Election 2010 - Dr. Gwendolyn Stewart

(Updated: Thursday, May 13, 2010, 5:53 PM)

I have worked in education for 33 years in many capacities such as an elementary school teacher, middle school teacher, high school teacher, community college instructor, vice-principal and principal. I am the most qualified candidate running for this office. I have both classroom and administrative experience. I have worked both at the state level and local level dealing with issues that affect student achievement.

During the past 33 years, I have seen the classroom budget shrink, as the administration budget has grown by leaps and bounds. This must stop.

When elected, the first thing I will do is take a hard look at every department in our county schools, to seek out and eliminate any wasteful spending. I am also willing to take a pay cut. These times are hard, and hard decisions must be made, but I will make every effort to ensure that teachers and students in the classroom are the absolute last on my list of budget cuts.

I will not make a statement during my campaign that I will not be able to live up to. When elected Madera County Superintendent of Schools, I will do my best to serve with integrity students and parents of Madera County. I will have an open door policy for students, parents, teachers and administrators.

For more than a generation I have observed the steady decline of our public school education system. While bureaucracies have flourished, our classrooms have been starved. Our state budget crisis embodies further cuts to student services.

As your next Madera County Superintendent of Schools, I will work hard to protect our teachers and classrooms by reducing unnecessary administrative expenditures. Budget cuts are a painful necessity yet we must not lose sight of those that we serve, the students and their families.

Do you want to continue to operate with business as usual or come on board as a community and work towards a common goal, and that is to build collaboratively a community forum that will work together to find ways to close the academic achievement gap and to educate our children?