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Peninsula School Board Choices

Posted on: Friday, 28 October 2005, 12:00 CDT

With veteran Peninsula school board members Gabriella Holt and Ellen Perkins not seeking re-election this year, the voters' primary job will be to decide which of the new candidates on the Nov. 8 ballot should take the reins of policy making.

To retain some continuity and institutional memory, we favor the re-election of incumbent Barbara Lucky, who received a teaching credential from UCLA and served as an attorney representing the Long Beach Unified School District. She points to positive district achievements, such as getting $24 million in school modernization funds from the state and reopening Dapplegray Elementary School, Ridgecrest Intermediate School and Palos Verdes High School. The district has also added more honors and advanced-placement classes, Lucky said.

For the two open seats, voters have a choice of qualified candidates. Ginny Snider, who served as vice president of the Palos Verdes Faculty Association and was a member of a school site council, taught in the district for 17 years before retiring two years ago. Erin LaMonte, who has three children in the district and who now serves as president of the PTA Council, has business and management experience. And Malcolm Sharp, who for six years was a Peninsula Education Foundation trustee, including two years of service as president or co-president, spent more than 15 years as an instructor for the USC School of Policy, Planning and Development.

Our endorsements go to both LaMonte and Sharp. LaMonte has a broad overview of the district, having served on the district's Technology Committee and a committee overseeing the parcel tax. She wants to take a long-term analysis of the district's finances, enrollment and curriculum and also investigate what innovations other top-performing districts around the nation are trying.

Sharp has a record of volunteering in elementary schools where his children once attended and working to double the education foundation's annual fund-raising tally. His background in computer technology and teaching should also be valuable for the district. Among Sharp's goals as a school board member are reducing the guidance counselor-to-student ratio and lobbying Sacramento for a fairer share of the school funding pie. He also would like the district to pursue "out-of-the-box" funding efforts, such as the Defense Department grant it won to teach a Chinese language class.

On Election Day, we recommend that voters consider Barbara Lucky, Erin LaMonte and Malcolm Sharp.

Source: Daily Breeze

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