Donna Freedman

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Donna Freedman

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Prior offices

Rowland Unified School District school board At-large

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Report an officeholder change

Personal

Profession

Teacher

Donna Freedman was a member of the Rowland Unified School District school board At-large in California. She assumed office in 2015. She left office in 2020.

Freedman ran for re-election to the Rowland Unified School District school board At-large in California. She won in the general election on November 3, 2015.

Elections

2015

See also: Rowland Unified School District elections (2015)

Opposition

Two of the five seats on the Rowland Unified School District Board of Education were up for general election on November 3, 2015. The election was held at large. The seats held by incumbents Judy Nieh and Heidi L. Gallegos were on the ballot.

Donna Freedman and David Malkin were elected to the two seats. They defeated Susan Hsu, Roy Humphreys and Nieh. Gallegos did not file to run for re-election.

Results

Rowland Unified School District, At-large, General Election, 2015
Candidate	Vote %	Votes
Donna Freedman	34.9%	2,414
David Malkin	20.8%	1,437
Judy Nieh Incumbent	19.2%	1,330
Susan Hsu	15.3%	1,060
Roy Humphreys	9.7%	671
Total Votes		6,912
Source: Los Angeles County Registrar-Recorder/County Clerk, "NOVEMBER 03, 2015 - LOCAL AND MUNICIPAL CONSOLIDATED ELECTIONS: Final Official Election Returns," accessed November 24, 2015

Funding

See also: Campaign finance in the Rowland Unified School District election

At the time of this election, the Los Angeles Registrar-Recorder/County Clerk did not publish school board candidate campaign finance reports online. Ballotpedia staffers requested this information, but the only free method of viewing the files was at their office.

The Los Angeles Registrar-Recorder/County Clerk targeted the end of 2018 to make school board candidate campaign finance reports available online for free. From that point forward, Ballotpedia began including campaign finance data for Los Angeles County school board candidates.

The first campaign finance reporting deadline was September 24, 2015, and the second one was October 22, 2015. If candidates raised or spent more than $1,000 from a single source, including their own funds, between August 5, 2015, and November 2, 2015, they had to file a campaign finance report within 24 hours.

If you have any information regarding the campaign finance disclosures in this race, please contact the school board elections team at editor@ballotpedia.org.

Endorsements

Freedman was endorsed by the Association of Rowland Educators and the California School Employees Association (CSEA).

Campaign themes

2015

Ballotpedia survey responses

See also: Ballotpedia's school board candidate survey

Freedman participated in Ballotpedia's 2015 survey of school board candidates. The following sections display her responses to the survey questions. When asked what her top priority would be if elected, the candidate made the following statement:

“	My first priority will be to learn everything I can. I will ask many questions. I need to educate myself first. I am new at this.	”
—Donna Freedman, (2015)

Ranking the issues

Freedman was asked to rank the following issues by importance in the school district, with 1 being the most important and 7 being the least important. This table displays this candidate's rankings from most to least important:

Education policy
Click here to learn more about education policy in California.
Education on the ballot

Issue importance ranking
Candidate's ranking	Issue
1	Expanding school choice options
2	Expanding arts education
3	Expanding career-technical education
4	Improving education for special needs students
5	Closing the achievement gap
6	Improving college readiness
7	Balancing or maintaining the district's budget

Positions on the issues

Freedman was asked to answer 10 questions from Ballotpedia regarding significant issues in education and the school district. The questions are in the left column, and the candidate's responses are in the right column of the following table:

Question	Response
What is your stance on implementing Common Core standards?	"They should be implemented."
Should your district approve the creation of new charter schools?	"No"
Should the state give money to private schools through a voucher system?	"No"
Are standardized tests an accurate metric of student achievement?	"No"
How can the district ensure equal opportunities for high and low achieving students?	"Have programs for both! There are AP classes for the high achievers. Possibly more AP and Honors Classes. Low Achieving Students should be able to have remediation classes either during the class time for pull out or after school to help them. This has to be done in small groups, not in a huge group, so you can have more one-to-one with these students with a small group. Possibly aides working with these students. Maybe smaller class sizes will help."
How should expulsion be used in the district?	"Expulsion should be used for serious offenses to ensure the safety of other students as well as the integrity of education at district schools."
If a school is failing in your district, what steps should the school board take to help the students in that school?	"There should be more staff development possibly taught by other teachers in the District. Students should be able to have classes after school to help them improve. Smaller class size would help all the students in the classroom. Ask questions, why is this happening? The principal and staff should be able to figure it out, what do they need to improve the school from falling? Based on that knowledge, we should be able to help!"
Do you support merit pay for teachers?	"No"
How should the district handle underperforming teachers?	"Set up a mentorship program for the underperforming teacher with a more experienced teacher in the district."
How would you work to improve community-school board relations?	"I would want to have open communication! I would have my e-mail and phone # for anyone that would like to contact me for whatever reason it might be. We want to hear the community's concerns and ideas. I would want to send home letters to let the community know what is happening in our District. It is our job to let them know how there tax dollars are being spent. I also would visit as many schools as possible and get feedback from the staff."
Additional comments	"I'm in my 36th year of teaching and have a lot of experience in education. One of the questions was about Common Core, I know it is the law to have our students take the test, it doesn't matter if we like it or not. One other question was about my key priority once on Board. It would be to educate myself, but I wanted to add some concerns and my key priorities to look into will be: Smaller Class Size, Combination Classes, Honors Program, Safety, Extracurricular Activities (including the music program and field trips), and Declining Enrollment. As far as the first question, I first ranked them all the highest mark. Then, I had to go back and change my answers. I honestly feel all of them are extremely important and should be marked with high importance. That was difficult to go back and change my answers from the highest to the lowest importance!"

See also

• Rowland Unified School District, California
• Rowland Unified School District elections (2015)
• Incumbency no guarantee of success in Nov. 3 school board elections (November 6, 2015)
• What happened in Nov.'s top board elections? (November 4, 2015)

External links

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