Thank You Portland Voters

As you are well aware now I managed to get only 4000 votes, not a majority, this election. Thank you for supporting me during these months, I have enjoyed this so much I will most likely run again the next time there is an available seat.

Thank You Lyman Moore Middle School

It was a pleasure and honor this evening to go to a school with students so involved with their democracy. I had cancelled most of the appointments I made before the birth of Eliot but Mr. Hilton and his class were persistent. The amount of time and energy they put into their democracy really set the bar high for any other group I will come into contact with. The league of young voters, Five local newspapers, Blogs, and people whom I talked to in their own homes should know. There is a group of children. I think it transcends schools. They are going to be ready to say in the near future, "Thank you for what you have done for our schools. Now we will take over." I truly can say I met those young people today. Cheers to you all Lyman Moore Middle School students. You have my respect and ear for listening. Know that your concerns will be taken most seriously.
I was not able to answer one question as thoroughly as I woulod have liked. The question was regarding the implementation of tecnology in schools. If elected I will secure relationships with the current sources for broadband in our community to ensure that our kids have the internet at their fingertips. We should control the wireless in central Portland ad around al schools because we can screen it that way. There are ways of making our tecnology more benign. I will place the finding of these groups on the highest of priorities.

politics halloween and bunnies

Kevin Gardella Speaks Out About Making Local Elections Tolerable

Readers, you have seen my name below the comments section on various articles of Portland least credible news source saying how important it is for the media to support unbiased journalism. I never realized it before but certain major newspapers feel it is their duty to tell voters who and what they should vote for. It is nether is a reason we don't allow newspapers to vote: they are a corporations(in the case of the one I am using for an unmentioned example). You also may have seen comments I made about empty and desperate political posturing around election time. The timing of these two phenomena are interconnected. As a candidate I have become acutely aware of how hard it is to make an informed decision about all the candidates. There are few voters who have met all of the the candidates in any of the races. It is even harder now to get an honest opinion from any of the papers without running into some form of empty posturing. It is dishonest and not at the heart of good policymaking or politician selecting. I do not have the silver bullet but I do have a bunch of ways of making sure that local politics in Portland stay vital and honest. It is through a few steps but is feasible.
1)No more campaign funds for candidates, all races should be run on the same minimal budget(and I mean minimal). These clean elections funds are run as pools and voters will decide how much each candidate will get to run for the seat. Candidates are given blogs and spots in the newspapers to brag the week before elections. The candidates can brag and posture all they want in the silence of their own blogs rather than subject news-readers to it.
2)No more political signs on public property. Any trash generated by political signs and fines for not following the no political sign on public property will fund clean elections.
3)The citizens of Portland(in my dream world) make it very clear to their leading new source they will no longer be tolerating their opinions in local politics. We have heard quite enough from the largest newspaper in Portland. We vote for a reason, because we are informed and want to have control and involvement with our democracy. We most certainly do not need your rag telling us how to vote.
4)In order to reduce expenses and tax on our landfill no more sending of BS regarding political stuff in the mail. Not once have I received a piece of campaign lit that has made me support someone. It is time to stop this local wastefulness.
5)I really, really support group endorsements of candidates and nights for candidates to meet constituents and field their questions. These are the kind of events that will make Portlanders feel in charge of their city once again.
6)There should be mediation services given to political hopefulls who are not getting along and using nice words. Local politics is community based and the worst thing for communities is to have their representatives carrying on like children. This is a more general comment, Portland's race this year has been very cordial, everyone I have personally been in contact with is extremely civil.

Lesley Jones' Suggestions for a Better Portland

My friend Lesly just sent me a laundry list of suggestions. I thought I would publish them in their complete form then talk about ones that I will work towards integrating as a school committee member. Please continue to send suggestions readers as local government is representing you and your ideas. If you feel something is important I will work hard to make sure your ideas are explored and heard as best as I can. Young non voters and people who are interested in helping Portland's schools become better please send ideas as well. I will represent you nomatter what your voting status. A good idea is a good idea nomatter where it came from.
1) Bottles Save/ Trash Decreased -put bottle redemption cans attached to the trash cans. Folks can environmentally dispose of the bottles as trash, and those who collect for money can gather and return for change. We could have the units (which I would be happy to sketch out) attached to side and sponsored by local business with signage. WIN/WIN/ Win. Less trash/ money for those to take back and structure supported by area business. Les waste, more revenue.

2) PLOWING and COST SAVING - City government – put big rubber tips on the bottoms of plows. This will eliminate some of the wear and tear on our road, and it will make the plows last longer too. City should pay for this and it would save money in long run. Not really Reciprocity but city idea. We could think about how this could be reciprocal…..

3) SAVE ENERGY INDOORS - Get an environmental engineer to consult with city to eliminate waste in our gov’t buildings. Some groups do this for free, but maybe those GREENs could earn Time Dollars. Also, maybe something could be done on larger scale with video produced by CTN to show consumers how to do this no matter what size home or business.. Also negotiate bulk savings on bulbs and other energy devices for all citizens. Share and share alike – esp. the knowledge! By the way, every school should be GREEN!
4) Time Bank in Each Neighborhood Association - Implement a time bank in each Neighborhood association. Reward citizens for contributing to our civic duties, instead of just volunteering. Get one going in each neighborhood as infrastructure and the core values will come out of that to pervade the city!

