Scott Barr
Ledyard Hakes
Brenda Kracht
Bruce Shepherd
The election is on November 2, 2010 and we asked these 5 questions to each candidate.
Here is what Bruce Shepherd had to say:
1. Tell us about yourself. What’s your ‘Coronado story’ ?
My wife Susan and I, with our children Nick, Scott and Sandy, moved to Coronado in 1994; my son Jake was born in 1995. We moved here in large part because we wanted our kids to attend Coronado schools. All four of our children have been raised through Coronado’s schools – Nick, Scott and Sandy graduated from CHS (in 2005, 2007 and 2009, respectively), and Jake is a sophomore at CHS this fall. We value the excellent educations that our children have received through Coronado’s public schools.
I grew up in Northern California attending public schools (I graduated from Burlingame High School in 1975). I attended Harvard for college, graduating in 1979 with a degree in economics. After working for a year in the California State Senate in Sacramento, I went to law school and business school, graduating from UC Berkeley in 1983 with a JD and an MBA.
I have practiced law in San Diego at the firm of Latham & Watkins since 1984. I am a partner in the firm’s Finance Department and my practice focuses on real estate development and related financial matters. For example, I represented the Padres on a number of matters pertaining to the development of Petco Park, and I also have worked on a number of retail, office and hospitality projects around San Diego and the Southwest. For the last 10 years, I have served as the managing partner of my law firm’s San Diego office. In this role, I have managed a business with roughly 250 employees (akin to the size of the Coronado Unified School District).
I have been active, and continue to be active, in volunteer roles in the Coronado and San Diego community:
· I have served two terms on the Coronado school board – from 1998 to 2002, and again from 2006 to 2010. I currently serve as Board President.
· Between stints on the school board, I served a few years on the board of the Coronado Schools Foundation.
· In 2005, I played a leading role in the committee that brought field turf to the high school and middle school fields.
· I coached 13 years of Coronado Little League (through which I probably amassed more losses than any coach in CLL history!)
· Outside of Coronado, I have been active in the San Diego Big Brothers organization (I recently stepped down after 19 years on the board “Operation Bigs”, which Big Brothers currently runs at the Strand School, was a concept that we came up with while I was on the board).
· I also am a member of the Century Club (which runs the annual PGA golf tournament at Torrey Pines) and a member of the Board of Directors for the San Diego Economic Development Corporation.
2. Why is running for School Board important to you?
I believe in public education, and I particularly believe that we are fortunate in Coronado to have very strong public schools. But the public education model currently is under fire in California, with material funding cuts and wavering public support. There is good reason for some of the criticisms; our federal and state legislatures have burdened our public schools with extraordinary and unproductive regulations, and the result has been a decline in local control. In some parts of the state, families with means have abandoned the public schools, creating a two tier system of private or parochial schools for the better off and leaving the public schools for the rest. I think that is a very bad thing for our state and our country. Fortunately, we have strong schools in Coronado, and if concerned citizens pull together and support our schools, we can avoid that fate in Coronado.
So, the primary reason that I have served on the school board, and that I am running for re-election, is that I want to preserve and strengthen our Coronado schools and best position them for continued success in the future. Toward these ends, my goals on the school board have been, and if I am re-elected will continue to be, as follows:
· to promote a culture that inspires utmost effort and performance;
· to instill students with strong reading, mathematics, science and 21st century skills;
· to infuse into Coronado’s curriculum, in an intelligent and efficient manner, our society’s ever expanding technological tools;
· to operate schools that rival or exceed the best schools in San Diego, public or private, and to increase the public awareness of such excellence;
· to compensate our teachers and staff in a fair and appropriate manner; and
· to achieve all of the above while maintaining an ever protective eye on our District’s financial resources.
We have a special community in Coronado, and we have a right (indeed, in my view a duty) to expect the very best from our schools, our administrators, our teachers and our students; in doing so, we make our schools that much better.
Over the last decade, Coronado’s schools have risen to the top in San Diego County. We have a rich curriculum that teaches fundamental skills, promotes critical thinking, and seeks to nurture and address the unique needs and interests of students, including in the arts, technology and athletics. And along the way, our students have progressed to now test among the best in San Diego. High percentages go on successfully to college level educations, and in recent years our CHS graduates increasingly have been admitted to some of our country’s finest universities and other institutions.
If re-elected, I will continue to apply my judgment to keep Coronado’s schools financially stable, academically strong and producing graduates that can compete successfully with the very best in the country. And I will continue to work on the issues that we control locally, so as to improve and better position our schools. The next four years could be critical ones for public education in California. I feel that with my experiences, not only on the board but also in the community and in the workplace, I bring a valuable perspective to decision making in our school district. I also think that through my 8 years on the board, I have demonstrated an ability to ask tough questions, keep an eye on the financial bottom line, maintain a cooperative and collegial dialogue, and push our schools toward continued improvement. I am proud of the decisions I have made as an elected board member from 1998 to 2002, and again from 2006 to 2010, and I hope that Coronado will trust me with an additional four years through which I can contribute through board leadership.
