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My Campaign Issues

Future Enrollment Growth

I want to prepare our district and schools for the inevitable growth of our cities. We need to be creative, thoughtful and forward-thinking in our approach to managing such a complex process. To be successful we need to continually improve our communication and collaboration with all the stake holders. We will need the best possible buy-in from our community. We will not be successful in a vacuum.

Summer School to Prepare 8th Graders

Improved transitioning of 8th graders into high school. Our district has begun addressing the transition of 8th grade students from our feeder schools into high school. This year’ Summer School program was very successful, I heard all about it from my daughter, but we can do even better. My own transition from 8th grade  into Los Altos High School was traumatic, a real culture shock. I had not been prepared for any of this by Crittenden. We should expand our Summer School program to serve more students in more ways so they are better prepared for High School than I was. I want to engage with this program to elevate it to the next level.

Mental Health and Wellness

Mental health and wellness have always been important parts of education, not only for the students, but for the staff as well. Recent years have created a crisis unlike any we have ever seen and we are all struggling to become more effective at dealing with it. We need to work with the cities and county to help pay for more effective mental health programs. The services we have were simply not designed to deal with the aftermath of the school closures. We need to make this a serious public issue so all the stake-holders will step up and do their part. We need to have productive collaboration with the K-8 districts so our district can be proactive in providing mental health services for the students at risk.

Fiscal Responsibility and transparency

We need to show fiscal responsibility and transparency. Our community needs to be able to trust that the district is effectively managing the available revenue and other resources to the very best benefit we can for all of our students and staff. We should strive to sustain the strongest financial position and the highest credit rating possible for any school district in California. This will also make it much easier to prepare for the expected enrollment growth.

Improving Academic Outcomes for All Students

Reducing the Achievement Gap and our Advanced Placement programs should not be seen as a "zero-sum game". I believe our district has the resources to do both well. We should innovate and improve our programs that support the success of our most vulnerable students while still supporting the A.P. students at both MVHS and LAHS. While Alta Vista, Freestyle and our Adult Continuation programs are improving, there is more to be done to support their progress as well. We need to make services like tutoring and supervised study halls widely and easily available. We should also put more effort into our Summer-School program. We had a Zero Period in the past, perhaps this could be revived and leveraged to help provide time for tutors and mentors to connect with struggling students. If we see the achievement gap as an educational challenge and address it as such, we can continually reduce it.

Preparing Students for Adulthood

I want our students to become academically, emotionally, mentally and physically prepared to be successful and healthy adults. Recent years have placed exceptional burdens on our students and we need to provide our educators all the resources they need to lead our students to that goal. I want all of our students to have a full tool box of skills before they graduate.

Putting My Professional Experience and
Family Inspiration to Work for Our Schools

I grew up in our local public school system K-12th. I have lived in Mountain View for over 50 years. I bought a home in Mountain View because I am dedicated to our wonderful community. My daughter is also growing up in our local public school system and is now a freshman at Los Altos High School.

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I learned the importance of parental involvement from my mother who was a bus driver for the Whisman School District. She was a deeply involved parent advocate in the district, a leader with her drivers' union and was a frequent volunteer for the schools I attended.

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​I worked in high technology companies for more than 30 years. Most recently, for nearly 10 years, I held a very demanding position at Tesla Motors as a Senior Production Materials Planner. It was a highly complex, high-pressure, long hours, detail-oriented position that involved world-wide supply chains and logistics to keep the Tesla manufacturing lines running. This position required strong multi-tasking, communications, organizational and critical-thinking skills in the ever present face of potential chaos. And yet I still found ways to volunteer my time to support my daughters' teachers and schools.

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​I am newly retired, so I am now ready to apply my extensive data-driven business experience, my people skills and my energies to repay our vibrant city and our dedicated schools for the amazing life I have lived by serving on the MVLA Union High School Board.

