Gina Daleiden Runs For Election During a Critical Time for the Distrct as It Face Numerous Challenges

“I’m running for re-election,” she said, “because it’s a critical time in our school district and this is the school district that I love and I don’t mean that lightly.  When I say my heart is with this district and with these students I truly mean it from a very long time ago.”

In addition to growing up in Davis, her mother was a teacher in the district for over thirty years and her children have gone to Davis schools as well.

But that is not all.  Like her colleague, Gina Daleiden has seen four Superintendents in her tenure and she has been responsible for three of those, including the most recent hire of Winfred Roberson back in June after James Hammond’s exit to Southern California.

“Right now is a particularly critical moment as we transition in leadership with a fabulous new superintendent that we chose and want to support.  We made a bold hiring decision just as we did with James Hammond and some others.  We put some good district leadership in place,” she said.

“I’m exceptionally proud of the teamwork that this school board has modeled for local government,” Ms. Daleiden continued, “I think we have a really good collaborative system working right now.”

While she believes she has done well so far, she also believes that she has more to give and more that she would like to accomplish.  “I have been on the board for one term now and we’ve made a lot changes.  I say we because when you’re on a five member board you have to learn to work together.  We all have very different opinions, we discuss issues.  Leadership is about building coalitions and coming to the common good for the students that we’re serving.  That’s what we do very effectively.”

For her, team building, leadership and experience are crucial.  “The three of us running for re-election have been through experiences that make our skill set unique at this moment in time.  It will be important for us to continue forward for at least another term,” she continued.

“As everyone knows we’ve faced some of the worst economic times in recent memory and we figured out a way to strategically balance the budget while protecting our high quality programs,” Gina Daleiden pointed out.  “It’s been a hallmark of myself and my colleagues that we’ve acted decisively as the circumstances have required.”

“Now is the time when we need to support our schools even more with that type of tested leadership,” she said.

The parcel tax looms large for the district.  “We are looking at renewing the parcel tax ultimately and possibly adding on to the parcel tax for a sustainable solution to the budget cuts we keep facing,” she said pointing to her work on the parcel tax subcommittee on Measure Q and Measure W. 

The Vanguard asked Ms. Daleiden to talk about some her priorities that are not budget-related.  “I knew you were going to say that,” she said, “But I have to tell you up front that the name of the game right now is to balance the budget and protect the excellent education that we offer our children.  That is the highest priority right now.”

However, she did get into other policy areas as well.  She talked about continuing the high service ethic that has been a part of DJUSD.  She wants to work with the community to build coalitions and enhancement relationships that bring people together toward a common purpose.  “When times get tough,” she said, “that’s sometimes more important and more challenging.  It will be a priority to keep everyone moving forward on behalf of the kids, even when we have tough choices to make.”

“You have to hang on,” she said, “but you also have to get even better.  I’m excited to look at some options for having all of our kids excel beyond where they are.  That includes really addressing kids that really are falling through the gaps, achievement gap.”

She is also looking at exploring the benefits of what she termed an A through G default curriculum at the high school.  She explained, “It’s essentially having as the set curriculum one that would have every student graduating with the requirements that would enable them to CSU or UC if they would like.”

“You can opt out on the way,” she continued adding that it sends a message to the students that every student can go to college if they want.  This was a way used in San Jose to address issues like the achievement gap. 

“It says every student ought to have a shot at going to college if they want to and if it’s right for them.,” she said.  “It’s not right for everyone and I support CTE courses as well.  But I don’t want a student to ever feel like a college track isn’t for them because they didn’t have parents who went to college, or were from a lower socioeconomic [background].”

“I don’t know yet if that’s something for DJUSD, but it’s something to explore,” she continued, noting that San Jose has had measurable success with it in their district.  Already the district has everyone take the P-SAT unless they opt out.  It’s not just about the high school students, she said, rather it is a message to all students that everyone is supposed to be taught and served to the best of their abilities through out the school system.

Gina Daleiden is also a huge advocate of foreign language.  “I think if we are preparing out students to be world citizens,” she said, “it’s really important to at least offer the option of accessing foreign language.  I don’t want it to be the purview of only some students.”

Ms. Daleiden said that before James Hammond left, one of the discussions was to make foreign language available to all students as part of the core electives beginning in junior high.  Instead of having to commit to a full year, it would be a shorter period to introduce the students to a language.  While she suggested Spanish, she said it could also be another language. 

