Four vie for three seats in La Honda-Pescadero school board election By MATT KAPKO Half Moon Bay Review September 1, 2004 Three four-year terms are up for grabs on the La Honda-Pescadero Unified School District board and four candidates are vying for the votes to get more politically involved in youth education in this small community. None of the incumbents filed for re-election and all four candidates have been involved in youth education for years. Jessica Abbe of La Honda, and Ed Sawyer, Larry Trujillo and Robert Monsen all of Pescadero are hoping to join the board and improve the quality of education in the district. Abbe, a writer and filmmaker, has children enrolled in the district and says the entire community benefits from improved schooling. She says the district has been going in the right direction for the last two years and wants to continue the progress. The biggest problem for the district will be funding, she said. "We have to make do with what we have," she said, adding that the district needs to increase fund raising and grant funding - two things she's already working on. She also thinks Spanish instruction should be included in the general curriculum. "We're a two-language community and it would be great if everybody could graduate having studied Spanish in the elementary grades," she said. Monsen, who owns a general contracting and construction business, has been board president of a regional district of Waldorf Schools, a nationwide association of independent schools, for 18 years. "I certainly have dedicated my life to education," he says. "It's about educating and developing all of these capacities in children - to develop morals, ethics and self esteem," he said. The bureaucratic obstacles standing in the way of that goal are significant, Monsen said. "How can we build community on the local level? How can we empower in the face of that structure? How can we empower the teachers?" he asked rhetorically. "We need to get the bureaucrats out of it," he said. Sawyer, a consultant in the hospitality industry, has been involved in youth programs for most of his adult life and said the time has come for him to get involved in the school district and "give something back." He said there is a mountain of serious issues and policies impacting schools that need to be changed. "It's the school boards that are going to have to address those issues," Sawyer said. He takes a very simplified and grassroots approach to his goals at the district. "I want to be a realist," he said, explaining that he wants to see what can be accomplished by the board as he's brought up to speed. "You don't have to know everything. You just have to be able to find people that can help you," he said. Trujillo has been working in higher education for the last 29 years and is currently executive director of student academic support services at University of California at Santa Cruz. He's used his role in the university to establish Step to College, a collaborative program he started in the district to prepare K-12 students for college and introduce them to universities. He's also brought in tutors from UCSC to help the younger students with their senior projects. "To me, education for kids is just a really crucial and important part of their life," he said. He'd like to utilize more of the community's resources in the school district. "We have a really creative, incredible community," he said, adding that there are plenty of people in the community that can teach students about subjects and issues not typically addressed in their general curriculum. The community is planning a candidate forum to be held before the election on Nov. 2. Home