Published in the September 28 – October 11, 2016 issue of Morgan Hill Life

By Mary Patterson

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Mary Patterson

My husband and I are proud parents of two children — a 7th grader at Martin Murphy Middle School and a junior at Sobrato High School. Our children attended Morgan Hill District public schools for the past 11 years, and I have spent hundreds of volunteer hours in classrooms, on the Los Paseos Home & School Club Board and as chair of the school site council. I know the resources, the assets and the many successes of our students, teachers and schools. I will build on those successes as a school board member. I am also an experienced professional in the field of children’s health and well being.

I am passionate about our ability as a community to strengthen the lives of children and families. My entire professional career — in government, schools and the nonprofit sector — has been devoted to this goal. As the executive director of Project Cornerstone, I worked with public schools in Morgan Hill and throughout Santa Clara County to foster a more caring school climate and bolster children’s success. It was through Project Cornerstone that I first met Steve Tate, now the mayor of Morgan Hill, more than 10 years ago. We were invited to present ideas to a national audience for ways that communities can work together to build kids’ strengths. Today, as a health educator at the Lucile Packard Children’s Hospital, I teach classes for children and parents to learn together what it means to grow up strong and healthy.

As a trustee, I will direct this passion and experience to ensuring success for every child. My values of inclusion and respect enable me to bring diverse viewpoints together to tackle big challenges. Four issues I am most concerned about are:

1) The need for deeper, more genuine child and parent engagement

2) Stronger teacher recruitment and retention strategies

3) Increased school funding from the state, and

4) Elimination of disparities between groups of students in grades, test scores, graduation rates and other measures, also known as the achievement gap.

I believe in student and parent connectedness to school, caring and competent teachers and sufficient and reliable financial support are essential to ensure academic achievement for all kids. I will work to build these assets for every student, family and school in our district.