Voters have until Tuesday, Nov. 5 to make their decisions for the general election. NSPR has been interviewing candidates vying for seats on the Chico Unified School Board. In Trustee Area 2, Gayle M. Olsen is running against James Bishop. She spoke with NSPR’s Ken Devol about her background and how she would address some of the issues facing the school board if elected.
This interview has been edited for clarity and brevity.
Tell us more about your background and why you are running for this position.
I just retired. June 8 was my official last day from teaching 34 years in special education. I've taught grades two through 12 in those 34 years.
I also, upon getting closer to retirement, realized that my [trustee] area was up for the first time, and I felt like this was actually a sign that this was something that I was meant to do. And it's turned out great, because I realized that I get to stay involved with students, and that's really important for me. While I was done teaching, I wasn't done with students.
What do you see as the most pressing issue or issues confronting schools today?
The most pressing issue that I see is something that has been termed parent rights, but it actually means two different things.
I'll start with me. On my side, parent rights means parents absolutely have and should have rights in their child's education. Parents can participate in the school site council. They can do what's called Form 10 for their child to go to a different school if they want to. They can volunteer in the classroom. They can join the PTA (Parent Teacher Association).
They have the right to be involved in that. The one thing that I don't believe they have a right to be involved in is to know everything that their child says to an adult. Which brings me to what the other side, if you will, believes. That parent rights means, for example, if a child says to an adult, ‘I think I might be bisexual,’ then the adult in the education system has to then contact the parent and let them know of that conversation.
One other hot issue right now, obviously, is facilities. Chico Unified has done a lot of work on a lot of schools. There are still three schools that need a lot of help, a lot of TLC (tender loving care). So funding for that, as many people probably know, Measure C, is out there as a bond to create the funds in order to make improvements for those sites, so that those children have nice facilities when they go to learn.
If you do win the seat on the school board, how are you planning to address these issues?
That's a really good question. The funding is really something that is a team effort. Parents and students and community members are involved in meetings, and they let the board know what is important, and what they feel funding should address and where funding should be placed, and the board listens. At least, this is my understanding.
The board listens to that information as well as to the experts in the district. And so from that input a budget is passed regarding parent rights. I honestly don't know how that will be addressed through the board.
I do know that there's legislature that says that [requiring teachers to inform parents of private conversations] is illegal. You know, we have to follow the law and that staff at a school or a site are not required or mandated to tell a parent of conversations that a student has, obviously, unless the student is in danger of harming him or herself or harming others or presenting a danger to others. But if it's just a conversation that is questioning things or wondering about things, then we need to follow the law. And currently the law states that we don't have to have conversations with parents around that. So obviously, I'm going to follow the law.
I've had 34 years experience in the trenches. I've taught special education, which is another hot topic in the district, so I absolutely have insight into special education in particular, and I have a desire to make sure that all students are included and accepted in all classrooms.
I participated in a district leadership committee where I was kind of the liaison between the district and the teachers. So I do understand how things work at the district level as well, and I'm just all about students. Every single day of my career, it's always been about my students.
So I'm very passionate about supporting students in ways that you might not even think of. We talked about facilities. We need to support students to have good facilities, to have good curriculum, to have elective offerings, to have safe places, to have conversations, and to continue to have good mental health support. Supporting students is all encompassing.
