Cost-Free Improvements Addressed by Banning School Board Candidates

Making education improvements with little or no money requires creative thinking, and that is what candidates for three seats on the Banning Unified School District board were asked to display at a forum Sunday.

The seven hopefuls are Alfredo Andrade, Alex Cassadas, Ray Curtis, Deborah Dukes, Larry Ellis, Maxine Israel, and David Vanden Heuvel.

The forum Sunday afternoon at First Missionary Baptist Church was moderated by Banning teacher Troy Sheldon.

Sheldon asked the candidates a total of seven questions or prompts. For reports on the first two prompts and candidates' responses, click and .

The third prompt Sunday was "Tell us what you would like to see done to improve the educational system for our students that would cost little or no money."

Andrade, a "para educator" or paraprofessional school employee, was selected to respond first:

"The easiest thing that I see to improve . . . is communication between all levels. That will create a better environment, a better educational environment for our students.

"If our teachers are communicating with staff, the staff is communicating with administration, and administration is communicating with everyone, that in itself will create a positive work and education environment, just like the mission statement says for Banning Unified. And it won't cost a penny.

Israel, a parent, responded:

"Improving without no costs. That's easy. We can get things donated. Being a parent, working at it, we've done that. We've gotten things donated. It's not that hard.

"That is what . . . we need more donations instead of having to worry how we're going to pay for something. And try to do more activities."

Curtis, a retired administrator, responded:

"Everyone likes to be in a positive atmosphere, a 'Thank you' here and there, 'Good job,' 'That-a-boy' . . . Hey, catch people doing good.

"Don't catch people looking for the bad in people and making mistakes. Catch them doing good.

"Here. Free." Curtis held up newspaper clippings. "'Superintendent Honors Student Scholarships.' She did well. 'Superintendent Beaumont Unified Coordinator of the Spirit Run, $1,700.' Given, free.

"Newspaper. Adult school. Some of these students from Banning went to Beaumont. More graduate, LDN program. Yes. Free. Accentuate the positive.

"We have a lot of good things in here but you know what, it's hidden because of all the other unrest, violation of trust and all those other things that are going on. We need someone to come, who will blend things together, open together, set aside the hidden agendas, and focus on kids.

"I offer my assistance, if you elect me to do that. This stuff is free. You want to work for an organization that appreciates you."

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

"Free. Parental involvement. If we get more parents helping in the schools, more parents caring about the kids, bringing their kids to school, working in the schools.

"Free. Open communications. That means open communication on everybody's side. BTA, CSEA, superintendent, administrators, everybody should bring out their hidden agendas. Everybody.

"And then the third thing I would think is working as a team. That's what's lacking. Everybody's pulling every bit of the way and it's starting to pull on Banning Unified."

Cassadas, a child care worker, responded:

"I believe the first thing we need to look at once the new board is elected, is that we do need to look at the current budget. A lot of the stuff that's in there is unnecessary.

"That will give, actually it won't cost anything, we'll actually get a surplus. If we start looking at the budget now, we see what works, what doesn't work. If the current board members cannot justify that a certain program or a certain expenditure should be there, it should be taken out of that budget. . . .

"We need to re-evaluate the budget so we actually put more funds towards certain social programs, certain extracurricular programs.

"We start doing that, that's how we effect open communication, open and honest communication that is lacking currently with the school board right now. We see that many people have those hidden agendas that Ms. Dukes was just speaking of.

"Why are all those hidden agendas there today? Because there is no open and honest communication. We need to make sure we re-evaluate our goals, we need to understand that everybody's in this together, everybody's made certain sacrifices, and also made certain strides that keep us focused on what the needs of the children are today.

"We have focused on the budget, that's been done, a couple years ago or last quarter. It has to change every single quarter. We have to keep up with the times. What is working, what is not working, what can we do to possibly bring more of a surplus?

"We need to start cutting programs today, and try to bring in revenue. That's what we need to do to help our children."

Vanden Heuvel, a retired teacher, responded:

"I must say I agree with Larry, Mr. Ellis here, on work-studying programs. We need more of those. Those are not expensive. A lot of times the programs are paid for by, for example, the Morongo Casino's looking to invest in training people for the hotel, restaurant and entertainment business.

"They'll put up the money for that. They'll get people jobs.

"I think we should look into ROTC and various Army programs on this campus. I was against the war in Vietnam, I'm not, I'm just saying. But ROTC, the Army, the Air Force, those are viable careers for our young children.

"Once you're in those services, like Ben Westbrook, he got a million-dollar education to become a doctor, paid for by the service that he was in. Other graduates of mine got hundred thousand dollar loans to pay back. So we can do that without a whole bunch of money.

"I want to say, somebody mentioned they're an educator. I'm not an educator. I'm a teacher. That's what Jesus' followers called him. 'Teacher.' Buddha's followers called him 'teacher.' They didn't call him 'educator.' That's somebody's who's in the education field, ok?

"The fact that you have experience in old methods is nothing. The reason Steven Jobs, and Bill Gates, and Zuckenburg, Zuck, the Facebook guy, succeeded is because they didn't follow old methods. We need to get outside the box.

"Communication's a nice concept. Mr. Curtis extolled the virtue of Beaumont. We don't need a Beaumont retread. We need Banning. We don't need to hear how great Beaumont is. I've been listening to that for the last 25 years.

"It's not true. We outscored them on AP tests, we outscored them on a lot of levels. It's true they have community spirit. But that's not the point. The point is don't tell me about Beaumont. How you're going to take Beaumont to Banning, because that's not going to happen.

"We need Banning people. I'm done."

Ellis, a retired science teacher, responded:

"Well, one thing that Beaumont does, that we don't do in Banning, Beaumont's dirty laundry is kept in the house. And we roll it all over and air it in the public, the papers and so forth, and this group and that group.

"And a lot of times we're our own worst enemy. And we need to say ok, we've got conflicts, let's come together, let's talk about it, let's solve it, without making it a big grandiose thing that we tend to do in Banning. So we need to kind of stop that.

"Communicaton, yeah, that's a given. We gotta communicate, all the way up and down, parents to the D.O. and everyone in between.

"We have teachers that aren't in the classroom. They're specialists. Academic or curriculum specialists. And I'm sorry, we need teachers in the classroom. If we can't, if we're hiring people who can't teach, or need extra help, with all the teachers out there we shouldn't be hiring these people, and that will lower our class size and that'll help us all the way around.

"Yeah, we need to look at the budget, make sure that everything in the budget is doing what it's supposed to do, and that's a difficult thing."

The California School Employees Association, the classified school employees union that represents more than 210,000 school support staff in California, has endorsed Andrade, Cassadas and Curtis, CSEA representative Beth Caskie said Tuesday.

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.

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

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 for more from the candidates' forum Sunday at First Missionary Baptist Church.

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