I have known Jennifer for 10 years and think unbelievably highly of her. She is my go-to person for questions in math curriculum, project based education, teacher management. Palo Alto would be very lucky to have her on the board.

From what I read here, Jennifer has my vote! (She has first hand experience about the middle school that are often overlooked in this district.) I am eager to learn more about her vision and plans. Go, Jennifer!

A former teacher on the school board! Wow! what a concept.
Now that makes a ton of sense to me. Isn't it peculiar ... that is not the norm? Best wishes to DiBrienza's candidacy.

Adding this about Jennifer DiBrienza.

Last school year:

1. Jennifer DiBrienza spoke out in favor of putting together a Task Force to investigate investing $65-$70 million of public funds in a "radically innovative" PAUSD secondary school that her advisor and boss Jo Boaler was promoting.

Jennifer DiBrienza told the school board in January that "dollars alone" can't be the reason to nix this idea.Web Link

If the school board had agreed with DiBrienza, the task force would have spent this year looking into how to kick out Cubberly's current tenants and re-purpose Cubberly's campus into a small school for 10% of our middle and high school students, leaving the other 90% largely with nothing more than the status quo at their middle and high schools.

2. She was selected as one of 6 parents on an elementary math textbook committee that the district didn't invite parents to until the end of a full year of meetings despite PAUSD rules requiring parent involvement from the start.

Calling that "reasonable," DiBrienza appears to either think that it is fine to not give parents a meaningful voice in what happens with their children's math education, that it doesn't matter because the outcome was reasonable, or both.

That committee narrowed the math textbooks to 3 which include Everyday Math again and Investigations, a progressive, reform math textbook the Weekly reported Jennifer DiBrienza helped write several years ago. Palo Alto Weekly "Palo Alto school board slows down math curriculum-adoption process" - June 22, 2016.

As a teacher in a local private school I had the opportunity to have several sessions of math in-service with Jennifer. I cannot speak highly enough about her knowledge, creativity, openness and inspiration. She would be a fabulous addition to our school board.

It would be very clarifying about who Jennifer DiBrienza is, if she came out and told us which elementary math curriculum she favors.

In response to the post above by "some more info," the purpose of the task force was not solely to investigate creating a new school. Rather it was to explore ways to innovate within the district. The creation of a new school was but one of myriad ideas on the table. The school board would not even consider creating the task force unless the new school was stricken as one of the possible innovations that would be considered. My understanding is that it's not that Jennifer is in favor of the new school as much as she is an advocate of investigating meaningful innovation in the district. To this end, she believes all options (including the creation of a new school) should be explored.

And from an outside perspective, I'm with her. Why would PAUSD create a task force to explore ways to innovate to best serve all students but limit the scope of possibilities said task force is allowed to investigate?

I am thrilled Jennifer is running for school board. She has my complete and enthusiastic support. I have volunteered with her for many years, both at Ohlone and at the district level, and I've so appreciated her wisdom, commitment and positive attitude. She will be an excellent and much needed voice on the board.

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I have interacted with Jennifer in the context of our children going to Ohlone and think she would be a great addition to the school board. She knows her stuff.

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Monday afternoon, July 11th

Dear Onliners,

This is good news. Welcome, Ms. DiBrienza, to the race!

Democracy is hard work (as we see especially now, at the national level!) and public service requires thoughtfulness and courage. All the more so, in a community struggling through a youth public-health crisis that has unnerved one and all--especially parents with teens in public school.

So my hat is off to anyone willing to throw her hat into our challenging local ring, and I'm heartened to read: "There have been instances over the years, she said, where teachers have felt undervalued and parents have felt not heard, breeding unnecessary contention and mistrust."

I think this is right-on--a sound diagnosis of problems that Save the 2,008 and its 500 supporters hope to help solve.

Sincerely,

Marc Vincenti
Campaign Coordinator
savethe2008.com
savethe2008@gmail

I am also glad that Jennifer is running. She seems eminently qualified, certainly at least as much as the other school board members. It bothers me that some members don't have any children in our district, and that the current members don't reflect our community's diversity.

Indeed, it would be helpful if she would share her thinking on which elementary math curriculum she favors.

And, I recall her support last Winter to form an exploratory task force to re-examine multiple aspects of our highly stressful secondary schools -- including a new school or accelerated innovation at our existing schools. Unfortunately that proposal was voted down 3-2.

She sounds great on paper, but then again, so do Emberling and Collins, and we're hard pressed to do worse than them. As someone who voted for Emberling and promoted her candidacy, but will never again, I wish I had better ways of understanding what these candidates will really be like in office. For example, here is someone who understands the value of Connections, yet doesn't realize that the actual program is really only different in 6th grade. After that the district tries to funnel the kids back into the regular program and there is no similar project-based program in high school.

