Schools

Five Minutes: School Board Candidate Nancy Goldberg

The recent Culver City High School retiree says that she would research issues thoroughly before making up her mind and would work cooperatively with her colleagues.

Nancy Goldberg is enjoying the summer after not only finishing the school year, but also a 40-plus year tenure at Culver City High School as an English teacher. Garbed in a sky-blue shirt and armed with a Starbucks Refresher, Goldberg passionately laid out her goals for the school district if elected in November.

Culver City Patch: Why are you running for the Culver City Board of Education?

Nancy Goldberg: There is a dramatic need for those who have been in the trenches, in the classroom, who know how these changes affect the students, to get up there and say, “Let’s try this alternative to lessen their impact on their lives.”

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I retired because this is the optimum time to run for the school board. I knew that one position was not going to be sought at again by an incumbent. And I am going to devote the time that I would spend grading papers and doing assignments to doing research. I think it’s essential to have a well-prepared board member. We have some really marvelous candidates, so it’s going to be a hard choice.

Patch: Why don’t you tell me about how your experience at Culver City High School will help you with your duties on the school board, if elected?

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Goldberg: Teaching is part of the broad knowledge. I am a community member since 1962. I am of and for this community. My children were all educated here; I have a deep affection for this community. I am not just a teacher. And that’s where the majority of our concern lies—can the new families who move in here find adequate representation through our board members?

That’s what I would like to offer, a long-term experience. While things have changed dramatically, there are certain universals that still apply. Children need to have people that advocate for them. I am conscious of those needs. I would raise issues that affect the child directly. I am a “teach the whole child” kind of person. Schools provide three things: They provide a safe environment, they advocate for the health of the students, and they provide academics—and I’m familiar with all three of these.

Patch: From your time at Culver City High, what is one thing you think Culver City students need?

Goldberg: There are so many things. Regrettably, we are an old campus at the high school and there are ongoing maintenance requirements that—unless you’re privy to the ins and outs of the school—you may not know that such things such as sufficient water supply for the students isn’t always where it should be. There are issues with maintenance because we’ve had to cut back on our janitorial services. Everyone works very hard; this is not a criticism, there is a repercussion when you cut back in budgets. If I had one goal as a board member, it would be to protect the kids in those areas that I know affect their health, their academics or their environment, their safety.

Patch: Why should Culver City vote for you?

Goldberg: If I am trying to be totally objective, I have the time to devote to this. I have good health and I am a very focused person. When I have an issue that I have to deal with, I research it carefully. I try not to draw any conclusions before I get a clear view all sides of it. If I were voting, I would want to know that somebody would do their homework. I do my homework. I would also respect that I am one of five, if I am elected, and I will respect my colleagues, I will listen. I am not a charge from the gate kind of person.

Patch: If elected, what would be some of your primary goals on the dais?

Goldberg: I think my primary goals would be a certain consciousness of academics as they are being affected by federal standardization. One of my deepest concerns is the ongoing testing issue—it’s being exploited—and we hear that it will be even greater. The percentage of the time that we have to spend preparing students to pass state tests, it frightens me because there is not the time to integrate what we are teaching the students into what they are already know.

This is not the district’s fault at all—this is a state and federal level issue—but it will come to a head in the near future. First, we had No Child Left Behind and now we have Race to the Top with [Secretary of Education] Arne Duncan. I am hoping that they will stall on it or give it a longer think.

Patch: Can you elaborate on what you call “exploitation” with the testing?

Goldberg: The people who are made pivotal in this process are the test makers. The effects in the classroom are that you are spending more time not interacting with the students, but going through a bubbling process. It really divorces the students from the classroom if you’re sitting there taking a test. I think there are many ways to alleviate the problem and comply, but it needs work.

Patch: How would you lessen the impact of tests?

Goldberg: I would minimize the amount of hours that we devote to it. I would cut back on benchmark testing to the minimum. I am not a testing specialist, I am just a recipient of this in the classroom and it was overdone. You simply can’t forgo that and have educated students, in my humble opinion.

Patch: If you could change something about the way the board is run, what would you change?

Goldberg: Strictly from a teacher’s point of view, when students reach a senior level, there is such a need for adult approval. One thing I would like to see is a mutual respect for those students who come to observe the board meeting. Sometimes the students feel less than accepted by our board members.

I don’t think it’s anything calculated, but these are high school seniors. Most of them do go with the idea of coming back and discussing issues in class. Over the last five years, students have said, “They don’t recognize us, they don’t seem to think we’re important.” That’s too much of a blanketed statement for me. But that is something I would like to see change, is an extension of kindness between the generations.

Patch: What would be your solution for the ongoing budget crisis?

Goldberg: We’re looking for a blanket panacea, and of course the most logical one is to keep the cuts as far away from the students as possible. As familiar as I am with the various academic programs, and the needs of areas of reinforcement, meaning the influx of funding, I think I can bring a certain consciousness at least on the high school level. I still have some homework to do on the elementary school level, to see what their problems are. But that’s what you do: Find the problems and deal with them, and keep the cuts as far away from the students as you can.


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