Schools
Board of Ed. Candidates Field Questions from Students
The Teen Foundation at Beverly Hills High School hosts a forum for the four Board of Education candidates.
From school security, to using the latest technology in the classroom, to drug testing for students, to the continued implementation of the common core standards, the four candidates vying for seats on the Beverly Hills Board of Education met with students Wednesday night at the high school for a forum.
More than 100 students, parents and members of the public filled the Jon Cherney Lecture Hall for the event.
Current board member Lisa Korbatov, attorney Howard Goldstein, John Dohm, senior vice president of an technology company and James Fabe, a dentist, are the four candidates.
There are two seats open on the Board of Education: Korbatov's seat and President Jacob Manaster is not running for his seat.
Teen Foundation BH Secretary Daniel Partiyeli said the turnout for the 2013 forum was greater than last year's. The senior said he felt the candidates covered most of the major topics.
"One candidate gave a lot of unrelated topics," Partiyeli said. He added that he liked candidate Howard Goldstein's reference to students and the use of technology in the classroom, specifically how students at The Waldorf School employ critical thinking as a tool and not the overuse of technology.
Here's a sampling of questions and answers, which have been shortened for brevity:
Q: What's your take on new technologies at schools in the headlines?
Korbatov: I'm sure you’re reading about the LAUSD iPads. Now they can’t get them back. Many are missing. In Vermont, I went there and they are using one-to-one there….if technology wasn’t always available, readily and working, then people stopped using it. Teachers loved it but they were exhausted, and [the] kids know more about it than the teacher, so there’s a flip. We need to figure how to bring in tablets, computers on wheels and SMART boards.
Dohm: I work at a 3-D company. You can't stop technology. When I went to Northwestern, I was one of the first to use the Internet. The more exposure you get to technology, the better you'll be.
Fabe: Ergonomics is very important. You have Horace mann and other schools with 80-pound kids carrying 40 pounds backpacks. When I got my MBA, my work shifted where you don’t have to carry books and papers. We have to move in that direction. These children come from divorced parents. They have to carry from house to the other, and they have instruments, and these kids are getting orthopedic problems. So if you have the technology, you can solve three problems at once. One, orthopedic. Two, the transportation problem and third, they will have all info centralized on the ipad, or whatever the tablet is. Most MBA schools have gone completely away from paper, you can send a secure email with your work with a time stamp on it. You can even encrypt the computer on it. These kids of things are not new.
Goldstein: Technoloy must be looked at as a tool. We need use critical thinking. Everyone talks about the iPad. What about Android? As important as technology is, it should be implemented through the STEM program.
Q: Will common core affect how teachers are still evaluated and if so, how?
Fabe: This is Beverly Hills. We need to exceed the core curriculum. You guys are much smarter than you think you are, but no one's teaching you foreign languages in fourth, fifth and sixth grade. Teachers are not actively intervening with problem students or those with/ problems in subjects. Your class schedule doesn’t allow for that.
Goldstein: With affect to common core, it’ll be interesting for the district. It’s a national standard that’s being put in place. Replacing our STAR and CST testing. They have no alignment with curricuclum at this point. Most important thing we can provide as a district is professional development and provide your educators w/ most aspects of professional development to align the common core with what today's students are learning now is a huge undertaking. And implementing STEM at the K through eight level.
Korbatov: The common core’s still a big mystery to everyone. Sacramento, the Department of Education is fighting about it. We need to figure this out before we apply time and money to this. The biggest problem with testing is there’s too much testing. Spending money and time without spending that same time teaching them. Imagine how much money is being spent on these tests.
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Goldstein: Other dramatic less threatening events than shootings need to be addressed. Bullying, intimindation, harassment, theft, drugs, drop off and pick up. Graffiti. Burglary. Outside the home, schools are the safest area and most nurturing place you can be. To understand school safety and security. We need to do more monitoring with video cameras, and SRO programs.
Korbatov: The threats are real. Being high profile, you don’t want to talk about it, to not give people ideas, but you do have to talk about it to have a plan. We have had some intrusions at the high school. People posing as students, at least once. We have had strange people get on campuses. It’s too pourous. We have to assume a more defensive posture. We’re designing out these campuses with these architects that are welcoming and friendly, and keep safe people in…we’re never going to, God forbid, have to deal with a Columbine or a Newtown.
Dohm: You can’t protect yourself against someone willing to do the ultimate harm to themselves. Information security and privacy, there’s where the real meat is on the security market space. How do you keep your information inaccessible from people tring to get it from you?
Fabe: In Army National Guard, I was trained. The biggest threat here is earthquakes and no one's mentioned that. You have a terrorism threat. Pandemics and emerging virus. Washing you hands is more important than worrying about a terrorist attacks.
A correction was made to two educational acronyms mentioned in a candidate's response. Patch apologizes for the error.
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