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Uploaded: Friday, February 22, 2008, 1:19 PM
Google manager joins school board
Mountain View Whisman picks 'math guru' Edward Bailey to fill vacancy
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by Casey Weiss
Mountain View Voice Staff
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 | With the local elementary school district facing steep budget cuts, last week its board of trustees appointed a local parent with a background in math and business to fill its vacancy.
Edward Bailey will be sworn in at the end of the month to replace Mountain View Whisman trustee RoseMary Sias Roquero, who is stepping down for personal reasons. Bailey will finish out the term, which ends this December.
"I have been passionate about education all my life," he said. "I believe the reason I am in the position I am today is my public education. I want to give back to the community."
Bailey's position as manager of business analytics at Google, and his background in math and education, are especially important now as the board faces almost $3 million in cuts under next year's proposed state budget, board president Fiona Walter said.
Bailey, who has a third grader at Bubb Elementary School, received his BS in mathematics from Michigan State and his MBA and MA in education from Stanford University. He had previously been involved in the school district, assisting with lessons and test administration in the second grade.
"We will need his analytical skills. He is a great math guru," Walter said. "Even with the complexity of a public school budget, I expect him to dive in."
The trustees held a public meeting last week to interview eight candidates about their involvement with the schools and their experience working in a collaborative environment. After ranking their top four candidates, each of the four trustees discussed their choices during the open session. Walter, who is the board's spokesperson, said she was impressed with Bailey's energy and educational background.
"Although we didn't agree on our number one, Ed was on three of our four lists," Walter said. "It seemed he had a good understanding of what being on the board meant."
Trustees made their final decision between Bailey, an African American, and another candidate who speaks fluent Spanish and could represent the more than 40 percent of Spanish-speaking students in the district. Sias Roquero was the only Spanish speaker on the board.
"We would like our board to reflect our community," Walter said. "At the same time, we need the highest qualified board member."
Bailey begins his term Feb. 28 and will spend the rest of the year addressing the budget and other important issues, including a local parcel tax which will be on the June ballot.
District board members, who receive a monthly stipend of just over $200, meet twice a month, serve on additional committees and participate in school events. Are you receiving Express, our free daily e-mail edition? See a sample and sign-up for Express.
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Posted by Observer, a resident of another community, on Feb 22, 2008 at 9:35 pm I'm glad for Bailey, but where is the representation for Hispanics? MVWUSD already lacks diverse representation amongst its administrative ranks and now it appears it has a board void of Hispanic representation. Walter contradicts herself to say, "We would like our board to reflect our community. At the same time, we need the highest qualified board member." Clearly, she, the board, and Superintendent Ghysels weighted more what was arbitrarily determinted to be "highly qualified" than the need to "reflect our community." It appears that the meetings last year to reach out to Hispanics were superficial, at best. Where is the leadership? Additionally, where is Weiss getting the "more than 40 percent of Spanish-speaking students" figure and what does it mean? Is he referring to the number of Hispanics in the district, the number of English Learners, or the number of English Learners who live in a household where Spanish may be spoken? If it's the latter, it is sloppy to assume that a child living there is a "Spanish'speaking" student.
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Posted by Enough!, a resident of the Old Mountain View neighborhood, on Feb 23, 2008 at 6:02 pm Finally someone with a resume and experience to shake up the school district. (I just hope its not another version of the city's relationship with Google, that of a whore which will do anything for money.) Too bad they couldn't get a representative from the hispanic community on board as well, those poor people never seem to get any voice. It also seems that the board is even more heavily tipped
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Posted by Kettle Corn, a resident of the Castro City neighborhood, on Feb 29, 2008 at 1:58 pm Hey "Observer" -- It's also sloppy to assume Carey Weiss is a 'he'. Last time I saw Carey, I'm pretty sure I was looking at a 'she'.
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Posted by Observer, a resident of another community, on Feb 29, 2008 at 7:45 pm Oh, is he?
Just kidding, but then again, I am merely a commentator, not a member of the commentariat, of which the latter must be held to a higher standard.
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Posted by Enough!, a resident of the Old Mountain View neighborhood, on Feb 29, 2008 at 7:49 pm Observer: Now that's funny.
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Posted by Zoe, a resident of the Blossom Valley neighborhood, on Feb 29, 2008 at 9:09 pm I hope he gives the teachers raises.
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Posted by Robin Iwai, a resident of the Martens-Carmelita neighborhood, on Mar 8, 2008 at 3:54 pm Question for Observer, Enough, and Zoe...
Have you been to a school board meeting? Have you visited any of our seven schools? Have you read ANY of the board policies that are online at www.mvwsd.org or gone to any of the Budget Task Force meetings?
Just wondering whether your opinions are based on first-hand observation and knowledge, or on hearsay and rumor?
There were a couple of Latino applicants for the open Trustee position. Would you rather have a parent who speaks Spanish and cares greatly about the success of all children in the district, or a parent who has access to a translator, cares greatly about the success of all children in the district, and has Master's degrees in both Education and Business with experience and skills to match?
FYI, there are DOZENS of Spanish-speaking parents, teachers, administrators, and translators at EVERY school site who are bending over backwards to reach out to our Spanish-speaking parents. Most newsletters and communications are translated, there is an auto-dialer phone call system that calls homes with messages in both English and Spanish, every school and the district as a whole has an English Learner's Advisory Committee which is comprised mostly of parents whose first language is not English...just a few examples off the top of my head.
Please be assured that "...those poor people" have PLENTY of voice in the district.
And I'm sure that the new trustee would love to "give teachers a raise" if the district had the money to do so. The MV Educators Assn could certainly share with you the status of and their satisfaction with their most recent contract.
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Posted by Observer, a resident of another community, on Mar 9, 2008 at 4:48 pm Robin,
Jeez, don't lump me in with Enough! and Zoe and don't fixate on degrees. A B.A, is certainly is better than an A.A. but maybe not as good as an M.A.--and according to your logic not nearly as good as a Ph. D, the latter which I am working on, which must give me instant credibility in your system of appointing trustees. However, since when did we start assuming that a M.A. or a MBA qualifies one person to be a trustee more than another? The answer is that is doesn't. In this case, it is clearly an excuse that I'm sure the district is happy that you bought into. It's laudable that district leadership was able to appoint an African-American, it's just not that laudable because African-Americans and Latinos have been hearing the same excuse of a "lack of qualified candidates" for decades and this time it's the Latino group--the largest in the district--that lost.
As for my information--remember I can't speak for the other two--my information is first-hand. I hope that helps.
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Posted by Teacher, a resident of the Sylvan Park neighborhood, on Mar 10, 2008 at 8:35 pm Robin:
We got a 1% bonus for a raise. Technically it's not a raise. It comes to about $300 per teacher this year and next. Doesn't even begin to cover runaway gas prices. The district threatened the union with cutting into our benefits if we didn't accept it.
I suggest you try quoting some more facts on teacher raises since you're so good at towing the party line. Tell us all how teacher raises have kept up with the cost of living and inflation rate for this area. Go ahead. Research the last 5 years. Do your homework and you'll find out our salaries are being whittled away and our purchasing power has declined. Then research administrators salaries for the same period. What? Cat got your tongue?
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