5) BIKE/CAR SHARE - Implement a bike or car-share service like in DENVER. Get folks to donate used bikes, or use the bikes that are confiscated in crimes. Get citizens to paint and repair, and have the city set up more BIKE centers so that anyone who needs a bike could use the bike. Recruit Mechanics or PATHS to fix up the cars to do for PRO BONO Work. Share and share alike! Many bikes are thrown away each year, but could be refurbished.

6) Create job opportunities- get people to mentor and help each other like SCORE or other programs, but do things like look at resumes, and utilize volunteer opportunities/ Time Bank Opportunities (like some of the ones listed here) as job experience to help young people get started on career track or move others along the career track.
7) Adopt a Block Programs – pick a new area each season to focus on: gardens, trash, maintenance as a community, city-wide event.

8) TRASH Helpers - Pay people to pick up trash like the bottle redemption system. Paid for by the pound, and this would save some work by city officials. We can all help to keep the city clean!

9) Promote Outdoor concerts and local performances on the street. Close down Market or Exchange to Car Traffic and just have foot traffic. Allow artists and musicians, and encourage them to be outdoors. Think of CHINA TOWN in San Francisco or GALWAY in Ireland! Promote the arts for the betterment of society!

10) Create GRAFFITI COURTS – where artists can paint to hearts content. Think of WIKIPEDIA for URBAN ARTISTS. Then employ stiffer fines for painting/tagging outside these areas. Think of them as the visual SKATE PARKS! J

11) Fund MENSK. – Ask ELI CAYER what he would like to see in this CITY!

12) USEFUL LABOR – work with schools and universities to integrate programs to meet community needs. For example, SMCC has a COMPUTER PROGRAM where students learn to use computer but don’t have practical applications. Let students earn credit for learning about computers with real world applications. So when they learn POWERPOINT or another lesson, let them partner with a nonprofit that needs a project created! Channels 2, 3 and 4 need dozens of slides made a week for Public Service Announcements, mean while students are creating templates or examples everyday that will never be used in the real world. Everyone could win in this situation by employing student labor for credit in real world applications! WIN/WIN/ WIN – students/ society/ nonprofits.

13) PLANT SWAP for a MORE BEAUTIFUL WORLD - Create a plant swap with the city garden system with pubic parks and citizens to create more diversity in the gardens and to help with dividing plants (like BI-Annuals, bulbs and other plants.) This could help city greening plan, and also help the gardens to be more healthy by dividing the plants. For example, I could donate DAY LILIES from my garden, and the City could donate bulbs that need to be divided from the USM gardens. Get all groups involved in all the city gardens. Pretty for everyone!

14) KEEP OUR STREETS CLEAN - Start a CLEAN THE STREET for SPRING CLEANING in the OLD PORT. In Europe shop keepers are responsible for cleaning their front walks. We could ask the same of show keepers here, with citizens, businesses, and city officials providing the brooms and water with the Fire Department to clean the streets on a regular basis. This might be like the APRIL Stools Day EVENT on the East End with FETCH.

15) Round Table Forums and Salons –VISIOINING EXERCISES for the WHOLE CITY – What do we want our cities to look like? What are our collective values? Put teams together not just on the practical, political stuff – but what about dreams for our city? What do we want it to look like?

16) Have WIRELESS NETWORKS around the City - like AUSTIN does and ATLANTA considered. Make TIME-WARNER do this as Part of FRANCHISE NEGOTIOATION and promote citizen knowledge. Time WARNER uses our airwaves, its time for RECIPROCITY ON THEIR PART!!!!!

17) CREATE SATALITE STATIONS with computers, at more places than just libraries. Use donated computers if needed.

18) REUSE/REDUCE – STARTS at HOME - Start a RECYCLING/ REDEMPTION CENTER(S) at our city dump like the one in Falmouth and Hampden, Maine. Citizens can buy items for $1 or whatever at a facility, instead of just throwing those items away. Funds could be used to create a small shed to house the items and part-time staff. (This could actually save money on BIG ITEM PICK Up/TRASH Day that is held 1-2x per year.) Ask Falmouth to show Portland how to do it. Some one’s trash is another person’s treasure!

19) Sustainable community – look at what Burlington, Vermont is doing. They all compost, and then the farm turns it into soil, which the citizen’s can buy. They also have kids learn farming to create healthy food which is served in the schools and sold in the farmers’ market. It goes around and around and around for the health of the community!

20) Promote ALTERNATIVE MEDIA- keep our city informed. Let Portland and Maine push the boundaries of the Federal Government. WE know best! Have Maine and Portland sign the KYOTO TREATY! We are one world!

21) Partner with Energy Groups and Business Group – like BALLE and others to create more environmentally sound communities! We need to work together with our skills and talents for the betterment of our entire society.

22) REVIEW BEST PRACTICES by other cities and use what we need here.

