Banning School Board Candidates Seek to Distinguish Themselves at Forum

Candidates running for three seats on the Banning Unified School District board in the Nov. 8 elections appeared at a forum Sunday afternoon at First Missionary Baptist Church in east Banning.

The seven hopefuls qualified with the county registrar of voters are Alfredo Andrade, Alex Cassadas, Ray Curtis, Deborah Dukes, Larry Ellis, Maxine Israel, and David Vanden Heuvel.

The forum was moderated by Banning teacher Troy Sheldon, who asked the candidates a total of seven questions or prompts.

"Good evening ladies and gentlemen. This is the truest form of politics on the face of the planet, and it is truly a privilege to be here tonight," Sheldon said in his opening remarks.

"I would like to personally thank all the candidates for taking time from their busy schedules to come and introduce yourselves to your electorate, and communicate your ideas," Sheldon said. "I would also like to thank the people who took time out of their busy day to come and educate yourselves as far as the opinions of your candidates."

Between 30 and 40 people, including current and former Banning educators, came to listen and observe. For each question Sheldon posed, each candidate was allowed two minutes to respond.

"Tell us what you would like to contribute as a board member to further focus on students in Banning Unified School District," Sheldon said, addressing the first prompt to all the candidates.

Vanden Heuvel, a retired teacher, was selected to respond first.

"Hello, I'm David Vanden Heuvel. Students know me as 'Mr. Van.' I'd appreciate your vote. This is what I would do for the students. Make their lives better, my number one priority would be to have later starting times in middle and high schools so students wouldn't be groggy and half-asleep all day.

"Studies have shown that the three problems we have in Banning - test scores, attendance, finances - would all be enhanced. If attendance is increased by even a small amount you could eliminate some of that $5 million dollar shortfall. . . .

"The second thing is to provide a tablet like this," he held up a computer tablet, "for every student in the Banning school district. They're going to use devices, you don't see people, especially young people walking around, especially young females, without some device in their hands that they're using, texting, constantly.

"It's part of their lives now and we need to incorporate that into schools. We can't say 'Leave your life at the door.'

"These tablets are cost-efficient, we can place them into books, we can have all of the math, science programs made.

"Those are two things. The other thing I would do is just bring intelligence and foresight and thoughtfulness to the school board, so that when things do come up we can decide rationally and creatively how to enhance student learning.

"Is that the 30-second line? Well, that's enough for now."

Ellis, a retired science teacher, responded:

"One thing I'd like to see us have is a lot more extracurricular activities and I'd like to see more work-oriented classes. I think it's critical, you know, we concentrate on academics, academics and worry about test scores.

"But a lot of times I think if we were to have more work-oriented classes that students see what they're learning, how to apply it, and they're going to remember it better. And I think this is critical.

"And we need to really look at test scores. Does every student that graduates from Banning High School need to have two years of a foreign language? I don't think so. There's a lot of students that, you know, are having trouble meeting just basic requirements that they have at Beaumont and surrounding districts but yet we expect so much more of our students, just to graduate, and I think that's creating problems for us.

"Do they need to take Algebra II when they don't understand the percents? Ok, I think we need to look at our academic levels and we to say, 'Ok, yeah, we want students to do as much as they can but we also need to be realistic and have them prepared for society in the real world.

"How many of you use Algebra II in your daily lives? How many of you need to know percents? And I think we need to look at those areas and be realistic and not let the tests dictate what we teach."

Andrade, a "para educator" or paraprofessional school employee, responded:

"Hi, my name's Alfredo Andrade, and what I would bring to the schools is I would like to see lower class sizes in the classrooms, that's what the students need and the teachers, to have more personal encouragement with them.

"We need to bring some positive environment to the schools, between staff and students, and how everybody works with each other. And I would like to bring some programs for the students to interact with the community. We can have athletic programs and they can have, as we said, work programs.

"We also need to make sure that the district is up-to-date technology-wise. Meaning bringing in some maybe not iPad-level iPads, but there's different kinds of pads out there that we can bring in that we use for books and everything, especially with how many e-books are out there.

"I've used e-books for my school, at Cal State San Bernardino, so I know I can create benefits for the students here at Banning High."

Israel, a parent, responded:

"Hi, I'm Maxine Israel, and I would first go through the budget. Seems that we're spending money that is not necessary. And I would cut that. That would be more money for more teachers, pay, smaller classroom sizes.

