Lynn Garcia has focus on balancing district priorities

Lewiston Porter Sentinel, May 7, 2005

I am pleased to introduce myself, Lynn Garcia, a resident of Lewiston, as a candidate for the Lewiston Porter School Board.

Well before 1984, the year I moved from Hamburg to Lewiston, Western New York has experienced a serious decline in population base and economic stability. Recently, these issues have become more severe placing financial hardships on families, squeezing school budgets, and threatening our standard of living, particularly for those residents living on fixed incomes.

Because we have these external conditions and must continue to serve a diverse range of interests in this community, I believe we need a school board that is capable of identifying and balancing important “priorities.” I believe that with my unique qualifications and commitment to serving the people of this community, that the school board can improve its effectiveness and help this school district deliver the kind of education that will not only graduate students, but will graduate them for acceptance into the colleges and advanced educational institutions of choice.

Because of the lengthy history of polarization in the district and community, it is clear that one of the first priorities should be to improve the communication and interaction among all concerned. The existing energies and resources need to be directed toward finding solutions rather than building dividing walls between groups. This will not be accomplished through hackneyed phrases or superficial lip service. It can be accomplished through organized and structured problem-solving committees that maintain a focus on issues and results.

As positive outcomes are obtained from these efforts and educational objectives are achieved, “pride” in the district will emerge from all the participants in the process. When we have identified the desired outcomes and prioritize them to coincide with the resources available to achieve them, we will begin to see the “performance” that all of us want from our school district -- students, parents, teachers, administration, school board, and taxpayers alike.

As a businesswoman who has managed multiple business operations in large corporate environments and as a principal in my own small businesses, I have been required to set the goals and objectives for a wide variety of business organizations. What I’ve learned is that in order to implement the necessary strategic and action plans to achieve goals and objectives, a motivated staff is imperative. Only an experienced manager with leadership ability can pull people together to work for common goals while allocating available and finite resources to achieve the desirable outcomes. A successful school district requires the same approach.

Though we can talk in generalities, we need to get to the specifics of school operations to support ideas and actions that will genuinely improve education here. I’m most in favor of universal pre-K where kids get a head start on learning the fundamentals prior to Kindergarten as well as adjusting to the school day. This is a pro-family program that wins without tremendous cost. A $35 million-plus budget should be adequate to offer this to young families.

We also need curriculum development so that teachers can segue one level of course work to the next level of course work, and students feel confident moving from one grade to the next. The issue of money is always present; therefore, we need to access funds where taxpayers don’t feel the extra burden. This amounts to tapping into numerous grants. Grants are not a hit or miss task, but a process where experienced grant writers obtain funds and follow often rigid guidelines for their use. I can point to other areas that would be of great benefit, such as, business/educational partnerships. All of these issues need people, skills, attention, time, and money. No one should be opposed to spending money, the only opposition should be in wasting money and other valuable and limited resources.

I would sincerely appreciate your support and vote on May 17 because I believe my educational background -- a bachelor of science in Management, University at Buffalo, science minor, plus concentrations in industrial relations and marketing, and graduate courses in finance -- my career background managing businesses, activities in international consulting, and my personal background having grown, educated children (all with college degrees, one a university professor holding a PhD) qualifies me to act with the best interests of the school district and community in mind.

Please vote for someone truly committed to priorities, pride, and performance.