Dave and Eliot, His Youngest Constituent

Understand the Impact of Experts

Portland has changed over the last ten years in many ways. The particular change I would like to frame out is how Portland has been gentrified. Portland used to cost very little to live in and housed many poor people who were happy to be skirting the poverty line. It was a game. How little can I work without impacting the amount of comfort I have? The answer for me in 1998 was 26 to 28 hours. It was grand, I made good money doing work for Goodwill and had plenty of time and money for fun. Times have changed, realestate values have inflated(I have a family). Condos have been built and families have left. No longer are the days of living near poverty for 28 hours of work a week. The job market has not improved, the number of affordable spots to crash are minimal. Portland loses its flavor. I am making less now doing similarly skilled work than I was eight years ago.
Over the last ten years we have had experts guiding our city. They have told us to value their knowledge of policy. They have told us there is nothing they can do to bring down the prices of housing and everything relative to the payrates in Portland. They have done little to bring in good employers unless it was in the form of construction work for condo conversions.
I personally think it is time for the wolves to be exposed as wolves and replaced with proper responsive altruistic shepard types. No more relying on experts to tell us what our diverse city's people need. A good representative knows how to use the resources already existing in the city of Portland. The resourses are the people of Portland. Their experiance, thier frustrations should be heard. Myopic candidates who seeing Portland through only their own lens distort what it takes to fufill thier pubilc service role. The key for success at any of the elected positions is the ability to know how to ask the right questions, take that information, turn it into sound policy, and get the community behind it.
There has been a whole lot public debate going on about many issues in Portland's schools. Public meetings of school committee members, the role of class rank in Portland's schools, AP classes futures, and the funding of specialized sex education. Only one of these debated items was solved in a completely productive way. The sex ed question. I plan to approach all potentially devisive problems in this manner. Keep all debate civil and productive always. Make sure everyone wishing to speak has been heard. In an organized way find out how other communities have responded using reasearch methods and personal interviews. Form policy which is minimal, flexible, and ammendable. Have experts on Portland public policy review the policy then present it to constituents. This may sound time consuming but it is really quite natural. It is just a better way of making sure constituents have input in the governing process when they want to provide some. I am running for school committee because I enjoy the fruits of collaboration: truly visionary policy which will involve and enhance our community and their schools.
Experts are not always the best collaborators. The way they are most easily spotted is by thier lack of listening skills. I have never voted for someone who spoke of their vision without asking me for mine.

Thank You 100 State Street

I just went down to 100 State Street to talk to the residents about who I am and what I am running for. As planned it was very easy to talk to them and I talked to a few folks afterwards about various salient issues this election. I hope I get a few votes from that. It was really nice to have the support of the other candidates in terms of fatherhood. I am afraid that Eliot has eclipsed this race in terms of importance and it was just really nice to hear that all the other candidates had been rooting for me nomatter what their opinion of my politics. Thank you guys.
I spoke with a man who had said he thought without class ranking colleges would have a harder time figuring out class ranking. Thay in turn would find it diffucult to award financial aid. This perception is not really correct anymore. Many factors other than class rank go into deciding who gets the largest amount of financial aid. If a kid gets good grades in all classes and is civicly minded they will get loads of financial aid. They will get even more if they know how to sell themselves. I recommend and will recommend schools save by eliminating standardized testing from as many classes as possible. Instead focus those funds and class hours on teaching kids how to procure grants and sell themselves so they can succeed when it is time to do so in the real world.

The Arts In Portland

As Portland artist move to bedroom communities to be able to avoid starving in Portland the city has taken action. The mayor started the official reaction with a creative economy summit. Others have been actively engaging in acknowledging the role the arts must play in a healthy Portland tourist trade.
Last evening was my first public night out since the birth of Eliot. There was a creative conversation at Space regarding the arts district. It seems like more and more people(not just artists and direct arts supporters) have come to recognize the value of the arts to our city. There is a strong creative presence in Portland already. All this community has to do is coax it with a bit of encouragement and support.
There are a number of interested relegated developers who have recognized the value of this to their cause: making money on Portland realty. I hope that Portland recognizes the value of its artists before they allow these realtors to make a quick buck marketing the arts in Portland for their own coffers.
The application to schools is simple. If housing prices continue to rise families will not live here and send children to area schools. Something needs to be done now to make sure we keep area affordable housing for families who want to stay in town and send their kids to school here.

What should and should not be consolidated.

There are state incentives being given to financially troubled schools. These incentives tend to encourage consolidation. Strategies to curb school spending involving making one mega school out of many little schools may well actually be worth a try in more rural areas where kids have to be bussed anyway. In the city of Portland consolidation only threatens Portland communities. It will not solve any of the crowded classrooms, it will not save money. We will not be able to quantify the impact of consolidation on a given area in a given year. There is no way of demonstrating how the long term cost of decommission our neighborhood schools has undermined the Portland communities that had existed for decades. It is for this reason I am taking a strong stand against consolidation. I think it undermines Portland richest commodity, that is its communities. Please give me your feedback.

Should God still find its way into the allegiance?

I personally was asked this in a interview with a main newspaper in Portland. It was an odd question, especially when real and solvable problems plague our schools. I answered "Yes. Keep the pledge as is because frankly there are better things to do with our time." Lets not waste any more time talking about tripe. We work harder and pay higher taxes to receive fewer services than any other country classified as first world. It makes my blood boil to think we spend as much as we do on war when there is no socialized health care, no subsidized continuing education for most, no subsidized rail transit or clean transit, and poverty. Why are newspapers asking local candidates about the verbiage in the pledge? Do the authors of our local papers really feel that religious beliefs being pushed on kids is the most pressing issue we face. I urge anyone to check out the Portland schools web site linked here. Try to find in the school committee section the agenda spent on religion in schools. Still people who are running for an office think they are adequate because they Believe in Truth, Justice, and the American way. They think they are aligning themselves with people's ideals by talking a strong stand on the pledge. As a young person who graduated in the last twenty years I promise you the hardest thing I had to deal with was not whether or not I felt the presence of God in school because of the anthem, the pledge, or any other thing. No these issues very rarely reared their heads except when we tuned into to local politics to hear candidates posturing. When government officials tell you kids these days just need God it is because they are simple minded and lack vision. Running for this local office has taught me plenty. The most shocking lesson was how the best funded papers in town still are perpetuating divisive and non-productive debates on issues that should just be left behind.