"If we had that, cut what we don't need, it would help our students a lot more than what it is right now."

Curtis, a retired administrator, responded:

"My name's Ray Curtis, or 'Coach,' whatever you'd like to prefer. In order to reach the students and the staff, the teachers and the classified unit, we have to have strong leadership at the top, so I would be bringing my skills and also my ability of being in this business over 25 years, a life-long educator, and work for the cohesiveness at the top administration to have a culture permeate of safety and health for the students.

"They should feel safe when they come to school. The staff should be there with all the tools and training that they need to provide a focus on the students. So what I would do is at the top leadership, work with the board, the superintendent, privatize the budget, emphasize instruction for the students, so that they can learn.

"It's very important that we do not forget our priority goal and that's education of young people. . . . So we need someone in a leadership role that has had experience and is not on a learning curve to make that happen."

Dukes, an incumbent Banning Unified School District board member and its current president, responded:

"Thank you everyone for coming out this evening. What I bring to the school board and would like to continue bringing to the school board is leadership and experience.

"So far in the four years that I have been on the board, we have raised test scores, reduced the dropout rate, and we also have made our schools safer. And I think that's very important, as Mr. Curtis said, that our kids need to feel safe. Our teachers need to feel safe. Everyone who works on our school campuses needs to feel safe and that is one thing that I would continue to do, is to make sure that our schools are safe.

"My number one priority, as I've always said, are the children. My passion is for the children. Everything that I do is for the children and their learning, and that is proof, we have proof, that that is happening now.

"We are turning this district around. There's very good things going on and I want to continue with that. Thank you."

Cassadas, a child care worker, responded:

"Thank you all for coming. My name is Alejandro Alex Cassadas. Basically, what I want to bring to you and the schools, and educate our students and our children is the community perspective.

"My family and I have been in this town for almost, actually more, more than a decade. And we have seen the struggle that our teachers and our classified workers have went through.

"Currently the status quo, a lot of our teachers and classified workers are feeling bullied because they can't freely express their opinions about how they should be treated, and deailing with our community, is actually suffer from that negative atmosphere.

"So what I want to bring to you, when we start listening to our classified workers and we start listening to our teachers, because they're the ones who truly know what is right . . . for teaching children, we need to listen to them because they are the ones who are going to make the most difference.

"How many of you remember when you went to one school when you were growing up, you don't remember certain people, but you remember you talked to your teachers. . . . You remember those people who were involved.

"When you seen an atmosphere and you see they're not being taken care of, that's an issue. And we want to bring the idea that we have a community that works together.

"We can solve the budget crisis, but we need to stop slashing, cutting certain programs. What we need to do is find a way to bring brevity to our community subjects . . . . fully funding the Avid program . . . .

"We need to refocus our directives. We need to take care of our classified workers. We need to take care of our teachers and we need to listen to the community and what they want to do and how they want us to teach, because at community meetings we are involved and that's how we can make a difference, by standing for what the community wants, so we educate our children to become vital members of society. Thank you."

The Banning Teachers Association, the union that represents more than 200 teachers in the Banning Unified School District, has endorsed Cassadas, Curtis, and Ellis.

Banning Unified School District serves about 5,000 students in a 300-square-mile area, from kindergarten through 12th grade, according to the district's web site.

The district includes four elementary schools, two middle schools, one comprehensive high school, and one continuation high school.

It is one of the largest employers in the San Gorgonio Pass, with about 450 employees.

The Banning Unified School District board is the policy-making body of the district, and it is responsible for governing and managing the district within the limits of State and Federal law, according to the district.

The district board is responsible for hiring the district superintendent, holding regularly scheduled meetings to conduct the business of the district, approving employment and termination of district personnel, and approving the district budget, the district web site states.

The revised district budget as of Sept. 2, 2011, was between $35 million and $37 million, which included total projected revenues of $35,005,383, total projected expenditures of $36,717,196, and a deficit of $1,711,813, according to board meeting minutes.

Stay with Banning-Beaumont Patch this week to read more from the candidates' forum Sunday at First Missionary Baptist Church.

The next scheduled forum is 6 p.m. to 8 p.m. Wednesday, Oct. 26, at Johnny Russo's Italian Kitchen, 1335 W. Ramsey St., Banning.