3. What qualifies you to be on School Board?
I believe that my primary qualification to be on the school board is my strong interest and dedication to obtain the best for our Coronado schools! Over my eight years of service on the board, I have demonstrated an ability to ask tough questions, keep an eye on the financial bottom line, maintain a cooperative and collegial dialogue, and push our schools toward continued improvement. I am proud of the decisions I have made as an elected board member from 1998 to 2002, and again from 2006 to 2010.
My background and experience also make me a stronger candidate for the board. I have practiced law in San Diego at the firm of Latham & Watkins since 1984. I am a partner in the firm’s Finance Department and my practice focuses on real estate development and related financial matters. For the last 10 years, I also have served as the managing partner of my law firm’s San Diego office. In this role, I have managed a business with roughly 250 employees (roughly the size of the Coronado Unified School District). These experiences have provided me with valuable perspectives which I bring to decision making on our board. I am familiar with the challenges involved in operating a business, and my legal and financial training provide additional insights that can add to the collective analysis of issues by the board.
4. What are the top 3 issues that Coronado schools face today and how will you work at solving them?
The top issue facing Coronado’s schools continues to be funding. Over the course of the last 40 years, our state laws have made the state’s public schools, including Coronado’s schools, almost entirely dependent upon the state’s coffers for financial support. And those coffers have been depleted California is operating with over a $20 billion per year structural operating deficit, and while our leaders purport to close the gap with gimmickry each fall (well after the constitutional June 30th deadline!), experience tells us that by springtime we again will be told that the State does not have the funds to cover its commitments.
The result has been rapidly diminishing funding for public schools. In Coronado, our aggregate funds available to cover operating expenses (85%+ of which comes from the State) has declined by over 15% in three short years. And the funds that come from the State in a sense are held hostage the State mandates the expenditure of a material portion of those funds, and the State further cuts those funds from time to time in its discretion (for example, even though the much ballyhooed Proposition 98 purportedly “guaranteed” the expenditure of a minimum percentage of aggregate State revenues on public education, the State has “suspended” that guaranty for each of the last few years, leaving the public schools to bear the brunt of funding cuts).
Clearly, we do not entirely control our fate on these issues the State holds the purse strings, and should it choose to do so, it can continue to stagger along without a coherent financial plan, leaving the schools exposed to yet further cuts. But we nonetheless must take what steps we can to protect our financial position. Over the last few years, the CUSD board has taken a number of these steps we have pushed for open book accounting, we have established reserves to cover the less visible costs of long term healthcare costs, and we have adopted material cuts in our planned expenditures. In order to mitigate the pain, we also have drawn upon our “rainy day” reserve funds, but we have done so with the understanding (i) that these reserves are modest relative to the overall financial dilemma, and (ii) we must be disciplined in undertaking any such draws, since we need our reserves to carry us through until the State can get a hold of its prolonged budgetary challenges. I am proud of the decisions we have made in Coronado I think that they have positioned the district as best we can to face the continued storm clouds.
But I am not satisfied with simply muddling through. Over the next four years, I am hopeful that our community can pull together to establish more permanent financial stability for our schools. We have begun to explore our options, and should I be re-elected, the creation of greater financial stability will be my highest priority.
I think that the second most important issue facing Coronado’s schools is growing class sizes. Our class sizes have crept higher over the last few years, and they now are materially higher than they were a decade ago. While the increases have been a necessary part of our strategy in dealing with our financial challenges, I do not view higher class sizes as a long term solution. I think our goal should be to return our class sizes to historic norms.
Finally, the third most important issue facing our schools is to maintain our focus on excellence. Our schools have come a long way in the last ten years our students have progressed to now test among the best in San Diego. High percentages go on successfully to college level educations, and in recent years our CHS graduates increasingly have been admitted to some of our country’s finest universities and other institutions. And our successes stretch across a wide swath of our student body the most recent test scores indicate that it is not just our top students that are performing better than competitive districts and schools, but also lower and mid-level performing students. Maintaining a culture of excellence, and a pride in our collective performance, is important not only to community support for our schools, but also to our goals of attracting and retaining top teaching talent.
In the end, it all comes down to budget. We have a tough road ahead. I am challenged to continue to work to be part of the solution. I hope that Coronado’s voters will continue to trust me with that responsibility.
5. What do you want voters to remember about you when they go to cast their vote?
I have worked on the school board for 8 years. I have done so diligently, with good intentions and with collegiality (at least most of the time!). I believe that I have provided solid judgment that has had a material impact for the betterment of our schools. I hope that Coronado’s voters will continue to trust me with that responsibility. If you have questions or suggestions as you think about your decision, please do not hesitate to contact me at [email protected].
Thank you,
Bruce Shephard
