Giving to the Community everyday.

By Douglas C. Woods

A number of great things have happened in my four years on the Board.

The School District and the South Coast Collaborative now offers pre-school education and year round daycare for the youngest and a new adult education program for our older residents. Together we have built a community health care clinic and may soon be in the public transit business. The District continues to offer local Internet access utilizing bandwidth that would have been otherwise wasted and creating a revenue source at the same time.

As Board President my leadership was tested in the search for a great new superintendent. This was a dynamic process involving the Board, staff, and the community. I am most proud of our selection of John Wilson as our new Superintendent. He is the right CEO, arriving at the right time with the experience to do what is needed to succeed.

Affordable Housing for Staff - Just finding housing, much less being able to afford it has been a important project. Several years ago upon discovering a high school teacher sleeping in his truck for lack of local housing I found him small affordable place right next to my house. Now, I not only have a great neighbor but the school kept a great science teacher. The District has an agreement with an organization to build affordable housing if the District can provide the land. The land has been difficult to find. Our teachers and staff want to live here on the coast and become members of our community and I'm doing everything I can to make this a reality.

Water for La Honda Elementary - No school should be without a clean source of water. I cannot change the history of what happened but I did make it a specific goal of the Superintendent to acquire a new source of water. I took a personal interest in keeping the issue moving forward. My attendance at County meetings and others demonstrated that this was a priority and would not be tabled again.

Student Census # There are about a dozen different reasons District wide why student enrollment is down. Some of the reasons, like demographics, geography, the economy and birthrate we can do little to correct. I know the Board has examined this issue repeatedly over the years and there is no instant fix. Some of the more apparent successes in addressing this issue are the opening of preschool and after school care, a notable failure is the La Honda Middle School effort.

In the search for a new Superintendent a major focus was finding a person who could promote and communicate the virtues of the District to each family living in the Community. I think we found just the right person.

Four years ago I promised a hard look at the future of the High School. What I discovered was not someplace I would send my child no matter how many were enrolled. However "closing" a school is not to be taken in haste and the Management Team asked for the opportunity and support to "take back" the school. In the past two years the District Management Team has focused on fixing the educational issues and has done an excellent job. The High School may never see 120 students again but 70 is very small. We must now market this gem of an educational institution by promoting its opportunities to our elementary school parents, inviting back students who have transferred away and maybe even recruiting a few to transfer into the District.

After School and Summer Activities- It is a priority that we work as a community to find activities for our youth after school and in the summer. I started the summer Major League Soccer Camp by writing the first two grants that included full scholarships.

Southcoast.net ISP - Many of you may remember me as the person helping with computer and internet problems. I provided free assistance to southcoast.net customers for a number of years. This District owned and operated Internet Service Provider (ISP) continues to provide internet access to over 200 residents and small businesses in the La Honda and Pescadero area. Revenue generated from the monthly fees goes towards paying for the District's backbone networking costs making it important that Southcoast.net both survives and grows. It will never compete with Earthlink or AOL in tech support but these services do not offer free access to our teachers and non-profit community organizations. I have proposed to the Board that we explore turning over operations and finance to the District's Joint Foundation or South Coast Children's Services. This will create a continuous revenue source for the selected organization and create an access to a market of people who do not have children in the District and may not otherwise donate to the school. These Organizations also have a better organization of volunteers that could offer improved tech support and marketing for the service.

For the 13 years I have lived on the south coast I have proudly given my time as a Volunteer County Firefighter. I also work part time for the Probation Department as a Group Supervisor at Camp Glenwood Boys Camp in La Honda.

I have a solid and positive record of giving to the entire south coast community and to its children. I would like to continue to serve our community for another four years.

Thank you for your vote.