Meet Maria V. Simon, the governing president of the Coronado Unified School District’s school board. She is one of the three candidates running for the two full term positions on the Coronado Unified School District’s school board. (The other two candidates for the two full term positions are Helen E. Anderson-Cruz and Julie Russell.)
Although born in Maryland, when she was four years old, Maria moved to San Diego, where she was raised. Maria earned a bachelors degree in marketing and communication from the University of Arizona.
After graduating from college, Maria worked for Mercy Hospital’s marketing department, and then was the director of the San Diego Museum Council and program coordinator for Passport to Balboa Park. She also produced the major holiday event “Christmas on the Prado” in Balboa Park.
Maria and her husband, Dr. Fred Simon, who’s a surgeon, have been residents of Coronado for the past eighteen years, and have been CUSD parents for thirteen years. Before becoming a member of the CUSD school board four years ago, Maria was the president of the PTO at both Village Elementary School as well as Coronado Middle School, has served on site council, and has served on a district budget committee.
Currently Maria’s two sons are enrolled at Coronado High School, one as a junior and the youngest as a freshman. Her daughter, who attended CUSD schools from K-12 is studying at The College of Charleston.
Maria is an active member of the Coronado community, and belongs to the Coronado Yacht Club, where she serves on the Junior Advisory Committee. In the past she has served on the board for Coronado Pop Warner, has coached youth soccer, and was a Girl Scouts leader.
Why do you want to continue to be a member of the Coronado Unified School District School Board?
“I continue to be passionate about our Coronado schools and believe that while we will always face challenges in state and federal funding and mandates, there is much to be optimistic about at CUSD. We have a dedicated staff and a community of parents, alumni, and business and city leaders, who are invested in and committed to the success of our students.”
“When I first ran, I thought, ‘I only want to do one term, and then I’m out of there,’ but I think after four years years as a trustee, and current board president, I have gained a deeper understanding of our budget and local policies, their effects on the everyday work done by our staff, and also how they correlate with state and federal policy. Two advocacy trips to Sacramento really opened my eyes to the complexities of how California public schools are funded!”
“I’m still passionate about kids and families, and I believe that our families are an important part of the conversation, and need to be represented in public education.”
What strengths do you possess that you feel make you an effective school board member?
“As an involved CUSD parent (13 years, with 4 more to go!) and an incumbent, I will bring a broad base of knowledge, experience, and insight to the school board.”
“I feel like I am connected to the families. I have a lot of common sense. I’m willing to listen to all points of view. I’m truly, truly passionate about public education. I think it is so important!”
What changes, if any, are you hoping to bring about as a school board member?
“The thing is I’m not running on a platform of change. I think we have incredible schools; we have incredible people who work there. I think that we need to continuously look for ways to be more efficient with the funds that we do have, and there’s a lot of opportunity in that right now with the changes in how education’s delivered with technology. I think rather than a platform of change, I would rather continue the excellence that we have while continuously looking for ways to improve our efficiency in delivering it.”
Of which accomplishments as a current school board member are you most proud?
“That’s a good question! In the time that I’ve been on the board, I think one of the best policies that we’ve come up with, and it’s not the most exciting or anything like that, but we have a board policy that’s a financial philosophy. I think that helps the board as a whole make financial decisions. It’s a very good guideline so we’re not making spur of the moment decisions based on emotion or the climate at the time. I think our financial philosophy that we developed as a board is huge.”
“While I won’t take credit for it, I think we’ve come a long way in our special education department with the inclusion and co-teaching models that we embraced. The most exciting thing for me, and I won’t take credit for that either, but we made a decision as a board to adopt new curriculum in math, and I think that in a few years we’re going to see the results of that. I think that our new math curriculum at the secondary level is going to be transformational!”
What changes, if any, do you feel need to be made to the way special education services are provided in the district?
“I think that changes are underway, significantly underway this year, particularly at the elementary level with our inclusion classes that we offer now and have since day one of this school year. I think that SEPAC (Special Education Parents Advisory Committee) will be huge in advising the district, but I think it has to be understood in our community that it’s district-wide; it’s the board, it’s the administrators, it’s the teachers. We’re all on board with this, and we understand the obvious advantages that full inclusion offers to special education students, but we also understand the not-so obvious advantages that it offers to the general education students. That’s something that’s like a climate change, something you have to embrace. It has to be embraced from the board over to the parents of the general education students. I think that we’re working on that.”
“I think that our special education staff is fully embracing it [inclusion], and our general ed. teachers are as well, a significant amount of them. The support of the board is crucial to giving them the power to do that. I feel like that’s where a board member can make a difference by saying, ‘We support it. We support what they’re doing.’ It’s exciting right now!”
Tell me your thoughts about Common Core. In your opinion, what are the advantages and/or disadvantages of Common Core?
“I think first of all Common Core is here in public education in California because it was adopted by the state whether we like it or not. Knowing that there’s no fight in the state against it, we have to accept it.”
“I think that looking at the positives, the collaboration among students that it fosters is huge. I think the philosophy behind it is good in that it’s going to develop young people who are better at critical thinking than students that we’ve educated in the past. So for critical thinking and working with others skills, I think it’s very positive.”
“Another benefit is that kids across the country are learning the same things at the same stages so I think that’s good as a whole. I think it’s unfortunate whenever decisions about some aspects about education are taken away from local education agencies. The ability for local schools to accommodate their community is taken away, and I don’t like that, but I do like the philosophy behind it, and I do think that we’re educating critical thinkers.”
