Palo Alto Board of Education member Barbara Klausner was instrumental in the passage of the controversial new district-wide calendar, which features an earlier start to the school year and finals before winter break. The Paly Voice sat down for an exclusive interview with Klausner to ask her about her experience on the board, her vision for the district and the new district calendar.

The Paly Voice: Can you talk about your background? How did you get interested in education?

Barbara Klausner: Good question. I think it was entirely from being a parent. It was being a parent with young children in New York City and watching them in preschool. I questioned some of the instructional approaches and relationships between the teachers and parents, so I started taking classes at the New York University School of Education because we lived right there on the university campus and it was easy to do. The next thing I knew I had a master’s in elementary education. When we moved to Palo Alto I started teaching in the Palo Alto schools. I think it’s a career that fits well with being a parent.

PV: You’ve been on the board since 2008. What have you liked the most about your job on the board?

BK: What’s to like most about being on the board in Palo Alto is the people. You’ve got board members and a superintendent who are very engaged, really looking out for the best interests of the students — people don’t have their individual agendas. You really get the sense that we’re trying to work together and do the right thing. The issues are really interesting because the people in the community are so involved and engaged and smart and passionate and so even when they disagree with you, it makes for fascinating discussions. I certainly have met so many people in the community I didn’t know before. I’ve enjoyed that. I’ve enjoyed being inspired by people in the community who develop an expertise and a passion for a certain issue the board is considering.

PV: What’s been hardest for you?

BK: The thing I hate most about being on the board are the limitations on what would seem to be the most logical approaches to problem solving and decision making. There is a lot of institutional structure put in place [e.g. the Brown Act, a California state law which prevents three or more school board members from discussing board matters in private] that prevents board members, for good government reasons, from talking to each other outside of public meetings. But we only meet every other Tuesday evening for several hours, and to have to do the business of the district and make some really tough decisions in that setting is hard. Trying to get five people and the superintendent to have really good conversations about what’s best for not just one segment of the community but for the whole community, not just for tomorrow or next year, but for the next 10, twenty 20 years, is really hard when those are the only times you can meet.

PV: Let’s talk about the calendar proposal. When did you make up your mind to vote for the calendar and what was the tipping factor that led you to vote yes?

BK: We had many months to think about it. When the issue was first raised back in September I definitely did not have my mind made up. Up until the last few days I was still debating what I thought was the best solution. The final, most fundamental consideration for me was: if you just ask in the abstract — no matter what age range, no matter if they are a student, teacher or a parent — just generally speaking — does it make sense to have finals before winter break? The answer is yes. There aren’t too many people who think that’s not a good thing, and I took that as something worth considering. We want to try to create some basic guideposts in the structure of the school year. By moving the end of first semester to before break, what we are trying to say is this a valuable structural change to make, because trying to create somewhat of a pocket of a work-free break is valuable. I was definitely interested in the fact that — the number was something around 40-60 high schools around us have made that change and none have gone back and there wasn’t an outcry about negative consequences for students involved. Every community is different, but a lot of the concerns raised by our community aren’t so different from the concerns of these surrounding communities.

PV: Staff suggested creating a calendar advising committee. Can you talk about the calendar advisory committee and what it will do?

BK: All of us on the board thought that’s a great idea. It’s a funny process where the calendar comes up as part of the negotiations process with the teachers’ union and yet it’s something that affects the entire community. It makes sense to have this additional vehicle for all members of the community to be involved with the calendar decision. Students, teachers and parents can all be part of an advisory committee that gives input to the calendar committee because it’s ultimately the calendar committee that’s a part of the negotiation process.

PV: Why didn’t the board consider finals before break with the current calendar structure and a stand-alone unit between the end of break and the start of second semester?

BK: It was raised to me by [Paly economics teacher] Deb Whitson before the meeting and I thought it was a fascinating idea. I spent a lot of time writing out the whole proposal and exploring the pros and cons. It definitely has appeal — if we didn’t have to start school earlier in August that’s great. Some things slowed me down, though. If you look at the high school teacher response on the survey it actually got the worst numbers. More students than not thought it was okay but it was certainly not their first choice. It doesn’t really create a clean break. Final grades are still not determined until the end of the semester so you still might have that psychological cloud over your head or guilt over that work you should be doing or that actual work that’s been assigned. Teachers know that it is still possible to assign work. [Paly School school board representative] Pierre’s description was that if teachers want to give you an assignment they can tell you it is due before break and then give you an extension. It just reminded me of the array of complications that can arise if there is not a clean semester break.

