to putting on makeup and put together various costumes.

Question 2: What kind of creative solutions would you suggest to support student outcomes such as English language development, closing the achievement gap, and preparation for college and/or meaningful careers?

As I mentioned earlier, I was in choir for a couple years. However, before those years, I was labeled as an English Language Learner, and choir became the class that helped me the most with my pronunciations. I believe if our students were taught choir from a very young age, it will help them tremendously with English acquisition. Another solution that I have it having access to the Arts, especially music, because learning how to play an instrument helps the students development multitasking and cognitive skills that they can use in many different ways.

Question 3: What do you think should be the role of the School Board in ensuring that students have access to a broad range of study?

To me I believe that a school board member is a liaison between our community and school district. As a school board member, I will work with the other board members to discuss issues and understand their point of views, at the same time we will work with the superintendent to understand the concerns in the district. As an elected official we have a responsibility to take ALL voices into consideration. All stakeholders in our district need to have their voices heard and opinions validated in order to build a culture of collaboration.

Question 4: In light of the Local Control Funding Formula and development of district Local Control Accountability Plans (LCAPs), what are your creative solutions for achieving goals in the eight priority areas?

I have reviewed the LCAP plan in our district and have found many great funding ideas that were established, especially the plan-in-progress of hiring 4 music teachers for our elementary schools. We are also hiring 10 more teacher’s aids to help our lower grades (kinder-2nd). However, I have notice that we are short staff in our Human Resource Department which is the cause for our late and slow hiring process. I would focus on this issue first in order to get all of our art and music teachers into the classrooms as soon as possible.