October 18, 2010 -- The Lookout Staff submitted questionnaires to the 23 candidates running for seats on the City Council and Board of Education. The candidates were given the same timeframe to answer the questions and were limited to 150 words per answer.

During the next several days, the Lookout News will publish the candidates’ answers verbatim. The profiles for the four-year City Council race will be published first, followed by the two-year City Council race and lastly the Board of Education race. They will appear in alphabetical order based on the candidates’ first names.

Name: Ralph Mechur
Running for: Board of Education
Status: Incumbent

Why are you running for office and why should residents vote for you?
Our community has the capacity to provide every student in our public schools with equal access to an excellent education providing them with the skills necessary to become productive adults.

I am a long-time resident of the community active in its civic life for over 30 years - supporting students in the District through parcel tax and capital bond campaigns, creating a community-wide effort to reach an agreement with the City of Santa Monica to financially support the District, and developing the capacity of the Education Foundation to support academic and art programs.

Since 1992, I have run Ralph Mechur Architects, a small design-oriented business, based in Santa Monica, that mainly provides architectural services to non-profit housing and social service organizations.

I have been a Boardmember since August 2007, providing leadership in difficult financial times, in developing policies and budgets focused on student access and achievement and District stability.

Do you have any children attending SMMUSD schools or who graduated from SMMUSD schools? What has your specific involvement been with the school district?
I have three children who went to and graduated from SMMUSD schools.

I have served on Facilities Oversight Committees almost continuously since 1982.

I co-chaired the 1998 Proposition X Facilities Bond Campaign, the 2003 Measure S Parcel Tax campaign and the 2006 BB Bond Campaign.

I co-founded Community for Excellent Public Schools (CEPS), which negotiated a historic agreement with the City of Santa Monica to financially support the school district.

I have served on the Board of Education since August 2007. I served as Board President in 2008-2009. We have restored stability to the operations of the District, transparency to special education and the budget process and raised achievement to new heights.

I was a member of the Board of the Santa Monica-Malibu Education Foundation from 1989 – 2007 helping establish two endowments that annually distribute $50,000 to the district’s school libraries and $80,000 for arts.

How would you rate the current Board of Education? What particular decisions stand out for you that made you form that opinion?
The current Board has been successful – steadily restoring confidence in the District through its deliberative budget process, support for Special Education reform, providing intensive intervention for low-performing students at all levels, approving innovative teaching such that all schools are achieving at significantly higher levels, halfing the number of permit students to reduce overcrowding at our campuses, keeping the arts as an integral part of the curriculum and moving towards a stronger focus on equitable access issues.

This summer the Board funded the JAMS summer child-care program that serves working families (without commitment of reimbursement from the State), re-hired all secondary counselors and a necessary additional college counselor at Santa Monica High School with the Federal Jobs Bill funds. Simultaneously the community provided support by raising $1.5 million, recognizing that the State-induced budget crisis was resulting in a degradation of program and personnel.

What would you as a member of the Board of Education do to get the District through these tough economic times?
The District needs to stabilize revenue to allow it to continue to provide a high level of educational services to its students.

As a community we need to fortify the financial resources of the District. Passing of Propositions Y and YY will help provide long-term stability.

This will allow the District to attract and maintain highly qualified teachers, to maintain and expand District academic, art and athletic programs and focus on providing all students with equal access to an excellent education.

At the same time, the District needs to research how it can create efficiencies in administration and service delivery; limit the use of outside vendors and consultants and increase partnerships with our cities, institutions of higher learning and local businesses.

The key priority will be to allocate resources to minimize impacts to the classroom. However, without Props Y and YY passing, devastating cuts will be necessary.

How would you rate the current status of the District’s special education department? Are there still improvements that must be made?
Special Education has made great strides in providing services to disabled students in a collaborative and transparent manner. The depth of distrust due to past District practices was deep and it will take more time to fully change the culture of special education services.

District leadership was integral in the final stages of preparing the Special Education Handbook and its dissemination to the community. The Chief Financial Officer of the District has been meeting regularly with a SEDAC subcommittee to create better tools to understand the financing of services. The Director of Special Education has been developing in-district capabilities for many services that were previously only available from outside agencies. The Assistant Superintendent overseeing Special Education is coordinating the completion of the Working Group Program Task Force Report.

The Board has supported the process and changes brought forward by the community and should continue to be responsive to concerns.

The Board of Education will be selecting a person to replace Superintendent Tim Cuneo, who is retiring in June. What are the qualities you want for a new superintendent?
He/She should have previous experience as Superintendent in a District of similar size with a diverse student population; strong success in evaluating, recommending and implementing programs that significantly address the issues of poorly performing students; and excellent administrative and communication skills.

He/she must understand the importance of technology as a tool in education and be prepared to develop an integrated curriculum whereby students and staff are effectively using the tools of the 21st century for learning.

He/she must be capable of working with leaders of other agencies – the cities of Santa Monica and Malibu and SMC - and have the skills to build partnerships with these agencies and the community at large.

The last two searches have been made without a full search process. We need to provide for community discussion about the qualifications of a superintendent for our district and allow community representatives to review key candidates.

If elected, what are your ideas for closing the achievement gap in the SMMUSD?
I would support innovative programs that raise achievement levels of all students, especially addressing those who are not grade-level proficient. The District needs to effectively align resources with need and promote quality professional instruction. Targeted intervention, particularly in the early grades, is crucial to breaking a continuous cycle of low achievement for several student groups.

Effective teachers are a critical component of a child’s education. Attracting and retaining high quality teachers is paramount to our success as a District. We need to stabilize our funding resources at the highest level possible so that current and new teachers have job security along with competitive salaries and benefits.

Additionally, we should be developing more collaborative governance and teaching environments. Empowering teachers at sites in the development and review of teaching methodology and curriculum can lead to the creativity we need in the classroom.

What is the greatest book ever written?
When I was 10 it was “The Kid Who Batted 1.000”; at 20, “On the Road”; at 30, “Confederacy of Dunces”; at 40, “Rose Where Did You Get That Red?”; at 50, “Frandk Gehry: The Complete Works” and now, “Just Kids”.