PV: You can turn this in before break or you can get an extra two weeks and turn it in after break…

BK: [Laughs.] Also, you don’t need to change the calendar structure to implement the plan that Deb was proposing. You don’t need to change the start date or the end date of school. It’s actually up to the high school site to decide where to place finals, so the staff could decide we’re going to try moving the finals period to before winter break.

PV: How do you respond to parents who say the calendar interferes with family plans in August and creates extra stress in December?

BK: It’s definitely going to affect family plans in August — there’s no question about that — that’s one of the trade-offs we decided we had to make. So yes, it definitely will be a burden to some families. My family is one of the families for whom it will make the difference. But the district and the majority of the board wanted to make the structural change that they think is better overall for our students and particularly for students who are most at risk for feeling academic stress — our high school students. We think this is the best thing to do.

In December, my biggest concern was that teachers don’t take the same exact curriculum from prior years and try to fit it into first semester because first semester will be shorter. Not only will there be fewer classroom days but to the extent that those two weeks over winter break were used to do work — that’s no longer there. The whole point is for that to be vacat
ion time. I made this request and the board agreed that teachers commit to looking — before the new calendar is implemented — space at how they are going to make adjustments to the fall semester so its not just the same amount of work compressed into a smaller amount of time. In terms of what December is like for students with college applications or other December extracurricular obligations, we’ve had varying opinions about what it feels like and what adjustments can be made. There’s not one singular, uniform student voice saying stress in December will increase. I should also point out that there isn’t a difference in the position of winter break under the new calendar. Winter break goes until Monday, Jan. 7 in 2013 and Jan. 6 in 2014, which is the same whether we stayed with the existing calendar format or adopted the new calendar format.

PV: Are there any further steps the board is planning to take to reduce student stress?

BK: At this point we’ve got a board request that I’ve initiated in response to the calendar change, which is to look at the issues of workload for students first semester given that it’s compressed. We’re requesting that high school teachers go back and look at what aspects of the curriculum they should to ratchet down. The board also asked that the two high school English departments talk about how they support the college application process, in particular writing the essays. The hope would be that those two help reduce the stress that students might feel but only in response to the calendar change for now. We also asked to hear back from teachers of year-long courses on how they would treat the winter break. The superintendent agreed to give a November update with teacher responses that will include student feedback on the teachers’ plans. The board is looking ahead as well. The next step would be looking at high school academic stress issues, many of which come down to workload. I also want to take a look at our grading system to see if any adjustments can be made that would help reduce stress without weakening the integrity of the system.

PV: You’re up for reelection in 2012. Are you going to run for reelection?

BK: I haven’t decided yet.

PV: If you were to run do you think that the election would be to some extent a referendum on the calendar proposal?

BK: I don’t know. We’re in May 2011. I can’t predict how people will feel in November 2012. I’m not a seasoned politician so I don’t study these things very carefully either so I just don’t know. All I know is when I make decisions as a board member, it’s really with no regard for what it might mean for my reelection possibilities.

PV: What direction do you want to see PAUSD going in? What goals in general do you hope to see the district accomplish in the next few years?

BK: The biggest issues are money and our growing student enrollment. Money means of course watching the state budget and watching property tax revenue. We are fortunate to hold steady in terms of property tax revenue. As for the state budget, we will need to see how much more public education will take a hit if we have no tax extensions. That always needs to be front and center. As for increasing enrollment growth, our elementary schools are bursting at the seams and we are putting more and more students at our middle and high schools. Fortunately, the community passed a bond measure that allows us to expand our facility capacity, but we are going to have to make some really wise decisions about where we use that money so we can maximize capacity growth in the right places. Beyond just bricks and mortar, we also need to continue to add to our mix of traditional educational strategies in order to meet the needs of our growing student population. I think these are actually the biggest issues in front of us right now.