Rare race in Waugh district

For the first time in at least a decade there is a contested race for positions on the Waugh School District Board of Trustees. The Waugh District includes just two elementary schools, Meadow and Corona Creek.

Three seats on the five-member board are at stake, with incumbents Matt Thomas, Christine Pieper and Christie Shern being challenged by newcomers John Paun and Scott Rostoni.

Although the campaign has generally been cordial and amiable, two distinct camps have emerged.

The incumbents point to the Waugh District’s county-best Annual Performance Index (API) scores, its sound budget with a large reserve, and its growing attendance as signs that the district is doing well.

The challengers have formed an alliance that acknowledges the quality of the district schools, but says there’s room for improvement, especially when it comes to communication between the board and district parents.

John Paun

Paun would bring a strong financial background to the board. He is director of finance for an international housewares company in Novato and majored in finance in college.

As the father of four girls - twin 9-year-olds, a 6-year-old and a 2-year-old - he is passionate about education. Three of his children attend Corona Creek and the fourth is headed in that direction. He has volunteered at the Lucchesi Park Food Pantry and has made mission trips with his church.

Paun is impressed with the district, but sees a chance to make it better.

“It is on a par with private institutions, but we don’t have to pay their tuitions, but there is room for improvement,” he says. “We don’t need any sweeping changes, but it does need some tweaking.”

He got into the race because he discovered a lack of communication between the school district and his family following a bullying incident at school involving one of his daughters.

“‘This happens,’ is not the response I was looking for,” he says, explaining that he was seeking some policy changes.

Furthermore, he said, the current board doesn’t seek enough input from the school’s stakeholders. “To not allow everyone to weigh in is a huge mistake.”

He says his financial background would benefit the district. “I understand how to look at budgets and make informed decisions,” he says. “I do it all day.”

Paun says it will be critical to better support the teachers as they implement the newly adopted Common Core teaching standards. “It is all brand new,” he says. “We have to give teachers a great deal of latitude.”

He acknowledges that he has no elected experience, but says he is confident he can be an effective school board member.

He maintains there is a difference “in how Corona Creek parents see things and how Meadow parents see things. I would like to know that resources are being handled in an equitable way.”

Matt Thomas

Thomas is a retired Petaluma police officer who is seeking his third term on the board. He wants to maintain the quality of the district. “We’ve worked hard to get to where we are,” he says, pointing to the schools’ rank as No. 1 in the county in state API test scores.

He works part time for a company that presents safety courses in schools, is president of the California Association of Hostage Negotiators and on the board of Speedway Children’s Charities. He also coaches Petaluma High School’s boys golf team. He has two daughters who attended Meadow School.

He says the current board functions well. “The board has done well in keeping the students at the forefront,” he says.

He notes that the Waugh District managed to avoid program cutbacks and layoffs during the recession, and has not asked for any public support.

“Now we need to go back and do some maintenance work,” he notes, adding “and we can do it without a bond measure.”

He says the Waugh District is “progressing along” in implementing Common Core, but expresses concerns about the costs. “The state kind of put the cart before the horse,” he says. “They gave us the goals, but we need to back them up, and that means new textbooks at what cost?”

He says the school district is making strides toward improving its technology thanks to grants from the Petaluma Educational Foundation and an opportunity to get slightly used computers from the Reed School District in Tiburon. Ne noted that the district has also purchased the Chromebooks needed for Common Core testing, and purchased new laptops for the teachers.

He says the district provides the same resources to each school and is eager to hear from parents. “The superintendent has an open door policy,” he points out. “We went a very long time with no one at the board meetings and very rarely did anyone send us e-mail.”

Christine Pieper

Pieper is a lifelong Petaluma resident, save for her college years. She wants a second term on the school board after having run unopposed the first time around, and hopes to continue the good work already in motion.

She has a background in education and is currently director of quality and accreditation for Knowledge Universe, a global education organization. She holds a masters degree in education and, for 10 years, was a teacher in both public and private schools.

A product of local schools herself, she has two teenagers who have gone through Waugh Schools, when she served on the school site council and was PTA president. She also has served as a mentor with Mentor Me.

