Patterson Joint Unified School District has seven locals interested in taking one of four open seats on the local school board.

Incumbents Gilbert Lujan and Bruce Kelly will compete with challengers Alex Saballos, Amy Hussar, Elisa Medina, Jose Reynoso and Kay Johnson in the Nov. 8 election. Trustees Barbara Hartsell and Bobby Yamamoto have decided not to seek another four-year term.

The following are the candidates’ individual responses to questions posed by the Irrigator.

Alex Saballos

Saballos has three children in local schools and has served on the school district’s budget advisory committee. He is a leadership development trainer who has presented youth leadership programs to PJUSD students.

Q: What are your goals for the Patterson Joint Unified School District?

A: My goal is to work closely with the board of trustees team, as well as the school district employees, which include teachers, principals and the superintendent, to ensure we are providing all necessary items to our schools for our students.



Q: What do you think is the most important issue facing the school district?

A: Currently, I think the issue that stands out more than any other is the number of students in a classroom. I think the classrooms are overcrowded, which, in turn, affects the attention that students need for a safe environment and overall academic success.



Q: What do you believe should be the budget priorities for the district?

A: Budget priorities I think should be obvious: We are all here for the students, so the priority should be anything to help the teachers, so the students can benefit.



Q: What is the best way to improve academic achievement?

A: I believe technology plays a critical role to improve academic achievement. Students could use technology to find information and to collect, organize and understand data in preparation to present. This is real-life experience. Technology can support teachers for items such as curriculum planning, online materials and training. The benefit is endless.



Amy Hussar

Hussar, a tutor and substitute teacher working within the school district, comes from a family of educators. She says she is passionate about education and positively influencing children’s lives.



Q: What are your goals for the Patterson Joint Unified School District?

A: My main goal is to achieve a better allocation of resources down to the classroom level. That may mean cuts in administration, discontinuing programs or spending more on teachers than support staff, among other possibilities. No matter what, these decisions will require a thorough review of the current budget and opening up — and maintaining — a dialogue with staff members about what our priorities are. I also want to ensure that the board is responsive to everyone, including parents and community members.

Q: What do you think is the most important issue facing the school district?

A: One common theme that I’ve heard over and over is the issue of overcrowding, particularly at the secondary level. Last year, the district received about $1.2 million from the state for class-size reductions in K-3, but at the same time, I know many students who have to be bused to other schools due to the lack of space at their neighborhood schools. It seems to me that the money spent on busing could be put to better use by hiring another teacher or two, as one example. At the secondary level, it’s not uncommon for there to be upwards of 40 students in a class, sometimes in portables. Even the best students are easily distracted in this kind of environment, and it’s really not fair to anyone. There are ways to address the overcrowding, but it will require some creative thinking, and I would fully support any efforts, even if they are ultimately not feasible.

Q: What do you believe should be the budget priorities for the district?

A: For lack of a better phrase, I think schools need to focus on three things in terms of finances: staffing, materials and facilities. Salaries and benefits are a large portion of the current budget, but it’s not fair to ask only the teachers to take a large pay cut when those cuts should occur everywhere — salaries, services, capital outlay, debt service and so on. Is it really necessary to pay $140,000 per year for travel and conferences, $759,000 for professional/consulting services and operating expenditures, or $315,000 for communications when there are other needs that may be more urgent? Every line item needs to be examined and discussed to determine the best approach to the budget as a whole.

Q: What is the best way to improve academic achievement?

A: Based on my own experiences as an educator, I think that teachers should have more leeway in terms of thinking outside the box, without being penalized in terms of reviews and tenure. When students are permitted to learn in the manner that works best for them, academic achievement will naturally improve. Whether this means independent learning for some students or grouping by learning style for others, we shouldn’t be afraid to try new things. Even failures can be turned into learning experiences.

Bruce Kelly

Kelly has served on the local school board the past 17 years. Kelly, who retired from Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory last year, has said he has more time in retirement to focus on school issues. His daughters attended local schools, and now his grandchildren are students in the Patterson school district.

Q: What are your goals for the Patterson Joint Unified School District?

A: My goals are the same as those developed by the staff and community for the district. First of all, we must remove educational gaps among groups of students. Test scores for our kids have been going up at nearly the same rate for the accountable groups, but the difference between groups is not shrinking noticeably. We would like to accelerate the rate of the lower groups so it will take less than 50 years for the gaps to be removed.

Secondly, we must prepare students for college and careers. I believe that we should prepare every child to be ready for further educational opportunities after graduation. Given that these numbers have been around 20 percent in Patterson and the state for generations, this involves changing a family’s expectations for education. So unlike the gap issue above, it is a matter of getting started to accelerate the rate of change.

Thirdly, we must promote wellness in our students and families. As it turns out, Patterson had the highest rate of obesity in the county. As this problem increases more and more, children will be missing school for medical reasons. It has been shown that if a student misses as few as 10 days in a school year, this can put them behind grade level.

Finally, we must provide technology in the classroom. During a recent visit with company officials from Grainger, I asked what skills we might need to be teaching in six to 10 years. The answer was to prepare students for rapid changes in technology and the tools they use to do their work. That is, make sure they are not afraid to accept technology changes as they come along. We have to provide new technology as it becomes useful and give the resources to our teachers to model the behavior the business community wants.

Q: What do you think is the most important issue facing the school district?

A: Accomplishing the above goals with significantly fewer resources.

Q: What do you believe should be the budget priorities for the district?

A: The budget should always reflect the goals of the district. Any budget decision, including grants, should be based on how well they support the goals. This is even more important with the significantly fewer resources we have been receiving over the last few years. Even with class sizes going up, we still need to provide for teacher training and mentoring. Otherwise, they cannot do their jobs, regardless of how many students they have.

