Browse archives: 2007 | 2006 | 2005 | 2004 | 2003 | 2002 | 2001 | 2000 | 1999 | 1998 | 1997 | 1996 | 1995

Published on 10/06/1997 All articles from this issue

Foothill-DeAnza District: three candidates up for two seats

printer friendly version

Paul Fong (incumbent)

Age:

Marital Status: Married with three children

Education: M.P.A from San Jose State University and a master's in education from the University of California, San Francisco

Resident of Los Altos: 36 years as a district resident

Employment: Professor of political science, third generation owner of YK Fong Nursery, a family flower business, owner of Flower Cottage.

Previous public experience: Served on two county commissions, more than a dozen nonprofit boards and currently serves on the academic senate at Evergreen Valley College as a faculty member.

Motivation for running in the election:

To give something back to the community.

To participate in the non-permanent, ever changing technological environment in our district and community.

To provide leadership, vision and accountability.

Most important issues:

Long-term building maintenance needs

Student success. In particular, training, academic transfer and achievement of degrees are critical. Training of welfare recipients for work is also a high priority.

Maintaining high academic standards while remaining culturally diverse is critical.

Goals if elected:

Keep our colleges as two of the finest in our nation in terms of training, academic transfer and degree programs.

Continue to balance competing needs with given resources while securing a safe reserve for sound fiscal budgeting.

I pledge to maintain our college districts accessibility, accountability and responsiveness to all.

Why you can make a difference:

I have extensive public/ community service experience including 14 years adjunct faculty at De Anza College, and three years on faculty at Evergreen Valley College. I have experience in family business.

Jay Jackman and Edward Hay were unable to respond to the Town Crier by press time. The following information was taken from their candidate statements.

Edward (Sandy) Hay

Age: 62

Marital Status:

Education: Master's from the University of California, Berkeley

Resident of Los Altos:

Employment: Consulting geologist and former college teacher.

Previous public experience: Taught 34 years at Foothill and DeAnza Colleges.

Candidate statement:

Student learning must drive all district and campus decisions. Educational quality is the key criterion by which we judge success. Current board emphasis is on the "Corporate Model". This model is appropriate and desirable for profit-oriented enterprises, but for colleges, an emphasis on seat counts and bottom lines often diminishes student success.

The current trustees spent millions of taxpayer dollars on hired consultants who negotiate with faculty and staff, and conduct studies having little to do directly with education. Instead, I would have urged investment in ways to enhance student learning.

Our colleges are overwhelmed with students needing basic skills. Recent emphasis, however, has been on expensive information technology without clear understanding of how it serves needs of students. I believe that students benefit most when actively engaged and challenged, and I believe that technology holds the promise of greatly assisting skilled classroom teachers, but only when the power of technology is focused by the creativity and guidance of skilled and dedicated classroom teachers. Foothill-DeAnza must find such talent to augment their full-time faculty, as well as provide considerably more support to current part-time instructors.