He is here! Eliot Edward Verry-Gardella

halloween and butterflies

This is going to be the best halloween ever since we will get to dress up a baby. Soon he will be here. Sorry to everyone whose meetings I missed. If I could have been there I would have. There are just lots of great oppertunities to meet Portland voters . Thank you for your interest in local schools.

The Forums Begin

It is so nice to be in a city where involvement is heralded by organizations. The phone calls and late nights putting out signs have been a breath of fresh air after being subjected to the news at work. It seems national politics always leaves everyone I know with the feeling government is not reachable. Here in Portland it is the opposite. We raced around last evening at twelve to put up signs for my friend's campaign. There were hundreds out already at twelve. The scandal was other contenders had been out putting up signs a few hours early. Some say they broke the rules but I say, "Go right ahead!" Get excited about local politics. Let the only scandal be that you went out early because you could not contain your enthusiasm to become involved with your city.

My response to the League of Pissed Off Voters Questionairre

Hello blog readers. I have no idea how many people are reading this but I wanted to make sure I apoligised to all of them for typos. This response was done quickly and could not be reread and proofed as much as I would have liked. Enjoy and respond if you see fit. Take care, Kevin Gardella
1. What experience, motivation, and leadership style will make you effective on the school committee?
The experience of working at Seventy-Five State Street prepared me for public service. Although I have been working and volunteering in Maine for years with various different non-profits my job at SFSS was the most formative. It taught me to listen well and make an effort to integrate other’s ideas. Constituents, parents, students, and school employees can expect to be heard when they raise concerns about their community’s schools.
My motives for seeking a service position in the schools are simple. I have always enjoyed opportunities to creatively problem solve. This position is perfect because I will get to serve my community and improve its educational system. My motives are quite simple really.
My leadership style seeks involvement and consensus. I listen to all opinions and ideas and ask questions when trying to find solutions to school committee problems. With this approach I will bring the ideas of my constituents to every meeting. This kind of representative leadership will put Portlanders back in charge of their educational system and hopefully inspire them to seek more active involvement.

2. If elected what would be your top three priorities? How do they affect young people?
a. My top priority is making school committee affairs more accessible to the public. Government on all levels needs to be representative. I will accomplish this by advocating for school committee meetings to move in-town. Having extra forums on focus issues where representatives listen to the public will heighten the school committee’s community presence. Tangible positive community interactions should be part of every Portland class’ curriculum as well. The impact of making meetings and education more accessible will hopefully be more of these positive interactions between classes and communities.
b. Schools are where citizens are engaged and educated in the value of local community. Schools are not just the largest expense item on a city budget and baby sitting services until kids turn eighteen. They are the place where kids learn how to become active community members. Direct community involvement through school is where this will start. Every student should have the opportunity to do some hands on volunteering in their neighborhood. The kind of education gets from programs that encourage community participation makes sense on every level. Communities and schools benefit when kids learn the reciprocal benefits of volunteering. Neighborhood schools therefore need to be kept open and treated with the dignity and reverence they have earned. When a neighborhood school is closed in a community like Portland the community is gambling with its volunteer base. People become involved first through their schools. When they go away from Portland then come back they will first go to their alma maters. If we begin shutting down historic and vital parts of the educational system down we will risk the vitality of Portland’s communities. Schools are the heart of a community.
c. There are some school services which could benefit from consolidation. Administration is an example of one such branch that needs trimming. I was happy to hear we would not be replacing the extra assistant superintendent. We should find creative ways to use city resources to maintain schools. The metro being used instead of a whole fleet of aging yellow busses is an example of creative savings. It would be nice to do similar things with janitorial services in schools. Consolidating city janitorial services with schools would save the schools and city some money.

3. Please talk about one positive and one frustrating change you have seen in your city and your neighborhood of the last year.
I have been inspired by the free passes the metro has adopted for a trial period. I was so inspired I went to the officials at the metro and SMCC where I am a student and put the idea in their head that they should cooperate and give free passes out at all schools. They have and I will get mine the next time I am on campus. This kind of cooperative and responsive transit system could alleviate the need for school busses in Portland all together. That is a huge savings. The bus drivers and assistants alone get over a million dollars a year. If we gradually shifted all bussing responsibilities over to the metro we could eliminate a whole lot of redundant services while making our city’s transit system better.
The gripe of the year for me would have to be from a lack of affordable housing in Portland. We are going to have some real challenges because no one with families is going to be able to swing the cost of living here. Putting in condos that are way out of the average family’s price range is really going to hurt our community’s diversity.

4. What other responsibilities do you have?
I am currently working at Seventy-Five State Street for thirty two hours a week. I sell my watercolors at Pine Street Studios. I am a nursing student at SMCC. Most importantly, I am to be the father of a little boy. He provides much of the motivation for me to help lead Portland schools.

5. Partisanship: How do you plan to work to alleviate some of the partisan tension that has developed on the school committee?
Although this partisanship has been largely the doings of the news media, partisan foolishness can be alleviated by integrative listening and seeking consensus rather than dominance when hearing other board member’s ideas. The most desired outcome when two diametrically opposed sides argue is a solution everyone is willing to support. Not holding onto wounds caused by arguments will lead to less partisan foolishness. Not forming alliances that seek to hurt or dominate opponents will help me be a positive and effective voice on the committee. I will not spend my time with only one party trying to figure out the solution to agenda items. Students deserve better and I will treat every board member’s ideas with respect regardless of party affiliation.

