Uncontested in race, Higgins prepares to serve Uncontested in race, Higgins prepares to serve (August 16, 2002)

By Candice Shih

As the sole candidate for the two-year term on the Mountain View-Whisman School Board, Gloria Higgins will automatically take the seat vacated by Juan Aranda.

"It's a funny way to get on the board, but it works," she said.

Not only does Higgins not have to worry about running a campaign, but she will get an early start on her board service.

During the four months until she is sworn in, she plans to attend board meetings and familiarize herself with her future role.

She intends to begin training in the Master of Governance program, a statewide program of the California School Board Association which educates board members on the intricacies of board service.

Higgins said she will also attend an upcoming reception for Superintendent Jim Negri, whom she credits as one of the reasons she decided to run for the school board.

Higgins, 32, is the mother of a first-grader and second-grader at Slater School, and has lived in Mountain View since 1993.

She grew up in a military family and called 14 different places home during her childhood, with Italy being the most exciting of them.

Higgins attended Wheaton College in Massachusetts and earned a B.A. in political science and philosophy.

Nine years ago, she moved to Mountain View with her husband Terry Higgins, an engineer at Intuitive Surgical.

Although Higgins has worked in retail and dabbles in textile art, her children are now her top priority.

"I always knew I'd be home with them," she said. And she always knew she would be involved in their education, she said.

Although the Higgins family lives within the Castro School boundaries, the children are enrolled in PACT, a parent participation program on the Slater campus.

Higgins regularly volunteers with the program and has been involved with Arts Focus, a multimedia branch of PACT.

She also previously participated in the GATE (Gifted and Talented Education) Advisory Committee, a districtwide group which no longer meets.

The upcoming school year will see Higgins as a leader in Junior Great Books, a children's book discussion program.

Furthermore, she hopes to eventually earn her teaching credential, possibly after she concludes board service.

While Higgins is committed to education, she is also motivated to take on a leadership position.

"She's a very likable young leader. She's a doer," said Aranda, her school board predecessor and classmate in Leadership Mountain View, a local leadership training program.

Higgins considers her strengths to include team building and flexibility.

"I like there to be agreement," she said. "I like for people to be satisfied."

She is a proponent of differentiation in the classroom and hopes to lead the board towards supporting it.

Higgins points out that differentiation doesn't mean tracking, but flexible grouping. Differentiation, she said, is about equitable education.

She was alerted to this issue through her son, a second-grader who she says doesn't learn in the standard way, yet is gifted in his creativity and invention.

Higgins said she realizes all children are gifted in a multitude of ways and that differentiation can meet their needs.

"I'm a very idealistic person," she added. "I don't think there's any shame in need."

Although she appears prepared to take on the leadership role, she said she's not used to public attention and doesn't like being on the spot.

But as the automatic winner of her election, Higgins will have four months to settle in.
E-mail Candice Shih at cshih@mv-voice.com