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Laurie Fong
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Laurie Fong represents an at-large seat on the Santa Rosa High School District school board in California. Fong won the seat in the at-large general election on November 8, 2016.
Fong participated in Ballotpedia's 2016 school board candidate survey. Click here to read her responses.
Elections
2016
Four of the seven seats on the Santa Rosa High School District Board of Education were up for at-large general election on November 8, 2016. In their bids for re-election, incumbents Laura Gonzalez and Jenni Klose ran against challengers Evelyn Anderson, Caroline Bañuelos, Laurie Fong, and Edward Sheffield.[1] Klose won re-election, and Fong, Sheffield, and Anderson won the other seats on the ballot.[2]
Results
| Santa Rosa High School District, At-large General Election, 4-year terms, 2016 |
||
|---|---|---|
| Candidate | Vote % | Votes |
 Laurie Fong |
23.40% | 49,998 |
| Jenni Klose Incumbent |
19.94% | 42,612 |
| Edward Sheffield |
15.64% | 33,412 |
| Evelyn Anderson |
15.45% | 33,020 |
| Laura Gonzalez Incumbent | 14.06% | 30,050 |
| Caroline Bañuelos | 11.50% | 24,561 |
| Total Votes | 213,653 | |
| Source: Sonoma County Registrar of Voters, "Final Results for Consolidated Election - November 8, 2016," accessed December 2, 2016 | ||
Funding
Fong reported $9,591.46 in contributions and $9,591.46 in expenditures to the Sonoma County Registrar of Voters, which left her campaign with no cash on hand as of October 22, 2016.[3]
Endorsements
Fong was endorsed by the Sonoma County Democratic Party, the Santa Rose Teachers Association, and the community organization Evolve.[4][5][6]
Campaign themes
2016
Ballotpedia survey responses
laurie fong participated in Ballotpedia's 2016 survey of school board candidates. In response to the question "What do you hope to achieve if elected to the school board?" the candidate stated on August 4, 2016:
| “ | The work coming up includes a deep understanding of equity and making decisions which promote the college and career readiness for all. This includes the allotment of resources, particularly the spending of the bond funds. My contribution will include the keen understanding of not only "how things work," but the foresight to see how things will play out with each decision, including the unintended consequences. I want to help make the Santa Rosa School District the premier district in Northern California - with the reputation that we provide exemplary programs that raise student achievement and provide for student success beyond our K-12 system.[7][8] | ” |
Ranking the issues
The candidate was asked to rank the following issues based on how they should be prioritized by the school board, with 1 being the most important and 7 being the least important. Each ranking could only be used once.
| Education policy |
|---|
 |
Click here to learn more about education policy in California. |
| Education on the ballot |
| Issue importance ranking | |
|---|---|
| Candidate's ranking | Issue |
| Improving post-secondary readiness | |
| Closing the achievement gap | |
| Balancing or maintaining the district's budget | |
| Improving relations with teachers | |
| Improving education for special needs students | |
| Expanding arts education | |
| Expanding school choice options | |
| “ | Ranking these issues is impossible: there is not a way that Special Education students' needs should take a back seat to anything else. Nothing can be done without supporting teachers and the support of teachers. Yet, my #1 and #2 choices are clear: they underpin all student achievement.[8] | ” |
| —laurie fong (August 4, 2016) | ||
Positions on the issues
The candidate was asked to answer nine questions from Ballotpedia regarding significant issues in education and the school district. The questions are highlighted in blue and followed by the candidate's responses. Some questions provided multiple choices, which are noted after those questions. The candidate was also provided space to elaborate on their answers to the multiple choice questions.