6. How could you make Portland schools more cost efficient and effective?
Utilization of assets Portland and its schools have will increase efficiency. Each student has talent, energy, and ideas which should be put to use in the community. Students and communities need to be empowered to enrich education reciprocally. A great example could be a bunch of students going to learn about history from elders in their community. The benefits of such programs are mutual as people who have lived through history generally enjoy sharing their experiences. Students will have a greater depth of understanding if they can learn what history was like to live. Cultivating this kind of relationship between schools and communities re-engages students with community assets. If I am chosen by Portland voters I will encourage programs which engage students and community. I see PATHS as being a program which does this well. I therefore will encourage further development of this program and other programs like it.

7. What is your view on Portland school closings? What factual and ideological elements go into your decision making process? How would you proceed with consolidation.
I would not consolidate any Portland community schools. Consolidation incentives for Maine schools do not make sense in school districts in the Greater Portland area. The governor’s plans to make our schools more cost effective and efficient may make perfect sense in areas more rural than Portland. Savings in transit and administration in these areas may very well be worth the sacrifice of our historically important educational centers. We need to understand the value of local walk-able schools in cities however. These are our community centers. They need to be treated as such. We should go out of our way to make them sustainable. I will not cooperate with efforts to close neighborhood schools. This is an example where creativity should be used to approach a problem. There are more options than just renovation or closing. We live in a densely developed area. High schools could put classes in nearby buildings. Additions could be made to existing structures. The people interested in consolidation do not have any factual basis to prove that building a new giant school will save money at all. Our neighborhood schools are community centers.
We need only look at the effects of consolidation on schools in rural Maine to understand how devastating school closings can be. The overwhelming opinion of schools being consolidated was that it was a last resort and should have been avoided. Most communities went with the consolidation plans proposed because their superintendents had been spending lots of money planning mega schools before the public was invited to discuss the matter. These consolidations saved money from budgets to continue to pay the salaries of middle management in schools. Again I advocate more money being spent at the point of learning. If this is done there is no need to close local walk-able schools. Taxes for education should stay at or very close to the student. The more people involved in management and non-education related schools business the more waste we have in our budgets.
Maine schools have been encouraged through state initiatives to increase their efficiency through consolidation. There is no reason to believe that consolidation will increase the effectiveness of Maine schools.

8. What priority in school finding would you place for Portland’s new expeditionary learning high school?
After spending an afternoon talking to the expeditionary learning high school students at the creative economy summit and viewing their work on public access I am convinced that this program should be encouraged and supported. Engaging students in relevant topics of discussion has lead Portland schools to new levels. We should continue to offer and expand these programs as long as they continue to produce such excellent results.

9. How can we increase the number of high school students furthering their education?
We can encourage Portland high school students to view learning as a lifelong process by making their studies and efforts relevant. Isolating students in schools and not making their work visible is an excellent way of discouraging their continued studies. The expeditionary learning programs are a fine example of this kind of interactive class.
Another excellent way of encouraging Portland students to continue learning is by presenting them with affordable opportunities to do so after they graduate. The colleges in our city are great but I think we as a host city need to start asking for more from them. They get tax breaks, write offs, and general privilege. It is time they start making college affordable. The ideas I brought up regarding multi-general learning can be employed here as well. Kids who want to learn how to edit film should be paired with elderly people who want to record some bits of wisdom. There are assets for free, available in our town, they are just untapped.

10. What is your philosophy about early childhood education?
Preschool is fine to offer, I would rather keep my child at home. I think sliding scale child care providers can take care of the need for this. We as practitioners of education should not make preschool universal. It should just be an option. We need to support parents who want to keep their kids at home too. A great program we have let slide repeatedly in Portland is day care and preschool services run by the elderly at assisted living places. This kind of multigenerational preschool should be developed much more than it has been thus far.

11. Do you think there is any particular reason why Portland residents are removing their kids from Portland schools?
Portland schools will continue to experience this until the Portland city council starts making sure families can afford to live in our city. Portland needs to encourage economic diversity. That includes age and familial diversity. There is no reason why a family should not be able to afford a home in Portland. Allowing developers to build new condos while families are forced out by high rental rates sets Portland schools up for lower numbers of enrollment. The school board has a voice and should exercise it on this issue.
Parents are reluctant to send their kids to Portland schools because they are not invited into the schools. If we offer more opportunities for involvement fewer parents will pull their kids out of school. Parents will not remove their kids from schools they are personally invested in.

12. What experience do you have with disabled, multi-cultural, and ESL populations.
I have worked and volunteered with all of these populations. I worked with Goodwill, Youth Alternatives, Woodfords Family Services, and Portland Center for Assisted Living. I served and worked alongside people who were disabled, from different cultures than my own, and spoke other languages before English. Because my work has brought me in close contact with these populations I have a good idea of what presents challenges, and what resolves those problems. The main fault of the system again is the perspective students are viewed from. Disabled people, people from different cultural backgrounds, and ESL students are assets to our school systems. We have viewed them as liabilities. Now we need to use all of our cultural assets more than ever. Portland schools should teach this cultural value through cooperative integrative classes. There are classes which should not be mixed. A student struggling with English should not be expected to master other tasks taught in English. We should use our schools assets. Technology has the ability to put all three of these populations on a more level playing field. If a student is struggling to learn math in English they should have access to computer services in their native language so as to be able to keep up with their work. Making Portland High School wireless and outfitted with translation programs would be a good use of resources.