“I just don’t ever want to say to students this course isn’t for you or this pathway isn’t for you.  Everyone ought to have a chance to figure out what they want to do to achieve at the highest levels,” she concluded.

She also wants to finish the high school stadium project which she has been excited about.  In addition, she wants to do other refurbishing projects, both at Emerson Junior High and the Davis Student commons at the high school.  There are also multipurpose rooms at elementary schools that need to be addressed, “when we have facilities money,” she said, “That’s separate from our general fund.”

Finally she noted that she believes the district has made significant advances in working with our special education parent community.  “When I first came on the board there was quite a bit of distrust between the parent community for special ed and the district.  I think we’ve made quite a bit of progress in that area, but we need to keep moving on it.”

Still the big question before the district is one of funding.  “We’re really fortunate in Davis to have a community that is so supportive of its schools, and that includes people that don’t have children in the schools as well as parents who do,” she said.  “It’s really clear to everyone that the quality of life in Davis is tied to the quality of our schools.”

The parcel tax has been the key to local funding to help maintain Davis’ high quality programs, making our schools some of the best in the region.  As other districts have had to cut back on these key programs, we have been able to keep programs like science, music, foreign language, art, and counselors.

“We don’t have the state budget yet,” said Gina Daleiden, “when we do, we’re going to have to see what our whole budget picture looks like.  Right now we’re riding on some one-time funding – the concessions from our employees and the contribution from the Davis Schools Foundation – essentially the community, giving.”

“Both of those are one-time sources so we’re going to need to figure out a way to backfill for that in a more sustainable way,” she said.  “The parcel tax is what we did with Measure W and we’re going to look at that again.”

The board has discussed the idea of going out for a parcel tax in May of this coming year.  The question is now what the community is willing and able to bear.  “It’s a hard time for everybody,” Gina Daleiden told the Vanguard.

One of the key questions is why is the district is looking at May as a date for the election, rather than during the November General Election.  “We had a consultant do a poll,” Ms. Daleiden responded, “the advice was that we would probably fail in November if we went for as much money as we would need in order to sustain the priority programs.  Or we would have to go for such a small amount of money that we would not have enough to sustain our programs.”

“There’s no sense being a suicide mission,” she said, “That doesn’t help anybody and we may end up with a failed parcel tax and drain resources from the community on a campaign that isn’t going to go.”

“All of the indications and advice that we got was to wait until May when it’s a mail-in only ballot and we can target our electorate,” she added.  The advantage of waiting is that they would know the state budget, what the district needs, and could then target the community appropriately and engage them in a campaign.

“Right now, we really don’t know how much money we need.  We know how much we’re riding on in one-time funds, but we don’t know what will happen once we see what the cuts are from the state,” Gina Daleiden pointed out.

The downside of this policy, however, is that numerous teachers will get pink slip notices and will have to face anxiety and uncertainty once again about their job status.  Gina Daleiden acknowledged this problem, but did not see a good way to avoid it.

“It’s no one’s preferred process,” she said, “We’ve been through this a couple of times now and I think I’ve been a pretty strong voice in [looking for alternatives].  But, it is a part of this devastating process that the state has handed us for funding for schools.  It isn’t anybody’s preference, but it’s what’s been happening for two years.  In order to stop that, we need a sustainable solution that is successful.”

“We can wish we could do something prior to the pink-slipping point in time, but if it isn’t going to be successful, it’s pointless.  It isn’t going to help anyone.  In the end, everybody will lose their jobs,” she said.

The difference in May is it being a mail-only ballot, which will change the dynamics.  The November election is a high draw, and with the current state of the economy, people will be reluctant to vote for additional tax assessments.

The polls do indicate that the public is very supportive of a parcel tax renewal, perhaps with some increase, but the need  must be made clear to the voters.  “If we don’t have a state budget,” she said, “we don’t know how much money we need.”  Right now, the other two parcel taxes are not up yet.  “If we go in May,” she added, “it’s not the last time to renew the two that we already have.”

The final point that Gina Daleiden wanted to emphasize is that with her “day job,” her job as Chief Deputy to Supervisor Jim Provenza, she sees the totality of the system as it applies to children and students.  She sees the impact of social services, law and justice and the health care system on children over and above the impact of education.  She believes that gives her unique insight in the system that she otherwise might not have.

The Vanguard has already run interviews with board candidates Mike Nolan and Sheila Allen, next week we will have our fourth and final installment as we talk to current board President Tim Taylor.

—David M. Greenwald reporting