Gilroy - Pat Midtgaard sees no better time than the present to give back to the education community she was a part of for more than 30 years.In 2003, Midtgaard retired as principal of Antonio Del Buono Elementary School. She has 12 years of teaching under her belt - at El Roble, Jordan and Rod Kelley elementary schools - and 15 years as principal - at Eliot, San Ysidro, Rucker, and the opening of Del Buono. Add to that 22 years as a parent, with three children graduating from Gilroy Unified School District.
"When you put all of those experiences together, I have a depth of experience and feel very intrigued by the whole field of education and how people learn, what are the best methods to use, and I just feel like this would be a great forum for me to participate in," Midtgaard, 61, said. "I think my perspective could be useful, having been in hundreds of classrooms, and worked with hundreds of students - probably thousands of students now - many, many parents, I've run into all kinds of positive and negative situations."
Midtgaard, who has called Gilroy home for 37 years, says one of the biggest issues facing teacher is the language gap.
"Some kids come to kindergarten, and they've got 20,000 words in their vocabulary already," Midtgaard said. "Then you've got other children who come: they have 5,000 words under their belt. That's it."
The gap then only becomes wider as students progress through the system, Midtgaard said. Then, when students encounter their first standardized test, some might not even understand the questions, she said.
"I think all the staff development that's been done in the past three years ... I think all of it has been for a good reason, because of this language gap," Midtgaard said.
Gilroy Unified School District needs to stay the course with its English Language Learners, but Midtgaard does see that the high-achievers and average students might not be getting enough attention.
"There's a lot of research that says if you take an average student, and put them in a class of high-achievers, their scores will go up," Midtgaard said. "But if you take an average student, and they're English students who are really struggling year after year after year, they're going to be hanging out in that average area."
Teachers are getting better at analyzing scores, Midtgaard said. Based on improvements in recent years, she is encouraged that teachers are benefiting from training. But the scores most recently released show that it's not all smooth sailing, she said.
"I don't think it's a blip," Midtgaard said.
In five years as principal of Rucker Elementary School, which houses the district's Gifted And Talented Education program for high-achievers, Midtgaard said she saw a wide range even among the gifted students.
"Even though they're bright, is everything being done to bring them up?" Midtgaard said. "Those students need every bit as much attention as the students down here."
Just because she retired didn't keep Midtgaard out of the classroom, because she worked as a consultant for the district.
"If I were to get elected to this position, I would love to continue going into classrooms, because I know as a teacher and principal, I used to feel like I never saw board members," Midtgaard said.
Drawing on her experience in GUSD, Midtgaard wants to make communication between schools and parent more practical.
Parents need useful and honest feedback on how their child is doing, Midtgaard said. One-on-one time with students or bringing parents into the classroom might be difficult at the high school level, but Midtgaard thinks some parents are shooting in the dark and often see "false positives" on report cards.
Now that teachers will use comprehensive tests less often, but shorter assessments more frequently, Midtgaard thinks schools have the opportunity to make testing much more helpful to teachers this year.
"Here's the important thing: If you're going to assess, it has to be used for something. Otherwise, why assess?" Midtgaard said.
Midtgaard said she was surprised when teacher evaluations became an issue this year, because she thought the process she used as a principal was a good tool. She wants to ensure the district has a fair and open evaluation process, she said.
"I would have a lot of questions about that," Midtgaard said. "But I think that's one of the advantages to having done what I've done: I know what questions to ask."
As a PE major, Midtgaard said she has a tendency to think PE is the most important thing a teacher can do. She said she wants to look closely at giving more minutes to subjects other than literacy and math.
"The payback (with PE) is huge," Midtgaard said.