13. How would you work to increase diverse constituent participation in school committee meetings and public forums.
Move the school board meeting into town.
Personally inviting people to be my guest at meetings and forums.
Give educational incentives for student participation.
Encourage parental and community involvement with free transit to meetings.
Open informal discussions before each meetings to get the shy talking.
Make school board meetings more interactive with net and phone access live.
Eliminate all meetings that are not open to the public for any reason other than confidentiality.
Aim for administrative transparency.

15. In high school I was considered creative and involved

16. What do you think about the MEA results.
Tests are expensive. I believe in teachers and principles. When they are empowered, and their students are listened to we as administrators will not need such expensive assessment tests. The amount of time that is spent not learning so we can give such tests would probably make up for many of the faults such tests are able to point out. In my opinion the test makers do not teach anything important to a learner. Their value is therefore, minimal. Many colleges and workplaces are rightly acknowledging the ineffectiveness of testing. Teachers and principals have the real wisdom about this and they should be listened to. Personally though, I think standardized testing is just another way school funds are diverted from the point of learning. I have never learned from taking a test. There is very little on a standardized test that a teacher would not have picked up on. If we give teachers the chance to assess need we will not have to administer these expensive tests. Parents should be able to have their kids tested but it should be optional.


17. What is your opinion of the new metro program to transport middle school and high school students?
This program should eventually replace all the yellow busses with the exception of sports team transit. The metro should have been the Portland school transit system long ago. I have been advocating a free ride system for all students and hopefully all riders eventually. The yellow busses should be phased out and the metro bus service used exclusively. Drivers from the yellow busses should be given jobs monitoring and assisting the metro while they adjust to having kids on the bus. Eventually parents and volunteers should ride the busses while kids are transported to and from school. Metro service should be expanded to include the new demand placed on it by consolidation of our cities current transit system with redundant routes. In order to accomplish this the school committee is going to have to cooperate with the city council. I am ready to do this and have been talking to metro officials about ways of making this work already. Peter Cavanaugh has expressed interest as has the director of marketing for the metro. We could all win from a scenario such as this one.

18. Do you have kids and are they in public schools?
I will be a father in October. He will attend Portland’s schools. They are filled with talented teachers and brilliant programs.

19. What is your solution to the drop out rate in Portland?
Making important issues public and seeking public help to solve the problems will help us curb dropout rates in our schools. Using our net creative problem solving ability will tap into our community’s resources. Mentor programs with students and community members, especially shut-in Portlanders would be a fresh new approach. I will encourage programs that involve community members in the trouble shooting needed to curb drop out rates. Support from willing and able community members should not be underutilized. It truly does take a village to raise a child and our city would do well to remember that. There are villagers out there who would love to have a visit from a teen who needs someone to talk to. I can think of about a dozen excellent role models whose days would be greatly improved by visits from teenagers. I know for a fact talking with these individuals has stopped more than one teenager from doing something they would live to regret.

20. What are public school’s responsibilities in confronting current issues like sex ed., underage drinking, youth obesity, and tolerance.
a. Sex education should be taught by trained professionals. These sex educators should be teachers who received extra education on the topics surrounding sex education. Recently the possibility of saving money by having teachers who have students for other classes was brought up as a way of freeing up some extra funds. I would oppose any cuts of this kind.
b. Underage drinking should be a topic covered in health class from a health prospective. There is no evidence that the programs employed such as ADAPT and Dare were effective. Employing parents help in designing working intervention strategies would be worth while. I personally believe kids who abuse drugs and alcohol are telling their parents they have too much time. I think a steady schedule of volunteering would keep most teens out of harms way.
c. My idea about having walk-able neighborhood schools is a step in the right direction. Obesity is only the tip of the “health problem iceberg.” Our horrible dietary and lifestyle choices are catching up with our kids in the form of diabetes, hypertension, and a variety of metabolic abnormalities. Making physical activity a daily part of our kids education by preventing the use of cars to and from classes is a good start. Discouraging kids from driving period is an excellent way of getting teens off their duffs as well. Public transit is nice because it often leads to walking. I have been using it as my primary form of transportation and actually have come to seek it out as a way of relieving stress on hard days. Kids can be encouraged to do this as well.
Schools should be encouraging good relationships with food rather than trying to keep kids from making bad food decisions. We all struggle with the donut versus the apple scenario. By not allowing the donut scenario to happen in the schools we are helping kids make the right food choices. The same goes for exercise. If we encourage physical activity to relieve stress rather than waiting until the stress becomes a behavior issue kids will learn the relationship between physical health and mental control. When we endorse learning models in schools that sit small children for hours at desks we are setting those kids up for failure and poor physical health.
d. I love what the principle at Deering did when the reports about harassment came in. Rather than hiding it he put it out in the open. This is a great approach to eradicating intolerance. Bring it out in the open and cope with it.

