Schools

School Board Incumbent Wants Four More Years

Incumbent Shelly Masur wants to continue fighting for equitable education for Redwood City students.

There are four candidates running for three spots on the Redwood City School District school board: , , , and . Patch will run profiles of each candidate. Be sure to vote by Nov. 8, Election Day!

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For the past six years that board trustee Shelly Masur has been on the board, the city has faced budget cuts with fewer resources. Yet Academic Performance Index amongst other academic and programmatic gains in the 16 schools.

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This continuing progress, Masur says, is the reason she plans to run again for the school board.

“Not all things have been easy, but we’ve seen a really significant increase in the past years,” Masur said.

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Masur rattled off a number of gains the district has made: moving schools out of “project improvement” status, —where her children attend—becoming a California Distinguished School, and gains in API scores.

Mayor Jeff Ira commended the three incumbents for the job that the school board is currently doing.

“One of the hardest jobs in the world is being a school board member,” Ira said. “And they’ve done so much with what little they’re given.”

 

A Commitment to Public Education—Locally and Statewide

Masur said her dedication to education also expands to the state level, when California has dealt public education multiple hits to schools’ budgets, .

She testified in front of the Senate Budget committee to fight the inadequate education funding despite certain mandates from the state.

Assemblyman Rich Gordon tapped Masur to serve as part of his Academic Advisory Committee to keep him abreast of the impact of state decisions on local entities.

She is also using the opportunity to call attention locally and statewide to the crisis that education is facing should inadequate funding continue.

“She’s really making a statewide effort in community schools to make sure that schools become a focal point for all services in neighborhoods,” Gordon said.

After obtaining a Masters degree in public health, Masur has always been involved with youth. 

She is currently the Executive Director of the teen pregnancy prevention non-profit Teen Talk, which as well.

The district’s health has been a large portion of her platform. She founded the district’s wellness committee fairly recently after she joined the school board.

 

An Increase in Communication with Parents

A large part of the job is communicating with parents about these constant district changes that come internally as well as top-down. And Masur said she and incumbent Alisa MacAvoy spearheaded a community outreach campaign that reached over 800 individuals. It was pure manpower, talking to individuals at any and all events, she said. She discussed the narrowly defeated 2009 parcel tax, what jurisdiction the school board has and doesn’t have, as well as the schools’ achievements.

Anecdotally, Masur said the increased communication was evident in the response to the budget cuts in 2005 then last year in 2010. In 2005, the board room was packed with parents outraged and demanding to know where the cuts were coming from. Last year, very few parents opposed the cuts because they knew where the cuts stemmed from.

“They said ‘we understand,’” Masur said. “It was a whole different tenor because of the open communication.” 

 

Uphill Battles

But Masur is the first to recognize that the district has a large set of other problems to tackle. The K-3 student to teacher ratios jumped to 30:1, putting a further strain on teachers.

“When my daughter was in 5th grade, there were 24 kids in her class and she took instrumental music,” Masur said of class ratios and the elimination of music for fifth graders.

“When my sons were in 5th grade last year, there were 31 kids, and no instrumental music,” she added. “It was hard to walk around the classroom because there were so many desks.”

 

A “Solution”?

The school board members have not been shy about their support for a parcel tax in order to more closely match the amount of money spent to educate neighboring districts’ students.

“Redwood City deserves what the kids next door are getting,” Masur said. Woodside Elementary district students received $ $17,320 in government funding plus fundraising in contrast to the $5,251 that Redwood City students received last school year.

“Redwood City ,” Masur said. “And I hope that community will support it.”

There is also a large disparity in fundraising, Masur said, though she does not discredit the magnanimous effort of the Redwood City Education Foundation. The San Carlos Education Foundation and San Carlos’ parcel tax make up 17 percent of its annual budget. The Redwood City Education Foundation contributes 0.5 percent to the district’s budget.

“But [more fundraising] won’t solve the problem either,” Masur said. “San Carlos has had to make cuts as well.”

Masur floated out options such as a bond and facilities upgrades like solar panels to decrease energy costs. The district due to decreased utilities costs.

Thinking outside the box, Masur mentioned an upgrade in technology infrastructure and more computers in classrooms.

The district has leveraged public-private partnerships and relationships with other entities in these pressing times.

“There’s more than one way to think about how we could bring more resources to the district,” Masur said. “And as an incumbent, I’ve been thinking of all those ways.”

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