|
Getting your Trinity Audio player ready...
|
Christine Case-Lo is running for a seat on the Mountain View Whisman school board after 15 years of parent advocacy around special education and other topics in Mountain View Whisman.
Through her involvement over the years, Case-Lo said that she has learned not just about special education students, but also about other groups, including students learning English, undocumented students and those with unstable housing. If elected, Case-Lo wants to amplify the voices of those who don’t have the time or resources to serve on the board directly.
“I’m very much about listening to the community, and sometimes communities that don’t often get heard, and (making) sure that those voices are represented,” Case-Lo said.
Case-Lo first got involved in school district issues back in 2009, when her son was in kindergarten and the district was looking to cut the hours and benefits of special education instructional assistants. She and other parents mobilized to oppose the change.
Both of Case-Lo’s children have been in the special education program, and her younger child is currently attending Crittenden Middle School.
Case-Lo is one of the founders of the Learning Challenges Committee of the Los Altos Mountain View PTA Council. She was also the chair of the Special Education Local Plan Area Community Advisory Committee representing Mountain View, Los Altos and Palo Alto. That group has now been consolidated with others to cover a larger area of Santa Clara County and Case-Lo is on its representative board.
Case-Lo said that people have asked her to run for the board before, but that she decided against taking the leap until this time around, when she heard no incumbents would be running and had concerns about candidates whose values she didn’t believe represented the overall community. She wanted to ensure that board members were elected who “will make sure that the day-to-day processes of the school are running correctly and they’re not going to put their ideology in front of the pragmatic solutions.”
If elected, Case-Lo said her top three priorities would be promoting inclusion for all students, ensuring there are effective mental health supports and encouraging civility in the district.
She wants to provide teachers and other staff with support to offer differentiated instruction that gives struggling students the help they need, while also challenging more advanced students.
“I want a fully inclusive classroom where every single student feels at home, that they feel they can get what they need and that they feel comfortable,” Case-Lo said.
Mental health has long been an issue, but Case-Lo said it is a particularly high priority coming out of COVID, with schools seeing more behavioral issues. She supports the district’s move to hire in-house counselors and wants to increase services at the middle schools.
In terms of civility, Case-Lo noted that there’s a lot of anger right now. She wants to find ways to harness the community’s knowledge and expertise to accomplish things collectively, and to promote working together to get things done.
Case-Lo also wants to make it easier for parents to volunteer in the classroom by streamlining the process to sign up.
The district’s persistent achievement gap remains a top concern for Case-Lo. She believes the district’s early literacy program is exciting and hopes to expand it to all schools. Resources are currently focused at schools with the highest rates of students struggling to read. She also praised an initiative at Castro Elementary School that sets aside time each morning to provide all students with breakfast.
Another area of concern, Case-Lo said, is ensuring better oversight and vetting of district contracts. Mountain View Whisman has generated controversy in recent months for six-figure contracts for meditation services for district leaders, executive leadership coaching and an external public relations firm. Case-Lo said her concern wasn’t necessarily with the services themselves – but rather the high costs and selection process.
“We do need more oversight and more guardrails and more policies in place,” Case-Lo said.
This includes adding requirements that staff consider local vendors first and look at the practices of nearby school districts, Case-Lo said. If members of the executive team aren’t comfortable with more oversight, she said they might not be the best fit for Mountain View Whisman. Case-Lo is also concerned about the number of the district office staff members.
On a Voice questionnaire, she opposed the board’s June decision to approve a multi-year contract extension and raises for the superintendent. Case-Lo had questions about portions of the contract, including relating to his district-backed home loan. At the same time, Case-Lo also stressed that the superintendent and other district leaders have done a lot of good in the district.
On the topic of the district’s fraught negotiations in recent months with the city of Mountain View over splitting money from the Shoreline special tax district, Case-Lo said the district deserved more than the $6.5 million it has been receiving annually and that a long-term agreement is needed. At the same time, she questioned whether the district had the necessary leverage and public support to get the city to move from its stance that the district must sign a three-year deal before further negotiations can take place.
The school board later approved the three-year agreement at its Oct. 17 meeting, after Case-Lo spoke with the Voice in September.
Despite her concerns, Case-Lo believes the district has amazing potential. She praised the district’s subsidized staff housing project and believes the new special education director is making positive changes.
“We can do amazing things for our students,” Case-Lo said. “That doesn’t mean we don’t have problems. That doesn’t mean we don’t have things that we need to address, but I’m very hopeful that we can do some wonderful things.”