| Should new charter schools be approved in your district? (Not all school boards are empowered to approve charter schools. In those cases, the candidate was directed to answer the question as if the school board were able to do so.) |
|---|
| No. There are many kinds of charters and the SRCS district has several. However, the Santa Rosa City School District, to be the premier district in Northern California, must be able to oversee, monitor, support, and supervise their schools. Independent charters who are doing their own curriculum, teacher development, student initiatives do not represent the organized and thoughtful efforts and programs of SRCS and as such, should not be part of the district. Charters that are dependent, and part of our efforts to reach all students, can be and are. |
| Which statement best describes the ideal relationship between the state government and the school board? The state should always defer to school board decisions, defer to school board decisions in most cases, be involved in the district routinely or only intervene in severe cases of misconduct or mismanagement. |
| The state should only intervene in severe cases of misconduct or mismanagement. School districts adhere to state and federal guidelines and fulfill their mandates. The state should monitor for negligence and celebrate all else. |
| Are standardized tests an accurate metric of student achievement? |
| No. Standardized tests are both too narrow and too broad. They too narrowly measure literacy and thinking. They too broadly are addressed to include all students -- who vary in so many ways. Standardized tests as the sole metric of schools, students, and districts have taken focus off the deep contributions of teachers in challenging situations. As well, no standardized test measures what really makes a human being successful: perseverance, critical thinking, creativity, innovation, communication, and compassion. |
| What is your stance on the Common Core State Standards Initiative? |
| The Common Core Standards make sense. It has removed the narrowly focused curricular content to using content (provided in readings, etc in the test itself) to giving a snapshot of how students can read, comprehend, reason, compute, and write. Classroom work in the CCSS prepares students to do all of these things. These are skills we need as adults: can you read? understand what you read? Make clear arguments? Think of new ideas and back them up? These are the things that the CCSS supports. This is what we need in an informed citizenry. |
| How should the district handle underperforming teachers? Terminate their contract before any damage is done to students, offer additional training options, put them on a probationary period while they seek to improve or set up a mentorship program for the underperforming teacher with a more experienced teacher in the district? |
| Offer additional training options. Put them on a probationary period while they seek to improve. Set up a mentorship program for the underperforming teacher with a more experienced teacher in the district. Good administrators and their districts should work with under-performing teachers with accountability and compassion. Teaching is an almost overwhelming task and there are those who cannot cut it. This is not any different than other professions. Teachers should not be subject, either, to the vagaries of different administrators. After many years of investment, however, under-performing teachers are loathe to leave and contracts have strict provisions for termination, with the probationary period for new teachers woefully short. This being said, there are ways to support and dismiss teachers who are not helping students, or worse, hurting their academic progress. It requires support, dialogue, attainable and measurable goals, specific means to improve, and close monitoring. As well, compassionate feedback as to how the teacher is impacting students, what is also best for the teacher are part of the conversations. The goal is having the most competent teachers in the classrooms to affect students. |
| Should teachers receive merit pay? |
| No. The variables are too great. No one starts with "equal" classrooms. Merit pay is a very loose term. Merit for what? for high test scores? for no "F" grades? for "value added" (and how to measure that?). Teachers should receive salaries that provide for their efforts, their innovation, their planning and growth. |
| Should the state give money to private schools through a voucher system or scholarship program? |
| No. We rest our democracy on an educated public, "from many one." We must not "niche" out our schools as we have done our housing, jobs, consumer goods, neighborhoods, financial institutions, and the like. The state is responsible for public education. Our focus is on educating all students, per the state's educational directives and programs. This does not include private schools or vouchers for use at school's outside of the state's oversight. |
| How should expulsion be used in the district? |
| Expulsion is a last resort, to be used when all other means of correction have failed and that student is a danger to others (students and staff). The message expulsion should send is, "You are not ready now to be in our school, however, when you have mastered your challenges, we welcome you back." |
| What's the most important factor for success in the classroom: student-teacher ratio, the curriculum, teachers, parent involvement or school administration? |
| Teachers The teacher-student relationship and the efficacy of the teacher are the most important pieces for school success. Period. Everything districts do should support these two things. For the relationship, we know that when a student "likes" their teacher, half the battle is won right there. The subject matter practically does not matter! If the teacher's passion ignites that student's academic persona, we are gold! Along with the relationship, the capacity and ability of the teacher to create a powerful learning environment are key. This means the ability to bring learning alive, managing 25 plus kids + content + activities + assessment + everything else that shows up in a classroom each minute. Both the relationship and the efficacy are the interactive tools for great learning. |
Recent news
The link below is to the most recent stories in a Google news search for the terms Laurie Fong Santa Rosa High School District. These results are automatically generated from Google. Ballotpedia does not curate or endorse these articles.
See also
External links
Footnotes
- ↑ Abbey Smith, "Phone communication with Sonoma County Registrar of Voters," August 25, 2016
- ↑ County of Sonoma, "Current Election Results," accessed November 9, 2016
- ↑ Sonoma County Registrar of Voters, "Welcome to the CampaignDocs Web Public Access," accessed November 4, 2016
- ↑ Sonoma County Democratic Party, "Official Endorsements for the November ballot," accessed October 17, 2016
- ↑ Evolve, "Endorsements: November 8, 2016 General Election," accessed October 13, 2016
- ↑ Santa Rosa Teachers Association, "SRTA Proudly Endorses Gonzalez, Banuelos, and Fong for Santa Rosa School Board," accessed October 28, 2016
- ↑ Ballotpedia School Board Candidate Survey, 2016, "laurie fong's responses," August 4, 2016
- ↑ 8.0 8.1 Note: This text is quoted verbatim from the original source. Any inconsistencies are attributable to the original source.
| 2016 Santa Rosa High School District Elections | |
| Sonoma County, California | |
| Election date: | November 8, 2016 |
| Candidates: | At-large: • Incumbent, Laura Gonzalez • Incumbent, Jenni Klose • Evelyn Anderson • Caroline Bañuelos • Laurie Fong • Edward Sheffield |
| Important information: | What was at stake? • Additional elections on the ballot • Key deadlines |
