KENWOOD PRESS

Questions for School Board Candidates – Nicole Abaté Ducarroz

1. Please give a brief biography.
As a mother of three children, two of whom attend SVUSD charter school, Woodland Star, Nicole Abaté Ducarroz has a lot at stake in Sonoma’s public school system.

The youngest of five children, raised in Detroit, Michigan, Nicole’s formative education was varied; from Waldorf Preschool to Catholic Elementary School and eventually Detroit public schools. These early learning experiences have helped to shape her views on education today and the need for choice, not “one educational style fits all”.

After graduating from UC Davis with a degree in computer science, Nicole moved to France to work as a software engineer for seven years. It is there she met her husband Jean François and where her first child, Nikita was born.  Deciding to raise their family in the United States, the Ducarroz’s moved to Glen Ellen in 1999, attracted by Dunbar School and the small town feel of the surrounding community.  It was as Nikita became of schooling age, that Nicole’s passion to provide her daughter with the best educational choices began to develop.  This enthusiasm led Nicole to further her own education by taking Early Childhood Education courses, and become instrumental in the development of two Valley schools, Little Star Preschool and Woodland Star Charter School. Always a proactive member in the community, Nicole has worked on several educational boards and committees and helped to earn more than a quarter million dollars in fundraising.  It is this drive and ability to mobilize people and resources that Nicole hopes to bring to her position on the Sonoma Valley Unified School Board.

2. Why do you want to serve on the school board, and what do you hope to achieve?
I will be representing the whole school community.  I want to serve on the board so that I can apply the capacities that I have used on the many educational boards. I have served on, now for ALL of the children in the Sonoma Valley.  When I was serving on the Woodland Star Charter School Governance Board, I was very clear about making decisions based on what was best for the whole school and not just for the class of my own child.  I have the ideas, enthusiasm and desire to help increase our district’s revenue. I promote programs to strengthen parent-teacher partnerships in learning. I believe in fostering community.  I support programs of choice and encourage sharing the outcomes of these methods with all our schools.

3. What makes Dunbar School unique?
Dunbar School is a program of choice.  There are many things that make Dunbar school unique.  Dunbar is presently the oldest school in our district, having been established in 1857.  These are some of the things that attracted our family to this area, one of them being the country charm of Dunbar and its location.  The other thing unique to Dunbar is its Visual and Theatre Arts Program, the enthusiasm of the parent community and the dedication of its teachers and principal.  Finally, something I was so impressed with was Dunbar’s parent handbook. This handbook talks about community and about how it is the vision of the school to get the entire learning community to work together towards excellence with care, communication and collaboration. I think these values can be applied successfully throughout our district. (This sharing would be an example of how I would encourage extending the benefits of programs of choice to all of our schools.)

4. Given declining enrollment in recent years, as well other district-wide financial issues, what do you see as the future of Dunbar School?
This is a community decision.  Dunbar is in a unique situation in the valley in that Glen Ellen has a declining population of school-age children due mostly to prohibitive housing costs for young families. I believe the district must be responsible to all of its students. If Dunbar’s enrollment continues to decline, significantly keeping Dunbar School going as it always has been may become disproportionately expensive. Dunbar was established in 1857, the oldest of our schools in the SVUSD.  It has gone through many changes and still stands up straight and proud.  So I am willing to look at the hard questions that surround Dunbar’s future. I highly value Dunbar as a neighborhood school and a program of choice. My intention is to work with the Dunbar community to explore creative ways to keep their school going that don’t have such a high financial cost to the rest of the district. For example, the community could choose to revisit the idea of converting Dunbar into a charter school.  I see the future of this school to be determined by a collaborative process in which I am eager to play a creative and active part.

5. What are the biggest challenges facing the Sonoma Valley Unified School District?
Putting the word UNIFIED back into the Sonoma Valley Unified School District. 
All school districts face similar issues, including budget and fiscal issues, personnel issues, program development, student services as well as adherence to state and federal mandates. At any given moment any one of these issues will present itself as the most important at that time. What is needed is a strong team of intelligent, open-minded, flexible and committed individuals who can work creatively together to solve our challenges. We are fortunate here at the SVUSD to have deeply qualified individuals among our ranks and an experienced leadership. The biggest challenge for SVUSD is to develop a vision and the relationships to work through these issues.  Other challenges will be successful English Language Development as well as dealing with the government’s Academic Yearly Progress (AYP) reports.  As a trustee I will work diligently with my colleagues to develop the relationships needed to implement cohesive, solution-oriented strategies. Once there, we can weather whatever comes our way.

6. What role do you think charter schools will play in SVUSD’s future?
Charter schools fulfill one of the roles of parent choice for our district. Both of our current charter schools offer programs that are unavailable in the traditional schools. I believe these two specific schools will continue to be successful. Having participated in the very difficult process of starting a charter school, I honestly don’t see new charter schools coming into the district. The expertise, time commitments and expense involved in starting a charter school are a huge deterrent to parents who might like another option but don’t have three years of their lives to give to the project. However, converting a traditional school into a charter, like Dunbar’s community has explored before, could be worth revisiting and could be a viable way to keep the school open and thriving. I have been through this experience and have done the charter process, and know how to mobilize people and resources to make something like this happen.  Charter schools give parents and teachers choice and autonomy and control of their destiny. I think that the idea of new charter schools will remain attractive, but I see starting up brand new charter schools only becoming more difficult—and therefore unlikely at this time.