Doors and Points

I am right on track as far as visiting the homes of constituents. I went out last week several times. Once into the rhythm of introductions and the purpose of my visit these "cold calls" got easier. Yesterday I became a bit compulsive about doors and ended up going to over one hundred. It just became more fun and interesting as I learned what is going on in the West End's schools.
There conveniently enough were only a few issues which stood out in my district's community.
1) Importance of neighborhood schools
2) Importance of the arts and phys ed in school cirriculum
3) Portland is unique and should have a progressive system which values proven progressive learning models in its learning centers
I have been taking notes at all of the homes I have talked about schools for any amount of time in. I will be adding up the results and hopefully will align the issues I speak about during the campaign then later deal with once elected with these key issues.
The only real surprise I had was with the importance of phys ed in the schools. I had no idea anyone in the West End was unhappy abou this. I will have to do some more research on the topic as it has been a while since I got any PE. Any suggestions about this topic from my gracious readers would be most helpful.
The overwelming consensus of the people I have talked to thus far is that Portland school have done a great job. This positive attitude about the existing system made me feel confident I have done the right thing. By running for the School Board I was going to get an oppertunity to help the community help their schools continue to be points of neighborhood pride.
The folks I talked to really responded well to the ideas I have been "kicking around the office". They especially loved the manditory community service. Whenever I mentioned it the conversations would track on that theme for quite some time. People desperatly want their communities children to value involvement.

Back to School

It is with no small amount of trepidation that I returned to school. I graduated with a degree in unemployment psychology and a faint feeling that I had been taken. Four years at USM had left me forty thousand dollars poorer. The degree that I was assured would open doors for me gave me a financial spanking as I walked off the graduation stage and realized what had just happened. I had been swindled out of forty thousand dollars and would not be getting a job that paidmore than nine dollars an hour.
This injustice has been played out time and time again. I hear college students talking about it every day I am at school. Nothing is being done about it. We have allowed colleges to rob students of their financial stability without assuring they will have a future job. Unfortunately a living wage can no longer be made with a BA or BS so the student finds themselves struggling at lousy jobs to make college loan payments. I believe the students are accountable for their own success but so are colleges. Right now they promise more than they deliver and are not penalized when they do otherwise.
The solutions to this debacle are not the easy ones. I personally think parents need to start by reinstating college as an option rather than a matter of course. Kids need to see that stability and money do not always follow the college experience. They need to be acutely aware of the financial hangover following college education without goals. Each student needs to hear before they go into school how many years they will have to pay up to a quarter of their income to get out of college debt.
The schools in Portland should not just give partnership a lip-service. The colleges here are being run as businesses, not community members. Kids who are looking at college as an option should have a better idea of what college is. Right now it is shrouded in mystery for the unknowing high "schoolers". They hear the parties but are not privy to the classes. We send our young off without having a clue about what higher education will entail. I think if more kids knew what sitting around a cruddy dorm room was like they would opt to wait until later to go for their degree. College life is not for everyone. Getting hig school kids into courses at colleges will give kids a better first idea of what they are in for.
Community job shadowing needs to be a matter of course as well. We have a responsibility to help kids educated in our community actuallize their goals and avoid our shortfalls. When was the last time you talked to a teen about your job? What would you tell a young person going into your field? If you are like me you have a whole lot of wisdom derived from personal experiences that could no doubt save some kids lots of hard work and or heartbreak. Why not have the opportunity to tell interested kids this well in advance before they repeat your mistakes and or do things the hard way?
Finally public service needs to be the norm. I feel that working in the charitable sector engages kids early in questioning what can they do for their community. Rather than asking kids what are you going to do to make a living? Ask them instead what are you going to do to earn your bread while contributing to your community? Volunteering is not put into our educational models because the colleges we are being educated at are being run as heartless businesses. We fund the education system. We should also make the choice to rectify this problem before another generation finds themselves without a clue as to how they are going to find success.
As a recent product of the educational system in Maine, I am acutely aware of its strengths and weaknesses. I would love to be your school committee representative next November. Please send me your ideas about what your vision for schools are. Tomarrow's school children will be better prepared when we all contribute to their education.

Hold Up City Council!

I have a great idea to go along with your draconian approach to drinking in the Old Port. There are some issues in town that I think could be approached in the same way you approached the drunk people problem in the Old Port.
SPEEDING A THING OF THE PAST
All we need to do is start taxing car manufacturers for every mile per hour over the speed limit. We could even expand the 20mph areas onto hills to get those pesky bike riders. I bet you could squeeze lots of pennies out of those hoity toity bike makers. The best way to stop a speeder is to fine a carmaker.
CREDIT CARD FRAUD JUST A CASE OF MISKTAKEN IDENTITY
Every time a person uses someone elses identity we they are very hard to find and fine. Credit card company's are much easier to fine so we should. Tack on all those police hours spent looking around for the lost cards. Credit card related crime solved. The credit card companies will pay for causing the crimes associated with them. They will soon go out of business in fact making identity theft on credit cards a thing of the past.
VIOLENT CRIMES
Now heres an easy one, fine the WWF every time someone gets beaten. We have looked at violence as being a product of individuals for long enough. Lets put the accountability where it belongs, on the wrestlers. No longer should our country, state, and city feel the bitter mockery of Jessy Ventura.
WEED and WEEDS
Now the drug problem we've been feeling the sting of has gotten to a fever pitch. Likewise weeds in gardens continue to proliferate. We have stopped at the point where we need to boldly contiue. The police have made the first brave steps in the race to make Portland weed-free. I will up their ante. We need to make the whole planet a drug free school zone. Penalize the earth that grows the weed to the maximum extent. It has mocked us by growing things we don't want it to long enough. Lets practice zero tolerance for the earth.
So in these elegantly simple ways we will eradicate the troubles of Portland, Maine. Where there is weed there we will pave, where there is wrestlers there will be none and where there is bar related commerce there will be vacant buildings. They will be icons of the city councils foresight.

