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Charles DiFazio is running for a seat on the Mountain View Whisman school board to bring “calm oversight and leadership” to the district at a time when a majority of the current board members aren’t running for re-election.
DiFazio told the Voice that he decided to run because he felt this could be a critical election and turning point in the district. Three out of five board seats are up for a vote this November and no incumbents are running, which DiFazio said creates a situation with the potential to be disruptive.
“What I really want is to be able to navigate our challenges in a positive manner and be able to come together,” he said.
DiFazio has three children: one at Crittenden Middle School, another at Vargas Elementary and a third who hasn’t started elementary school. Over the years, he said that he’s volunteered at his childrens’ schools, was on the school site council at Landels (where his family was previously zoned) and is currently a member of the PTAs at Vargas and Crittenden.
Asked what his top three priorities would be if elected, DiFazio said he would focus on ensuring all students get a great education regardless of their background, rebuilding communication between the district and community, and making sure the board is operating effectively.
A particular area of focus for DiFazio is closing the achievement gap. One of Mountain View’s strengths is its diversity, DiFazio said. Within the school district, there are students who are socioeconomically disadvantaged and students experiencing homelessness learning alongside students from very wealthy families, he said.
“One of the issues in the district that has been tough is the achievement gap between those groups,” DiFazio said. “It’s hard to address, I don’t think anyone’s got a silver bullet, but I want to focus on that.”
The district had been making progress before the pandemic hit, but things have gotten worse since then, DiFazio said. Now, he sees an opportunity to refocus on tackling this issue. He pointed to the district’s creation of an early literacy team as an area of success, and said he wants to expand these types of programs to other subjects, such as math.
DiFazio also wants to offer more support for families, as well as mental health services and social-emotional learning opportunities for students. These can be important for children who are facing difficulties outside of school, DiFazio said. He added that students are still processing trauma from the pandemic.
When it comes to district leadership, DiFazio also said he wants to work on rebuilding communication between the district and parents, as well as with the city of Mountain View. Over the past year, the district has faced criticism from parents, including over controversial contracts and a proposal to change the middle school bell schedule.
“It’s a lot easier to break trust than to rebuild it – that’s the harder thing,” DiFazio said.
On the board, he said that he would focus on transparency, adding that it’s important to show that the district is taking things seriously by quickly addressing problems when they come up. While the board gets a lot of its information from the superintendent during board meetings, DiFazio said that the trustees can also reach out directly to stakeholders to get more insight.
When it comes to the district’s relationship with the city, DiFazio said that the two agencies serve many of the same people and that their “fates are really tied together.”
The two entities have been at odds in recent months over an agreement to share funding from a special tax district in the Shoreline area. The city said it wouldn’t negotiate a long-term agreement until the school district signed a three-year deal. The school board ended up approving the three-year agreement at an Oct. 17 meeting, which was after DiFazio spoke with the Voice in September.
DiFazio said in September that given the sensitive negotiations, he wouldn’t commit – before being elected – to taking any particular action. But in general, DiFazio said that he would rather not lose out on funding now to have the potential to negotiate for additional funding later. He added that the city isn’t obligated to provide this funding, and that it does support the district in other ways, including with the Safe Routes to School program.
When asked to assess the effectiveness of the district’s superintendent and other leaders, DiFazio said that while the superintendent should get credit for effective programs he’s implemented, including an early literacy team and affordable housing for teachers, he added that it would be “implausible” to say missteps hadn’t been made.
In particular, DiFazio pointed to a plan to reduce middle school elective periods, which was ultimately scrapped in the face of controversy. With his own child starting middle school, DiFazio said that regardless of its merits, the proposal was surprising and the process felt both chaotic and disorganized. If he had been on the board, DiFazio said he would have brought parents into the process early, explained what was happening and gotten their feedback.
DiFazio said that he didn’t favor the board’s decision in June to approve a multi-year contract extension and raises for the superintendent. The decision wasn’t urgent, DiFazio said, and he would have preferred for the new board members to be able to weigh in.
