Dave Sorgent
Why are you running for school board? I have been a teacher in middle, high school, and junior college and I have been a member of the San Joaquin County Board of Education. I was an original member of the Teachers College of San Joaquin. I have experience with budgets with the Boy Scouts, Stockton Civic Theatre, at my job at the San Joaquin County Office of Education, and on the SJC Board of Education. I know budgets! I have over 40 years of high quality work experience in education, all in San Joaquin County. My goal is to help improve the quality of education for all the children in my community.
Why are you the best candidate for the seat? I have 50 years of educational experience/knowledge in the county. I have been a successful teacher, educational coordinator and SJC School Board member. I am/have been a member of many high-quality boards.
If elected, what do you hope to accomplish? To unite a sometimes-divided board to find solid consensus on major issues. To assist in proper management/allocation of limited funds. To streamline and strengthen college and career pathways.
What role should a school district serve and how would you measure success? Provide a safe and well-maintained environment for students/teachers. Provide a vision with pathways to success for all students, college or career. Provide competitive salaries with goals of teacher retention and fairness to all employee groups. You measure success with teacher evaluations of students, state test scores and teacher retention rates. I would also have LUSD devise both a certified and classified satisfaction survey. How can LUSD better serve the community? Continue to maintain, support, and upgrade the Lincoln Technology Academy and Adult Education School. Emphasize skills needed in wine, motel management, and other local growing business areas (at LTA and Adult Schools). Allocate existing money wisely and efficiently.
In what areas has Lodi Unified School District improved recently? Provided a safe environment with inside locks on all school rooms, fencing, video coverage of campuses, security aids, and security entrances. Improved the number of students reading at grade level by the end of third grade. Upgraded athletic facilities.
How would you promote further improvement? I would work to allocate more funds, as possibly, directly to the classrooms for reading (K-5) and class size. Improve A-G student requirement completion rates for college. Ensure money for technology is used in a responsible way.
What concerns you about Lodi Unified School District? A divided board. Teacher retention rates. Teaching/administrative staffs that mirror changing student population. Provide continuing, high quality professional development for staff. How would you address these concerns? Work for consensus on the Board. Allocate competitive salaries for all staff. Continue work to recruit staff mirroring all ethnic groups.
Who’s a leader you admire and why? President Kennedy enhanced education with peace/teacher corps. Your thoughts on: School safety LUSD has done excellent work to provide a safe place for our children to learn. We have inside locks on all doors, proper fencing and locked entrances at almost all sites, video monitoring and school aides. Perhaps a small school committee at each facility could better monitor those who demonstrate tendencies to do great harm. Student work/life balance
The district provides athletic, music/fine arts, and social activities to enhance the life/educational experience of each student. We need to encourage all students to be part of the total school environment by nurturing heir interests and changing attitudes with the times. Low-enrollment schools
Lend more support and strengthen existing programs at these schools to avoid having to bus children across town to other schools. Charter schools
Public charters are excellent small learning communities. I do not favor privatization of charter schools Trade schools/skills
I admire/support the LTA/Adult School. It is a great model with classes available to all district 11th/12th graders for two hours daily. The district must continue to work with Delta College, coordinating LTA/Adult School offerings. Technology in education
We need appropriate technology to build student skills. I do not favor technology for tech sake. This can be very expensive and sometimes counter productive. Students need access to tech but constraints are needed because of high costs. School start times
Buses drive all schedules. Need more data that shows how changes will improve student performances. However, I often wonder about students out of school at 2 p.m. Teacher tenure/retention
Tenure is a given because of state laws and a board cannot change this. Tenure is an administrative problem. More “impromptu” observations in addition to “scheduled” observations are needed. Solid working conditions and competitive salaries in a stable community like Lodi will retain good teachers. Local Control Accountability Plan
Lodi did a great job this year of getting all of the stakeholders involved in the decisions as to how to allocate the $820,000 in one-time LCAP money, School discipline
True discipline is “self discipline.” Taxpayer accountability
Lodi taxpayers have generously supported schools in the past, and I believe they will continue this support if the need is justified. Standardized testing
This is a tool along with teacher evaluations to better see the “dashboard” of achievement. Standardized testing helps to see the big picture, but I wouldn’t use it as a total measure of achievement.