If it lacks the flare of the dramatic announcement of Richard Harris, who turned not only the prospective school board election on its head, but the entire community as well, Susan Lovenburg will have to be forgiven.
Her time on the board is perhaps as tumultuous as anyone’s, beginning with the late night meetings and dramatic decisions that punctuated early 2008 in the first of many fiscal crises that saw the young board propose and ultimately reject closing Emerson Junior High, DaVinci, and numerous programs like foreign languages, music, art and drama.
The very timing of this election was pushed back a year in order to save the district a couple hundred thousands of dollars, and her announcement for re-election comes in the aftermath of yet another fiscal crisis and yet another call for local funding to bolster the local school district.
Susan Lovenburg, serving as the board president, announced this weekend that she is seeking to run for re-election in November.
Ms. Lovenburg has served on the Davis School Board since 2007, after finishing first in a field of four candidates in her first campaign.
“Despite the difficult economic times in which I have served, my commitment to public education is unwavering,” said Ms. Lovenburg. “I would like to build on the knowledge and experience I have gained to continue serving Davis students.”
In her release, she touted the issue of budget transparency as “a central focus, having worked with volunteers to develop www.DistrictDollars.org, a web-based, interactive program to help community members understand the Davis Joint Unified School District (DJUSD) budget situation.”
As a member of the Board Policy Subcommittee, “she worked closely with fellow trustee Sheila Allen to develop fundraising and homework policy recommendations to ensure equitable opportunities for all students.”
Morover, “As liaison to the Davis Bridge Foundation, she has supported the organization’s partnership with DJUSD to improve the academic achievement of low-income Davis students.”
“I continue to be inspired by the many who serve our community,” said Trustee Lovenburg. “It is crucial that those making decisions have a vested interest in our schools and knowledge of the challenges that face us.”
However, this week will likely be remembered more for the dramatic announcement of colleague Richard Harris, who was elected alongside Susan Lovenburg in the November 2007 elections – perhaps the last of the odd year elections in the city of Davis.
Richard Harris, upon announcing he would not seek re-election, offered to work full-time for the passage of a new parcel tax.
Richard Harris said that, while he needs to leave the board to spend time with his family and working on his business, he feels like there is a lot that the board did not get to accomplish.
He said that 2007, when he was first elected to the board, it was the last year they had a COLA (Cost of Living Adjustment). “I’ve had to see the excellence in education slip away from us,” he said. “Yet, every time we saw it slip away we looked internally within our community to try to find something to do locally to help solve whatever the problem of the day was.”
He mentioned the recent efforts and angst over trying to get Measure A and then Measure C passed, the ability of the community to step up with one-time money through the Davis Schools Foundation, and all of these efforts to protect what he called the “Davis way.”
“We do all these things and yet we still have a problem,” he said. “Because since 2007, we’re being hit close to $12 million a year that we’re not getting. It keeps getting taken away from us and we’re just constantly filling up that hole – not because we want to take people’s taxes, not because we’re in some way trying to create some monster government bureaucracy – we do it because it’s for our children.”
“I believe that our children deserve the most excellent education that we can give them,” Mr. Harris added.
Richard Harris’s $642 proposal funded three things: (1) restoration of the recent budget cuts laying off 50 teachers and other employees; (2) renewal of Measure A; and (3) a contingency if the Trigger Cuts go into effect as the result of the loss of Governor Brown’s tax measure.
Susan Lovenburg, as President, pushed off the final decision until this coming Thursday. In the meantime, she was supportive of the latter two measures, but not the restoration of the recent cuts.
Like her colleagues, Ms. Lovenburg argued that the emergency which Measure A was attempting to forestall “has actually increased.”
“I am mindful that this is a really heavy lift,” Board President Susan Lovenburg said. “I value all of the reasons why you are proposing what you’re proposing,” she said, speaking to Richard Harris. “I’m following a lot of that way, I think, because most of us understand what the alternative is.
Susan Lovenburg is a 15-year resident of Davis with three daughters. Her youngest daughter attends Emerson Jr. High, another will be a junior at Davis Senior High School and her eldest recently graduated from UC San Diego.
A longtime parent volunteer prior to her election to the School Board, Ms. Lovenburg has continued her community service as a member of Soroptimist International of Davis, a board member for Yolo CASA (Court Appointed Special Advocates), and a co-founder of Saving California Communities, a group of Yolo community members who advocate for state governance and budget reform.
Ms. Lovenburg is a five-year member and past president of the Yolo County School Boards Association and a member of the delegate assembly of the California School Boards Association.
Since March 2011, Ms. Lovenburg has been a Sacramento partnerships coordinator for California Forward, a non-profit, nonpartisan organization working to identify common sense steps Californians can take to make government work. CA Fwd accomplishes this through broad consultation and analysis of critical problems facing the state, and then identifies nonpartisan reforms that can make a difference. Susan Lovenburg was recently appointed director of the California Forward Partnership for Economic Prosperity.
Ms. Lovenburg holds a bachelor of science degree from Cornell University and a master of library science from Syracuse University. She completed the California School Boards Association Masters in Governance program in 2011.
—David M. Greenwald reporting
It amazes me that she is even willing to serve during this terrible budget time. She has my vote.