Focused on the middle student

I am voting for Andrew “AJ” Blumenfeld for school board. Why? Because we need new ideas, great ideas from someone who is full of energy and passion about all students. As a member of the school board, AJ would be the voice with the most current experience on behalf of students. This is both unique and extremely valuable. How many of our current school board members have, or have had, kids in La Cañada Unified School District within the last 5-10 years?

AJ is very focused on the middle student. I find this quite impressive because AJ was not a middle student. AJ knows he was identified in elementary school as a fast-tracker and was treated as such through his entire school career; teacher assignment is not random. AJ doesn’t think this is fair. It is at the high school where our district has the largest disparity in quality of teachers.

Is that due to the strength of the teachers’ union? AJ says no, and wants to implement tools that are available under the current contract but which are not applied systematically by this school board. AJ has studied education policy at Princeton and the La Cañada teachers’ contract as a specific assignment in one of his classes, so he is more familiar with our contract than most. AJ wants the school board to set priorities to document teachers, assist those who want to improve, and send a few percent through the dismissal process.

Is it a problem that AJ will be traveling from Princeton? I say no! Wouldn’t it be better to have a highly competent, passionate and technology-savvy person such as AJ watching out for our students than someone who might be physically here, but not really present?

To learn more about AJ, please take time to review his website at www.ajblumenfeld.com. Every child and family deserves a strong advocate. Please join me in supporting and voting for Andrew “AJ” Blumenfeld for school board on Nov. 8.

Karen Mathison

La Cañada