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Priorities
Ensuring Fiscal Transparency and Accountability
Berkeley Unified School District, like many school districts throughout the state, will likely need to make budget cuts in the upcoming school year. As such, we need to ensure our dollars are allocated to the most effective programs that are making a real difference in the lives of our kids. I will continue to work closely with our district committees, such as the Superintendent’s Budget Advisory Committee, to ensure the voices of families, labor partners, staff, and our various affinity groups guide our spending. I will also continue to champion the long-overdue completion of a strategic plan to guide our budget priorities in a fiscally transparent way and in service of all our students.
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Closing the Opportunity Gap for our Most Vulnerable Learners
Closing the opportunity gap is a critical task for our district. I will work hard to fully staff Berkeley’s Research and Evaluation Assessment (BREA) department so we can properly evaluate programs that serve our black and brown students and our students with disabilities, investing in programs that demonstrate results I will also ensure that we keep equity at the center of our budgeting decisions and continue to fund our most effective equity based initiatives, such as our district’s Latinx Resolution.
Maintaining Safe Schools
I’ve been working with parents from various sites to properly fund safety investments in our buildings to keep our students and education workers safe. During my tenure on the Board, I established a Berkeley Unified Safety Committee and created the position of District-wide Safety Coordinator. After the tragic shooting in Uvalde, Texas, I worked with state leaders from the California Latino School Board Association to draft a resolution in support of school safety. I hope to be re-elected to continue to fund critical safety investments in our facilities.
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Safe and sustainable transportation for all students and education workers
As a transportation planner, I will fight to ensure that our students and staff can get to school safely and sustainably. I have worked closely with our Safe Routes to Schools partners to support pedestrian and bicycle safety improvements near our school sites.