Meet Molly Louise Zohn, who is one of two candidates running for the singular short term position on the Coronado Unified School District’s school board. (The other candidate for the short term position is Esther R. Valdes.)
Molly was born in Minnesota, and “moved around quite a bit” during her childhood. Her parents now live in Northern California, and Molly and her family moved to Coronado in 2010. After graduating from UCLA, Molly attended graduate school, and then went to George Mason University Law School.
After practicing law in Washington, D.C. for a few years, Molly moved to California. She currently works in downtown San Diego as an attorney, specializing in renewable energy and environmental law.
Molly and her husband have two daughters, an eight year old named Katherine, who is a third grader at Village Elementary School, and a four year old named Sarah, who will begin TK [transitional kindergarten] next year.
Teaching Sunday School at Graham Memorial Presbyterian Church and sometimes serving as a team parent for her daughter’s soccer team are just some of the ways Molly likes to participate in the Coronado community.
Why do you want to be a member of the Coronado Unified School District School Board?
“It’s really a community service type of thing. I didn’t really intend to run at first. I got a call from somebody who is pretty familiar with board affairs, and they were concerned because by the initial deadline to register to run, no one had signed up for the two year position. So they said, ‘Would you please consider doing this? Otherwise we’re going to have a vacancy.’ So I thought about it, and talked it over with my husband to see if as a family we feel like we have the time and the wherewithal to do that, and decided that yes, I absolutely should do it. That’s why I’m running.”
“I should add to that obviously I have kids in the district, and I care a lot about the kids in the community. I know a lot of the kids in the community because of my involvement with children’s activities here in Coronado. I really do want to see what’s best for all of them. I don’t have any really strong dislikes about the current direction of the board; I just want to be a part of making it run as efficiently as possible, making the improvements here and there that we need, and overcoming some of our challenges.”
What strengths do you possess that you feel will make you an effective school board member?
- “Organization. I think that’s really important; being able to take a lot of information, and digest it very quickly.
- Asking the right questions, and not being afraid to ask the questions either when you don’t understand or they might make people a little bit uncomfortable; usually you can do it in a way that’s understanding and diplomatic.
- Being willing to listen to different points of view.
- Knowing that I don’t necessarily know everything. Especially at the beginning, I will probably really need to learn a lot.”
What changes, if any, are you hoping to bring about as a school board member?
“I think there are a couple of things that would be really nice to continue and improve on. One thing is the heat days. I know they’ve been working quite a bit over this past summer to deal with some of the most affected classrooms, and make sure that we don’t send kids home from school for that reason. I think that’s very important. Kids should be in school every day unless they absolutely can’t be.”
“I think also the communications; the board’s been really, really good about making sure information gets out. I think it would be really great to streamline some of those communications. Sometimes people are busy, and they have trouble keeping up with their email so making sure they really just get the right amount of information that’s targeted to them so they don’t get overwhelmed.”
What changes, if any, do you feel need to be made to the way special education services are provided in the district?
“I think it’s something that we have to continue to look at, and every child needs to be treated as an individual. Even for kids that aren’t special ed., it’s not necessarily a one size fits all approach. For special ed. students, we really have to take it on a case by case basis; what exactly they need, what resources the district has available in terms of both people and technology, and really come at it on an individualized level.”
Tell me your thoughts about Common Core. In your opinion, what are the advantages and/or disadvantages of Common Core?
“I somewhat think that the question itself is maybe not the right question. Common Core is something we have now, and right or wrong, I know people have a lot of opinions about Common Core, but it’s a decision that’s been made. It’s not going to be up to us to do anything about it other than implement it in the best way we possibly can. We have a certain amount of resources in the district to do that. Generally from the teachers I’ve talked to, I’m getting the sense that they generally feel it’s a positive thing. I kind of have to take their word for it; that the teachers do know what they’re talking about in that regard. I think we just have to give them the tools to do what they need to do with it.”
