Schools

Brian Akers: Closing the Student Achievement Gaps

Veteran Charter Oak School Board Candidate Brian Akers seeks reelection to maintain stability.

If there’s anything Brian Akers, 65, says he brings to the Charter Oak Unified School Board, it’s history.

With no end in sight for public education’s budget woes, the Covina resident and owner of Aborta-Bug Pest Control Service believes an experienced board is critical when dealing with limited funding.

The 16-year school board member is one of three incumbents seeking reelection in the Nov. 8 school board election for Charter Oak Unified.

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Akers talks to Patch about the challenges facing the district, his approach to dealing with these challenges and why voters should reelect him to the school board.

After 16 years on the Charter Oak school board, why run again?

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I think this is an exceptional board that has done some remarkable things in improving student achievement. We have done some remarkable things in creating a brand new vision for Charter Oak, which came about a few years ago when people in our district felt there was a need to have a new direction or a new clarification of what Charter Oak is all about. We did that and it took us a few years to implement the different strands in that and one of the strands, of course, deals with student achievement and closing the achievement gaps for the different subgroups. We have hired some good superintendents in the meantime, and I think it’s important that we continue that trend.

I’m very proud to be working with the people on this board and there is going to be success coming along, but some very tough times coming as well. We’re going to be asked to have kids achieving at higher and higher levels to meet the federal guidelines of No Child Left Behind and it’s an impossibility to reach the ideal – the ideal is to have 100 percent of all of your kids proficient in all of your subgroups in all of your schools, otherwise your school is failing. But I don’t think our schools are failing. There are different areas we need to focus on. We have the rights kinds of people in our district achieving that and I want to be a part of that and make sure it keeps going that way.

With limited resources and more areas that need funding, it comes down to the priorities of the district. What are your priorities when it comes to addressing the district’s budget?

I think they’re in line with everyone on the board -- we want the kids to prepared to graduate from high school, either going to college and being successful in college or going into a career. I sit as the president of the board here and I’ve been president in the past. Currently, I’m sitting as my second year as the president of the ROPTC which is made up of seven different districts and deals with the school of career pathways.

My priorities are that kids are achieving at levels that will prepare them to get to the next level and be successful. It’s reflected by, at this point, on how well they do on standardized tests.

I’ve read in a paper recently that in a national study that because schools are having to meet this mandate of English Language Arts and math, are not able to support the science curriculum as well as they could. That’s what happens when you have certain goals and you have to focus all on one area. Your science suffers.

My priorities are that our kids be successful in college, and successful in life –reflected by how well they are doing in a whole-rounded education, not just in English Language Arts and math. I do believe we’re being successful with that.

And we take a look at the kids who are struggling with that. We’ll need to put in place programs that are going to help them, and it’s tough because you have less funds to be able to do those things, and we’re going to be asking people to do more with less and you run the risk of burnout. You don’t want that to happen to your staff. Morale has everything to do with it.

How should the district address the prioritization of facility improvements or modernization projects?

There is a difference between modernization and deferred maintenance. What we mean by that is that we can take a building that was built in the 50s or 60s and it lasts for a certain amount of years. And if you are not maintaining that building, you are getting further and further behind.

When we passed our bond to modernize, that was 12 years ago. What do you think has happened in the last 12 years? We still now have to maintain the buildings, not to mention improve them.

I know there is an issue with our pool right now, we have some people in the community that want to see a new aquatics facility, and I understand that too. But I have to consider that in light of all the other things this whole district has. As much as I would like to have a brand new pool, I have to make sure it fits in with the needs of all of our sites.

The proper process is that we have to have an assessment of our buildings and the last time we did that was when we passed the bond 12 years ago. We are doing the process now, and that involves input from the community. We have a firm that will look at that process for us and make recommendations on the priorities.

With districts in the area suffering from declining enrollment, more have turned to District of Choice. Do you think District of Choice can be an option for Charter Oak?

It has pros and cons to it. When you have District of Choice, you are able to get a percentage of students from your contiguous districts. We can’t pick and choose what we want. The downside is you can bring in a lot of children who can be a higher cost item to your district, which can hurt your district -- such as special needs children. It costs more to educate these children, more so than those who are not in special ed.

I’m not in favor of District of Choice because it also creates some hard feelings of districts next to you…I think we’re doing ok with we what we have, and we don’t have to resort to District of Choice.

How should the board address relationships with employee groups as the district continues to face budget cuts?

Across the board, not just the teachers unions, or the classified unions, not just the administrators -- all of them have endorsed the three incumbents. I think that sends out a very powerful message and therefore I’m very gratified to see that. To have all of the groups support me means that I’m not going to decide on an issue for one group unless it’s for kids.


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