Letter to the Editor:
The public has some important decisions to make when voting in November. One of those decisions is for Board of Education Trustee Area 3. We need a new Board member with the vision and skills to return BUSD to a place people want to work and parents want to send their children.
Over the summer the Board approved Resolution 56 and revised their core values. The resolution is dedicated to “good governance” and broadly discusses updating policies and procedures. It is a list of goals, not a blueprint for action.
Two of the core values list priorities such as valuing student learning, health, wellness, and academic success; and recruiting and retaining highly qualified staff. Nowhere in either document is there a clear plan to make these goals the reality. Ensuring students and staff have a clean, safe environment to work and learn in, takes money. Hiring and retaining the best people takes money.
In the last three years, the Board has approved budgets that showed a pattern of deficit spending. This is unsustainable, yet the current Board keeps approving expenditures for outside contracts and consultants. We need a Board who will exercise responsible financial stewardship.
Another core value says the Board values timely communication and community collaboration. Reducing the time allowed for public speakers at Board meetings and interpreting the Brown Act such that the Board does not respond at all suggest that the Board is uninterested in community collaboration. We need a Board who welcomes community input and seeks to ensure the public’s concerns are heard and addressed pursuant to allowances in the Brown Act.
Finally, neither document addresses the accountability and transparency that current Board members have been promising, yet failing to deliver, since the Tabet situation in June, 2025. We need a Board who will embrace accountability and actively practice the transparency the public deserves.
We need Paul Gerard for Trustee Area 3. Paul has the skills and experience to shepherd the District into an era of fiscal responsibility and true collaboration with the community.
Kelli Clarke
Retired BUSD Teacher
