Martha Deichler, executive director of the Borrego Springs Community Resource Center and a retired educator, is running for the Borrego Springs Unified School District board of trustees. The San Diego Union-Tribune asked all the candidates running for school board in districts around San Diego County about their policies, plans and priorities. Here’s what Deichler told us about hers. Why are you running for school board? What makes you a good candidate? I have lived in Borrego Springs for 18 years and served as the principal of Borrego Springs Elementary School and later as the Borrego Springs Unified School District superintendent. Martha Deichler (Courtesy Martha Deichler) Our students face many challenges in our rural community, and I wish to see them thrive academically and socially. I feel I have the skill set to make this happen with my years of experience in education. In addition, I now serve as the executive director of the Borrego Springs Community Resource Center, where I interface daily with the families and children in our unique, isolated community. My ability to speak Spanish adds to my efficacy. What is the most important issue currently facing your school district? Our academic achievement is the most important issue facing our school district. It has many facets that need to be addressed, such as student absenteeism, parent involvement/education, socioeconomics, teacher support for struggling/challenging students and English as a second language for the majority of our students. What are the top three specific things you would seek to accomplish on the school board? I would like to accomplish: Improved attendance, increased parent involvement and collaboration with teachers and administrators leading to a plan for improved academic achievement. What would your approach be to district budget planning and spending? What would you do if your district had a budget shortfall? Our budget should reflect our data-driven goals, and spending should follow these goals. During a budget shortfall, we will have to reduce spending, and it should be as far away from the classroom as possible. With a variety of assessments and data, I would sit down with the superintendent, finance department, board and teachers to strategize where cuts could be made in order to balance our budget and do no harm to students or teachers. How should your school district raise student academic achievement, and what would you do as a school board member to accomplish that? There is no silver bullet to improve student achievement. It’s a multi-pronged approach. I would follow the same model I did when I was principal in Chula Vista during No Child Left Behind and our low-performing school pulled its way out of Program Improvement. As a board member, I would encourage collaboration among teachers around best practices, give them the support and resources they need and then advise administration to give teachers time to prepare, uninterrupted time to teach, time to reflect and more time to plan. Too often teachers’ time is taken up with so much professional development that there is little time to plan on the implementation of new ideas. Do you think anything currently offered in school curricula or libraries should be removed? If yes, what, and why? If no, why not? I am not aware of anything that should be removed from our school curricula or from our libraries. Our California curriculum has been approved by the state prior to our adoption. The San Diego County Office of Education’s Library Division has a process for choosing books, and if there is a book in question, they also have due process for such books. I feel our libraries should reflect the diversity that surrounds us. What do you think is driving student absenteeism in your district, and what would you as a school board member do to reduce it? Student absenteeism is a huge issue in our district and is a multifaceted issue. One cause is the lack of a pediatrician in our small clinic. When a parent needs to take a child to the doctor, she or he must take all of the children out of school for the long trek to the nearest doctor (a minimum of 1.5 hours away) because it becomes an all-day affair. Another challenge is our parents’ tradition of leaving Borrego during the winter break for an extended trip to their hometown in Mexico. As a school board member, I would recommend to the superintendent: Speak with the clinic about the importance of hiring a pediatrician, communicate with parents about the importance of attendance, and educate parents on the value of filling out the independent-study packet when on long trips. This allows students’ absences to be excused if the schoolwork is completed. Do you think schools should notify parents if their child’s gender identity or presentation at school changes? Why or why not? No, I do not think that parents should be notified unless the student agrees to this. I base my opinion on years of experience with students’ fear of parent rejection and or retaliation. I feel that it is the responsibility of parents to foster a relationship with their child that promotes open communication and acceptance. The teacher/student relationship is based on trust and honesty, and a tell-all could undermine this important bond.