Q: What is the best way to improve academic achievement?

A: Pick a program and stick with it. Train all the staff how to use the program, monitor them to make sure it is being used properly, and collaborate among the staff on how it is done properly, and provide the resources for help when it is not.

Elisa Pinedo-Medina Pinedo-Medina, who has three children in local schools and wants to make an impact for bettering the school system. She is a business owner who wants to be involved for all students.

Q: What are your goals for the Patterson Joint Unified School District?

A: My goals are as follows: To provide schools that allow my children and all other children in Patterson to experience success. To provide opportunities for students in our district to grow not only academically, but socially as well. To provide the city of Patterson with graduates who are not only ready for college, but also ready to enter the workforce. To do more with less. To help the district become more efficient and maximize our resources to improve student achievement.

Q: What do you think is the most important issue facing the school district?

A: The most important issue is always students, and the focus needs to stay on that on every decision that is made at the board level. These are difficult times, and it is important that, as a school district, our focus remains on our children’s welfare and education.

Q: What do you believe should be the budget priorities for the district?

A: Our priorities have to be what is going on in our classrooms. Are we providing the proper resources for all of our teachers and for students to be successful? With foreseeable budget cuts in the future, prioritizing and focusing on how our students can be successful in the classroom is vital.

Q: What is the best way to improve academic achievement?

A: To provide our teachers with opportunities to improve and collaborate with each other to better serve our students in the district. To provide our students with individualized learning goals and opportunities inside and outside of the school day to become successful.

Gilbert Lujan

Lujan, who has served 11 years on the school board, has said he wants to continue working for the students by serving on the decision-making team that represents their interests.

Q: What are your goals for the Patterson Joint Unified School District?

A: My goals are to be an advocate for professional development for our teachers and administrators to ensure improvement in academic performance to all our students. My other goal is to work and collaborate with the entire board, superintendent, district staff and the community to implement and oversee the district’s strategic plan, hire high-qualified personnel and prioritize the budget to ensure adequate funding is available for core academic subjects.



Q: What do you think is the most important issue facing the school district?

A: The most important issues and challenges facing the district at the present time are budget cuts, teachers’ layoffs, overcrowded classrooms and elimination of educational programs. We are and will maintain a balanced budget sufficient to provide funding for instructional programs, hire and retain quality teachers, have a well-funded maintenance program with adequate custodial personnel and funding for other district operational needs. With the present economic situation, we need to do our best at all times by consistently prioritizing the budget and making projections about future needs while we provide quality education to our children.



Q: What do you believe should be the budget priorities for the district?

A: The budget priorities for the district should be in line with the district’s academic and operational goals. First of all, we need to continuously invest in professional development training for our teachers. With this training, the teachers will acquire the latest instructional skills and techniques that will ensure that all our students are learning. Secondly, we need to have a transparent collective bargaining process with equality and fairness for the district and employees. Thirdly, we must have a safe and healthy learning environment in our schools.



Q: What is the best way to improve academic achievement?

A: a) I believe that the best way to improve academic achievement is by having the teachers and students interact in daily lessons. I also believe that by delivering relevant instruction in the classroom, our students will get engaged, they will be more attentive; they will grasp the concepts with better understanding. The challenge for the teachers is to find the motivation in every child to stay attentive in class.

b) Tutoring and homework assistance to focus on core academic subjects.

c) Educational enrichment activities.

d) Family literacy that will help themselves and their children, and we all should inspire and help our students to learn every day.



Jose Reynoso

Reynoso, who has four children in the schools, wants to focus on providing the best education possible for children and make sure local campuses are safe. Reynoso is a local business owner and a computer engineer who wants to represent all youngsters.

Q: What are your goals for the Patterson Joint Unified School District?

A: To provide an excellent education in a good environment

Q: What do you think is the most important issue facing the school district?

A: Currently, the Patterson Joint Unified School District is going through budget problems. They need to find ways to better prioritize and get the most for their money. We need to find and eliminate unnecessary spending to be able to add additional teachers in order to eliminate classroom overcrowding so that our children can get a better education.



Q: What do you believe should be the budget priorities for the district?

A: Our main priority should be focused on how to provide a better education for our children. That’s the sole reason why schools exist.

Q: What is the best way to improve academic achievement?

A: Reduce classroom overcrowding and provide after-school programs for everyone who needs help.

Kay Johnson

Johnson, who has served on school site councils and parent teacher associations at local schools, wants all students to have a good education. The local business owner has two children in PJUSD schools and said being on campus gives her a connection to school staff, students and local administrators.

Q: What are your goals for the Patterson Joint Unified School District?

A: To join the board and work together to create an effective team that will keep our school district on track and focused on the best interest of the students — all of the students. I believe every student, regardless of ability or background, is important. Resources need to be allocated equally to ensure that all students have the opportunity to reach their academic and creative potential. Too much focus on one subgroup of students leaves the others needing resources and hinders their progress and accomplishments.

Q: What do you think is the most important issue facing the school district?

A: The budget is and will be the most important issue facing any school district. District leaders need to understand that how the financial resources are allocated is a reflection on our priorities. We need to ask the question, “Does our practice match our promise?” If not, we must look at how we are spending our resources to match our stated goals.

Q: What do you believe should be the budget priorities for the district?

A: School district budgets need to be prioritized on student safety and student achievement. Monies spent in areas not directly related to the classroom tend to have lesser effect than those monies that can be directly connected to the students and their experiences in the classroom.

Q: What is the best way to improve academic achievement?

A: To establish a culture of academic achievement, we must publicly celebrate our achievers. We must create a culture where the students want to be successful because it is “cooler” than not being successful. We must create a culture where it is easier to succeed than to fail. Through our actions and our promises, we must tell the students, in no mixed terms, that their success and accomplishments drive our purpose and resolve.