When I came to the board in 2001, these were some of the issues facing OUSD:

• Teachers were leaving the district in huge numbers.
• There was a district-wide atmosphere of animosity between the school board and employees, especially teachers.
• The district was plagued by excessive lawsuits.
• Board members frequently micromanaged the work of the superintendent and other administrators, undermining the staff’s morale and effectiveness.
• School board goal-setting and district planning were sporadic and ineffective, and did not involve the community.
• There was ineffective communication between the community and the school district.
• Standardized test scores dropped precipitously all across the district.
• Elementary science instruction was frequently neglected, ignored, or poorly presented.

During the past nine years, the school board has worked with our excellent and dedicated employees to resolve these issues.

What, specifically, I have done to lead OUSD to better performance?

• My top priority was to stem the tide of teachers leaving our schools, and to keep them in OUSD. I worked with my colleagues on the board to establish competitive salaries and a district atmosphere of trust and respect for the important work done by our employees. The teacher exodus ended and morale improved.
• OUSD trustees adopted the California School Boards Association (CSBA) Professional Governance Standards, which I brought to their attention.
• I encouraged board colleagues to enroll in the CSBA Masters in Governance program, and participated in the program myself.
• At my request, the board president scheduled a board planning retreat at which the new board began to identify its goals and standards for working together.
• I pushed for an evaluation process of the superintendent based on board- identified goals and progress towards their accomplishment.
• I continually pressed for more effective communications with the community.
• I encouraged an eager cadre of talented and inspired elementary science teachers and administrators to pursue their interest in raising the level of science instruction in OUSD. I have been an active member and school board advocate of the OUSD Science Steering Committee from those beginnings to the present.

• OUSD standardized test scores dropped alarmingly in 2002, just as No Child Left Behind achievement standards were being established. I supported the bold proposal by our Assistant Superintendent for Academic Services, Cheryl Cohen, for a district-wide program to provide strong support to our teachers, many of whom were new to the profession. Teachers learned how to identify the most pressing academic needs of their students and how to co-ordinate with the entire school staff to meet those needs. This effort has resulted in a dramatic improvement in student performance in every OUSD school. Some schools have improved hundreds of points on standardized tests.

• During my term as board president, I organized the board’s second planning and goal-setting retreat. I pushed for meaningful implementation of our goals and incorporation of the goals into our evaluation of the superintendent’s performance. We now have a system where our district’s progress toward established goals forms a major part of the superintendent’s evaluation.
• I conducted the board’s first ever board self-evaluation process. We assessed our own performance as measured against the CSBA Standards for Professional Governance that we adopted in 2001.
• I brought to the attention of our superintendent and board an opportunity to obtain a high quality free newsletter for OUSD. Information about our students and schools is now published six times a year by “School News,” a newspaper provided at no cost to the district. We continue to search for ways to increase accurate communication between the school district and the community. I also encouraged continued efforts to identify new ways to increase accurate communication between the school district and the community.
• I suggested that OUSD should have a more long-range planning process that included more community input. Our superintendent and other board members had the same vision.

As a result of these efforts:

• Teachers are staying in OUSD, accumulating experience and expertise. Research shows that the quality of teaching is the most important factor in improving student performance. With the active support of the district, our teachers have led the way to vast and sustained improvements in student performance.
• OUSD’s elementary hands-on inquiry based science instruction, led by Teacher on Special Assignment Peg Benzie, in its first year won a multi-year Beckman Foundation grant of $50,000 to train teachers and implement the program. We have trained 75% of our elementary teachers in this high quality method of science instruction. Over 400 kits of science experiments, investigations, and lab experiences have been bought or donated for use by thousands of OUSD grade schoolers. Our science program and science center have been recognized nationally as an example of excellence. In recognition of the strides made in this arena, our Beckman Foundation matching grant has been increased from $50,000 per year for the last four years, to over $150,000 this year. We now see dramatic improvements in student test scores in science, and in the number of science classes our students take in high school.
• We no longer have long lists of lawsuits to sap district time, focus, and money, and distract us from educating kids.
• In May of 2006, OUSD held our first-ever district-wide strategic planning conference with over 100 community and district participants. Teachers, administrators, parents, students, local community members, representatives from non-profits, and business leaders participated. This conference began the process of identifying goals, and led to the action plan now being implemented across the district. We also observe a timeline for continuous meaningful, deliberate, and well designed planning.

• OUSD has regained its stature as a school district of quality and excellence. Students, parents, and employees can once again hold their heads high when they say they are affiliated with Orange Unified School District.
• Our district has an excellent system of online communications with parents. An improved web site brings parents and the community into much closer contact with our district.