Charles Cowens
Charles Cowens for (WCCUSD) School Board 2010
cowens4schools@gmail.com
P.O. Box 5497
Richmond
,
CA
,
94805
United States
+1-510-224-4352
This FAQ is a compilation of questions and answers from various questionnaires. It's a work in progress, so check back frequently.
I have had children in WCCUSD schools for 16 years and spent 9 years working in various volunteer leadership positions within our schools including being president of the district-wide PTA, a vice president for the county-wide PTA, and a chair of the district budget advisory committee (for 5 years). Now that my last child just graduated, instead of “retiring” from the district, I would like to apply my experience from working within our school district and my perspective as an ex-parent to make our district better as a member of the school board.
Our school board doesn’t focus on the right things for the benefit of all our students. For instance, even though we have a very large dropout population and many other academic issues, the overwhelming academic focus of the board is on a program that exposes a very few students to elite East Coast colleges, what I call the“Ivy League Disconnection.” Our board needs to pay more attention to issues that matter for more students like the dropout rate and the overwhelming majority of college-going students who are not going to elite East Coast colleges.
Our school board is too reactive and doesn’t think ahead (except for planning new tax measures). For instance, after the Richmond gang rape, the board moved very quickly to promote a thrown-together laundry list of measures related to safety, but it was afterward. It’s impossible to anticipate everything, but some things can be done to be more proactive. For example, the board can plan ahead in its calendar of meetings to focus on specific themes like safety for particular meetings.
Our school board does not follow up enough on its own directives to staff. For instance, the board wants to build a new middle school in Castro Park in El Cerrito on the site of a closed elementary school. The neighbors have been suing using a CEQA suit to stop this. (The usual outcome of these suits -- if the delay of a suit doesn’t stop the project -- is a settlement with the project going ahead with a few changes.) In October 2009, the board voted for the establishment of a Neighborhood Advisory Council to encourage a quicker settlement. A full year later, no such council has been established by the staff. The board needs to pay more attention to following up on its directives, including making the staff report back on the implementation of its directives as a regular part of board meetings.
Our school board is not as transparent as it should be. For instance, the Community Budget Advisory Committee has recommended several changes to make the budget process more open, including breaking out the budget by program and school site, including alternatives when staff proposes cuts, making sure the public understands the timing of the budget cycle, batching spending decisions together, etc. The board needs to implement the changes recommended by the Budget Advisory Committee and, more generally, make the decision-making process more transparent.
Yes, I do, but I completely understand why some people would have trouble bringing themselves to vote for this. We have suffered massive cuts over the last few years. The State will hopefully restore these cuts in the coming years. In the meantime, I hope our local community will step up with this temporary additional tax. (It would add an additional 7.2 cents per square foot parcel tax for 5 years.)
I would not be the sort of board member who constantly looks for an opportunity to get a tax hike through as an end in itself, but, at the same time, we do have to rely on the judgement of the taxpayers themselves, as voters, to find this balance. What I propose is Truth in Taxation, so voters can make a more informed judgement in striking the right balance. On the ballot, when a local tax measure is voted on, the voter guide should list all current local taxes paid for that agency and their impact on a typical taxpayer in the analysis section. For the District, a list of current WCCUSD local taxes should be prominently displayed on the home page with links to an explanation of each tax, the detailed expenditures for the tax, and the impact on taxpayers. This summary information with links should also be included on state-of-the-district type mailings sent out by the District.
Also, keep in mind that the bulk of the local school tax burden is bond measures. The construction interests that benefit from an expansive bond construction program in WCCUSD are the heaviest “investors” in board elections through campaign contributions to candidates who advance their interest in having the biggest possible bond construction program. If voters want to do something to rein in the bond program, they can simply vote for candidates who have not been invested in by the construction interests. Going forward, the board should establish campaign contribution limits that help insulate the board from the influence of construction interests.
Charles Cowens