The Cellular Division

There exists a great deal of literature about cell phone tower emissions and their health effects. I was not able to draw a decent conclusion based on any of my reading. I believe researchers don’t have a clue. The science we have does not study the effects of the emissions towers with anything but health survey models. We will have limited understanding of the issue until long after the effects of these towers can be proved using the current research models. It is for this reason I come to the table with a different approach. I decided that I thought the risk was too great and the school needs to shed its tower before I started arguing. The phone company provided me with all the ammo I need.

The facts that are provable are as follows:
1. One Portland school houses a cell phone tower.
2. Concerns over the safty of this have been raised by citizens, parents, teachers, and children.
3. At the current moment we cannot prove towers cause health issues with any real degree of certainty.
4. The cell phone company gives the school money to keep its tower there.
5. Parents have said they do not want businesses that do not have the most ethical business pracitices out of schools.

The scientific argument would not get results from the community. I enlisted the business models of the Cingular Company to help me prove my point. I have been using a cell phone for five years, have never had an unpaid bill and have excellent credit. I am a great customer. They have told me they value my business on repeated occations. I believed them.
Recently my phone stopped receiving messages so I called the nice people at Singular to get them to trouble shoot. They were quite helpful at first. They fixed the problem easily while I was on the phone with them. I thought nothing of this until later.
The problem kept coming up, my phone would not receive messages in real time, the phone dropped calls, all the messages would get erased including one of my baby’s heartbeat. I was a bit irrated. I called Singuliar to find out what they were up to. They said it was just some malfunctions of my primitive phone. They offered to fix the glitches. They insisted I talk to some other people in sales. They thought I wanted to buy a phone. I told them no thank you.
Over the next week the problems continued to occour. There were many messages missed I lost my recording of my greeting, it sucked. I was very upset because they had sworn up and down it was just a limited malfunction not anything serious.
Just as I had about reached my patience limit one of their sales reps called. He had a great deal for me if I would just sign into a new contract. He offered to give me the most excellent phone and all I would have to do is continue doing business with them for the next two years. I became very suspitious at this point. They knew about all the malfuntions a bit too well. I started calling a few friends with identical plans. My friends were very hard to phone. It seems everyone who has a digital phone in Portland has not been getting very good service. The people I did reach had just signed into new two year contracts beacuse their phones were not working so well. I looked into it quite a bit and found that I was not alone. Singuliar had been up to something right under my nose. They had made their old phones harder to use so everyone would have to get new phones.
Those of you who know me, know that I get mad at injustice. This kind of thing makes my blood boil. I called them and confronted them for more than two hours. I asked to speak with executives, supervisors and anyone who would listen. It was awful and made me very irratated and frustrated. They were horrible.
This of course brings me back to the phone message, not the ones that I missed while my cell was out of commission, rather the one we are sending our city’s kids when we do business with this kind of business.
Sing-You-Liar is what I urge all of you to demand Cingular to do. They have pulled the wool over the cities eyes for long enough. We should make them own up to their dishonesty. We need to show our children there is no place in our educational system for people who do not play fair. Cingular is a monopoly who is abusing their power. They are a bully, a liar, and a tyrant and we have their tower on top of our schools.
Now maybe you think I am full of it and that I just need to stop whining and get a new phone plan. If you are part of this camp let me provide you with some more reasons to not do business with phone companies in our schools.

1. Cell phones are used in class for texting which is very distracting.
2. Texting is not used to educate.
3. Kids paying for their own cell phones have to work more and thus have less study time.
4. Cell phones are used as everything but educational tools in schools.
5. Teachers do not want kids using their cell phones in class.

This whole phenomenon points to a problem in our schools. Why are we allowing the companies that contribute to conduct bad business. We have said nothing. “Yes give me a minute fraction of what you are earning and expose my children to wavelengths whose health effects are unknown so they can distract eachother during class with text messages not about school.
We need to revise our strategy.
Wireless web access for schools is a natural alternative.
If students and teachers with computers were provided with wireless access they could use them for learning related topics. If the school were to install wireless access to the school they could control it. That mean they could filter out distractions and show kids how the internet can be used as a source for quick information about school related topics.
Out with the old in with the new, only this time, on our terms.

This Old School House

This week a school was closed in Auburn. I watched as adults and children reacted to the emotions they felt as they spent one last day inside. I was struck by the way people spoke of the new school they were going to. It was like they were being forced to pick a new best friend. Details of this LA school closing are all rather controvercial. I just want to make sure this doesn't happen in Portland. Our neighborhood schools are community centers. Closing them would be devastating to Portland's communities.
There is a strong move towards consolidation at the state level. Governor Baldacci has put forward an incentive based program that may be entising to city reps and school committee members. The program rewards efficency it says. It however really just encourages homogeneity. A new school may have better heating systems, be cheaper to build than renovate the old one, and be in a higher density area. It lacks a history however, which is what makes my Portland what it is. I live in a community that values its past. We destroy a symbol each time we decommission a school. A school is a living symbol of our educational history. When we turn it into a condo we are rendering the areas history of education lifeless.
Portlanders have not seen the last of this issue. We house many small schools. Interested parties recently proposed a plan that would put Reiche School out of business and send West End kids elsewhere. This supposedly would benefit the tax payer but there are certain fees that are hard to assess. What is the value of a walk to school? How much is a strong community history of education worth? How much should we assess community in dollar terms? Rather than engaging in these excersizes in futility perhaps we should start thinking of how we can make our existing schools even better.
Baldacci has many good ideas for Maine, this may even be one of them but not for Portland. He has set his sites on consolodating the less urban centers where efficiency over community will assume less of a role. Community in parts north is not centered around walkable schools. This makes consolidation not representive of my city’s educational system.