You couldn’t blame Carl Clark if he was somewhat wary prior to last Tuesday’s candidate forum in the City Council chambers.
Clark, the incumbent Redondo Beach Unified School District board president, had the unenviable task of going up on a dais with two opponents who have joined together on a slate to unseat him in a race that will elect two of the board’s five trustees. One member of the slate is fellow incumbent Arlene Staich, who four years ago was part of a slate with Clark and fellow current trustee Jane Diehl that overthrew what had by their account become a disconnected school board majority.
Staich has formed a slate with challenger Dale Petrulis that boasts of 68 years of combined educational experience. Staich taught math and science for 26 years at Mira Costa High School and has served four years on the board; Petrulis taught 11 years and has been a school principal and administrator for the last two decades within the Los Angeles Unified School District.
Clark, a Realtor, is running on his experience on the school board, a four year period that has seen the school district withstand severe budget cuts caused by the state’s economic woes and now appears to be surging both academically and financially. In the course of a 40 minute forum, the board president stressed his leadership in helping the district survive and thrive during a tumultuous four year period that saw five different superintendents – two who served on an interim basis, two who resigned over differences with two separate board majorities, and current Superintendent Steven Keller.
That same time timeframe, Clark said, has seen a 35 point jump district-wide in API test scores, a stabilized budget situation, and – particularly since Keller’s arrival last year – vastly improved employee morale.
“When I was elected in 2003, the school district was over budget about $1.5 million a year,” Clark said. “Further layoffs were being planned…Within six months, the new school board cut $1.6 million. I personally identified $600,000 in cuts without impacting the classroom.”
Clark said one of his priorities in a second term would be to improve the district’s science and technology curriculum. “The goal is to have our students be prepared to be the scientists and inventors of the future,” he said.
Petrulis said her 38 year career in education made her uniquely qualified to help the school district. She noted that as a principal she had helped transform one previously poorly performing school into a California Distinguished School. She said the way to make all schools better is through cooperation and collaboration.
“I have always been known as one who brings all stakeholders together…to improve instruction, improve the schools, and improve the community,” Petrulis said.
Staich likewise touted her experience, both as a math and science teacher and as a school board trustee who, as “a lifelong learner” has earned a Masters in governance from the California School Board Association.
“For 30 years, I have been making decisions affecting the education of our children,” Staich said.
Staich also said that reaching out to the community for input has been a hallmark of her time as a trustee. “Communication with the whole community, and not just staff and parents, is very important to me,” she said.
There was, it turned out, nothing confrontational about this forum, with the candidates restating their unique qualifications for the office throughout the course of the roughly 30 minutes of discussion. The half-dozen questions prepared by the chamber touched on topics including a proposed bond measure, prospects for additional revenues, and how to best serve those students not bound for college.
All three candidates support a bond measure, but all stress the need to better communicate with the community about both the need for school improvements and the status of previous bond construction. All three likewise believe that students that are not college-bound could be better served by a more diverse course offering. Staich and Petrulis both stressed the importance of utilizing the Southern California Regional Occupation Center, which provides technical training for students.
“We need to offer more choices of course work, and we need to make sure SCROC is known by all students,” Petrulis said, adding that the district should also expand mentoring, internships and job shadowing programs.
Staich, who is board president of SCROC, said that technical education is different than it once was. It’s not cooking, she said. “We have to bring out the medical field, we have to bring out technology fields, we have to bring out media and broadcasting,” Staich said. “We have a lot of opportunity that needs to be put forth to students.”
Clark said that the district needed to bring back its AP computer science coursework. He said, whereas students in the past had woodshop, students today need to have hands-on experience in operating computer networks and other such technological skills. “We need to look at the fact that this is the 21st century,” Clark said.
Each candidate saw opportunities to enhance district revenues and offered different ways to do so. Petrulis said that finding grants “is what I do every day” and that she believed she could find additional monies for the district. Staich suggested that the district should create a position specifically for a grant writer. And Clark said that he views revenue “more holistically” and believes that the district can derive more money from the many properties it owns that are rented far below market rate. ER