I just read that Michael Moore ran for school board right out of high school and set about removing employees who had been abusive and incompetent. He made the district send contracts for work out to bid. He began recording all the meetings because it was the law, to which the rest began meeting without him secretly and began a recall election against him (he won and also got them arrested for violating the law). The members who wouldn't record the meetings or be accountable for misbehavior? That's the kind of thing we have in our current board, with the exception of Dauber. I want to know, is this candidate going to stand up for truth, get rid of dishonest employees (do the hard work involved in investigating), take the hard look at administrative costs that we need, codify parent involvement so the really is some local control not just lip service? Make McGee start being transparent? Is this someone who can stand up to the vacuous bullying element on the board? Or will she pile on? I had no way of assessing that before the current board took office.

I'm intrigued by the Jo Boaler connection, though. We do need innovation, but unless we also get at least a majority who care about old fashioned stuff like honesty, strong financial stewardship, checks and balances, transparency and fairness, the board will continue to be ineffective in their oversight role.

She lost my vote when she left the district because she didn't get into Connections. I have two kids. One went through JLS regular program and one through Connections. They both were very well prepared for high school, did lots of project-based learning, and they both developed wonderful friendships that they still enjoy.

JLS is a terrific middle school. Connections was a fine program, but it's not so precious that you need to leave the district if the lottery doesn't go your way.

Questions for Jennifer DiBrienza on "All that glitters'" qualities of a good school board member:

"Strong financial stewardship" - Isn't it good fiscal stewardship for a school district to first determine whether it makes sense to spend $65 million for a new school for a few students BEFORE tasking a Task Force to design it?

"Checks and balances" - Is it "reasonable" to you, as one of Palo Alto parents' representatives, that the district skirted its rules on parent involvement in the selection of their children's math textbook?

"Honesty" and "Transparency" - Did you share that you were an author of Investigations before PAUSD selected the committee members? Did you share that with the committee before it voted in Investigations? What math textbook did you vote for?

I like the fact that she has a classroom teaching background. I like the fact that she still has younger children in the district who will be there for several years, but it does bother me that she chose to take one of her children out because they couldn't get into Connections. I would prefer someone who could see exactly what our middle schools were like from personal experience.

However, I would like to see the make up of a board with more men. I think a balance between men and women is important on educational boards as fathers and mothers see child related issues very differently.

Thank you Jennifer for being willing to take on our district.

As "some more info" points out, Jennifer DiBrienza was a contributing author to the Investigations math curriculum, participated in the selection group, and Investigations somehow ends as one of our 4 recommended curriculums in spite of it being the LOWEST ranked of the curriculums considered.

Non-profit Edreports.org evaluated it and gave it unsatisfactory scores for Investigations in every category. It makes no sense that it is even being considered. Jennifer needs to answer whether she was advocating for it, and what curriculum she would endorse as a candidate and possible school board member.

@Seniors line,

Connections isn't what it once was. I'm glad JLS was a fine school for you, but our experience was that it was mostly a terrible school for anyone very creative/gifted. Connections wasn't what we were promised, didn't involve any deep project-based learning after 6th grade, and the school overall was so large, favoritism played a big part in whether families had good or bad experiences. I think the quality of education in many elementaries rivals private school, but I don't think that's true at all of any of the PAUSD middle schools. You have to find what your child needs. I do not blame her or anyone else for finding a better match for their child's learning style.

Propping up our schools by just saying we are the best - rather than being the best - leads eventually to collapse from which recovery may be impossible. Palo Alto has already gotten a bad reputation because of the suicides and depression.

One thing I'm curious about - the article above says that the study mentions that Palo Alto has a higer than avrage suicide rate but lower than average rate of kids with suicide ideation. What about the number of kids being hospitalized with depression? Two years ago, almost 50 kids were taken from Gunn and hospitalized because of serious mental health breakdowns. I have never in my whole life seen that happen even once, and I went to an even bigger high school.

I want a school board member capable of asking the hard questions and demand good answers. I am not bothered at all about her sending her children to an outside school. I am very bothered by the math testbook conlict. I would love to see an explanation.

So excited to support Jennifer. Smart. Empathetic. Well reasoned and trustworthy. Its an honor to support her. Jackie

How does putting a teacher in charge of the district help us manage the teachers? Isn't this a huge conflict of interest?

For example in the recent debacle with the giant raise give-away to the teachers it is hard to imagine DiBrienza would argue for fiscal restraint. More likely would just be about what is best for teachers.

For too long this district prioritizes staff over students in almost every aspect. Putting staff on the board will just further stack the deck to the detriment of students.

NO on DiBrienza.

Let's put students first, ahead of staff. For once.

@ FoxInHenHouse,

I haven't met J. Dibrienza, but I would recommend that you actually ASK her how she would have voted on the teacher raise and for her perspective on the teacher raises, budget, etc. rather than vote (or tell others how to vote) based on what you can or cannot "imagine".

Otherwise we hens just get our feathers in a fluff - and worry about a fox that may not be there?

If she is a FORMER teacher, as frequently reported, how is this a conflict?

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There's no indication whatsoever that DiBrienza was ever a PAUSD teacher. She clearly favors project-based learning, so her educational choices are quite consistent. She seems like a good choice to me.

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NO on DiBrienza.
We need somebody else who has better sense of responsibility in spending $$ of PAUSD.