She says she is very proud of the Waugh Distirct. “We weathered the fiscal crisis without any layoffs,” she points out. “We still have teacher assistants in every classroom. We have restored all furlough days and added an extra training day. We have been very frugal and have a sizable reserve.”

She points out that, in addition, the district has successfully negotiated a contract with its teachers, hired three new teachers and that enrollment is at an all-time high.

She adds that thanks to WISE (Waugh Invests in Student Excellence), an independent district support group, a strong PTA and the Petaluma Educational Foundation, the district has been able to maintain its strong music and arts program and to made strides to secure the technology needed to implement Common Core.

“Not everybody has embraced Common Core,” she says, “but it is here and we will do it right.”

She says she has never observed a communication problem between the board and the parents. “Our superintendent has an open-door policy,” she says, “and he is the front line. I’ve never had a parent I could not have an open conversation with.”

She acknowledges that the two district schools require maintenance, but notes that the district is already beginning some needed projects. “Meadow is the older school, and we’ve been doing some work there. There is a long list that both schools are in need of, but we are beginning those projects.”

Christie Shern

Shern is the current president of the board, and is a strong business presence among the trustees, having worked in sales for Johnson & Johnson and currently for Barilla Pasta. She is a member of the Network of Executive Women.

She has two children, one who attended Meadow School and is now in junior high, and one who is a fifth-grader at Meadow. She has been active in her children’s education, serving on the PTA at Meadow and now on the Parent-Teacher-Student Association at Kenilworth. She has also volunteered with the Petaluma Girls Softball Association and Steel Breeze softball group.

It was her service on the PTA that led her to the school board. “I was volunteering with the PTA and I wanted to do more in the district,” she explains. She was appointed to fill a vacancy on the board in March 2011, and is now seeking election for the first time.

She is proud of the way the district came through the recession and of its current financial shape. “We were able to weather the storm and we are in a very strong fiscal position,” she says, pointing out that the district has a healthy reserve, enrollment is up, the district has hired three new teachers.

Stern acknowledges that the district has been able to maintain its solid financial footing with help from the PTAs, the Petaluma Educational Foundations and WISE. “I don’t know what we would have done without WISE,” she says,

She is especially proud of the district’s teachers. “They are the strength of our district,” she says. “We have a lot of tenured, experienced teachers who are passionate about teaching.”

She says she is excited about some of the changes Common Core will bring to schools. “It will give elementary kids a new way of looking at learning,” she explains. “It will teach team a realistic way of problem solving,”

She says it is “difficult to understand” why the district is criticized for a lack of communication.

“We obviously have an open board,” she says. “It is hard to know what a person doesn’t know or what they would like to know more about.”

Scott Rostoni

Rostoni is running for the board after applying for, but failing to receive, an appointment to a vacant seat in March.

He is operations manager for Visicon Technology, a high tech manufacturing company. Although he oversees all the company’s operations except sales and engineering, he says his passion has always been engineering.

He has two children, a 9-year-old son who attends Meadow School and a 4-year-old daughter in the district’s preschool program.

He has coached his son’s Petaluma Youth Soccer League teams and been a Den Leader for his son’s Cub Scout Pack. His wife is on the WISE Foundation board, but he does not see that as a conflict of interest.

He acknowledges that the district is functioning well, but believes more should be done.

“When we bought a home in 2012, the school district was our No. 2 reason for buying, right behind if the house was going to be a fit for our family,” he says. “The current board has done a great job managing the district through some difficult times.”

However, he says he has concerns about the school district’s communication with the parents.

“It could be better,” he says of the district communication. “A lot of decisions are being made that the public isn’t aware of until after the fact. Having a board face in front of parents would be a great opportunity to improve communication.”

He said the issue goes beyond parents.

“Some of the teachers I have talked to don’t feel the board is as connected to them is it should be.”

Rostoni says that during the LCAP process the board didn’t receive as much public input as had been promised. LCAP is the Local Control and Accountability Plan that each district had to prepare as part of the state’s new Local Control Funding Formula.

He also says that the district LCAP indicates “funds will be funneled differently between the two schools.”

“The board has done a great job, but change is good,” he says.

(Contact John Jackson at johnie.jackson@arguscou rier.com)