Special Education Saved Me

Dyslexia was not always as well understood or widely known as it is today. I was very fortunate because, years before I was a Kinder at Theuerkauf Elementary school, that School Board educated themselves about Dyslexia and took action.

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That School Board saved me. The life I have lived would not have been possible without the programs they set in motion to educate the educators on how to spot the signs of my Dyslexia, to get me diagnosed and to teach me methods to compensate for it. Dyslexia cannot be cured, but with a combination of speech therapy and reading strategies, most people can overcome their learning differences and thrive, as I have.

 

The greatest wonder to me is how the program worked so smoothly and casually that I never had a clue I was a Special Ed kid, nor did my classmates. My parents and teachers kept the secret until I was 18 in my Senior year at Los Altos High School. Since then, I have gone on to earn a Bachelor of Science Degree in Business Management and have had a career filled with ongoing education and professional success.

 

I can only guess at how many other students have had their lives changed for the better by decisions that School Board made before I would enter public school. I will always be grateful to them and will always respect the importance of Special Education programs in our public schools.

School Sports Changed My Life

I was like most teens, insecure about my looks, my abilities and where I fit in, if I fit in at all. I felt quite alone in feeling like this, as most teens do, but when I discovered school sports everything changed. I found sports allowed me to be me, perhaps for the first time in my life. I could be silly, clumsy and not 100% sure of what I was doing and still be accepted as part of something bigger. I was no longer just one more insecure teen, I was now part of a team. We had common goals and every one of us was important to achieving those goals.

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However, at first, transitioning into Los Altos High School was traumatic, a real culture shock to me. There was nothing that felt familiar. I remember feeling like an unwanted outsider. I had not been prepared for any of this by Crittenden. I can’t really blame Crittenden, mine was the first class of Crittenden teens that were assigned to LAHS and there was little if any communication between the two schools to help prepare us for this transition.

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I tried to fit in, but none of my efforts made me feel like I belonged. Until I tried out for the Girls Swim Team. I already knew I was an excellent swimmer, so I felt very self-confidant in the try-outs and apparently it showed. I made the team and learned that being self-confident made me more open to new friendships in general, not just on the team.

 

Sports had changed my view of myself and everyone else. I saw that I had been self-isolating for no good reason. It turned out that other kids had just been waiting for me to open up. LAHS was unfamiliar, but as it turned out, not unfriendly.

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As a sophomore, I tried out for Girls Field Hockey. A sport that required a strong team ethic and full engagement. It turns out that I was a natural and played on the Varsity team for 3 years. The physical fitness required to play at that level became part of who I was and has kept me active my whole life.

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School Sports was my support system. School was hard and life during those years was intense. Participating in Los Altos High Schools sports got me through it both physically and mentally. The teachers and students got me through the rest.

My Official Filed Candidate Statement

Candidate Statement for

Governing Board Member, Mountain View-Los Altos

Union High School District.

 

Jacquie Tanner

Age: 55

Occupation: Retired Sr. Material Planner for Tesla Motors

Education and Qualifications:

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As the mother of a 9th-grader attending Los Altos High School and a 50-year resident of Mountain View, I will bring a fresh and independent perspective to the deliberations of the MVLA Board of Trustees. My Bachelor of Science Degree in Business Management, which I earned while working a full-time job, combined with my decades of professional experience in high-tech companies will allow me to delve deeply into financial and other data-driven issues.

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While attending our local public-school districts, K-12th, I learned the importance of involvement from my mother, a Whisman School bus-driver, who was deeply involved in district business and frequent volunteer.

I worked at Tesla Motors for nearly 10 years in a highly demanding role as a Production Material Planner. My extensive detail-oriented business experience prepared me to apply critical-thinking to our MVLA District policies and practices to ensure we are setting up all of our students to become successful adults while we wisely spend the tax-payers money to best and most equitable effect.

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Now that I am retired, I can devote far more time and energy to our MVLA District and the students we serve. I look forward to serving on the MVLA Board of Trustees.

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www.JacquieTanner4MVLA.org

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