Mountain View-Los Altos Union High School District Govering Board

Jacquie Tanner

https://www.JacquieTanner4MVLA.org

Our students deserve to become academically, emotionally, mentally and physically prepared to be successful and healthy adults. We need to provide our educators all the resources they need to lead our students to that goal. I want all of our students to have a full tool-box of skills before they graduate.

1. In a recent poll by Choose Children 2022 of likely general election voters, more than half of parents with children under age 18 say they are likely to move out of the Bay Area in the next few years. What do you think are the top three issues affecting our children and families and how will you make our region a place where all families can thrive?

   Family-friendly housing, especially rentals, are very scarce and expensive. We need to push the cities for more affordable units. I like the MVWSD teacher housing idea as well.
   Recovery from the effects of school closures on our students’ mental health and wellness. The aftermath of the school closures is a unique challenge and we need to tailor services to this recovery.
   Many families are moving away, but many are leaving the public schools for other locally available options. We need to address both of these issues. We need to make services like tutoring and supervised study halls widely and easily available.
   

2. As we have learned over the past three years, without quality, affordable, childcare, parents can’t go to work. What will you do to address challenges accessing childcare and preschool programs in our diverse communities?

   Elementary school districts have been working on Pre-K and child care solutions. Whatever our High School District can do to help their efforts should be pursued. Location is often a critical factor in child care, so perhaps the MVLA could help there.

3. Much of the student achievement gap has been linked to the opportunity gap that children in low-income families and children of color confront (e.g., lack of access to healthy food, preschool, tutors, and enrichment activities). If elected, what will you do to increase equity of opportunity?

   As I mentioned above, we need to make services like tutoring and supervised study halls widely and easily available. We should also put more effort into our Summer-School program. We have a Zero Period, perhaps this could be leveraged to help. If we see the achievement gap as an educational challenge and address it as such, we can continually reduce it.

4. What steps will you take to support inclusion and outcomes for children with special needs or with disabilities and their families to be fully included in our community?

   I myself benefitted from Special Education. The Theuerkauf school was able to diagnose my Dyslexia. They provided me the speech and reading therapy to teach me how to compensate for Dyslexia. I feel the K-8th schools are always working to improve their programs. As a High School district we need to make sure we have excellent communications and collaborations with our K-8 Districts.

5. There is a mental health crisis among children, youth, and those who care for and educate them. If elected, how will you use the resources of your new role to improve access to mental and behavioral health services?

   We need to work with the cities and county to help pay for more effective mental health programs. The services we have were simply not designed to deal with the aftermath of the school closures. We need to make it a serious public issue so all the stake-holders will step up and do their part.
   A simple idea I have seen. In some schools they imprint the phone numbers of various services onto the back side of their student IDs, so every student has this information at hand. I think this is something we could do quickly and cheaply that would help. And again, this is not just a High School issue, we must work with all stake holders.