Providing quality public education for all is one of the most important responsibilities of our government. Open, affordable, and equal access to high quality educational opportunities is the key to enabling pursuit of the American Dream. In particular, the San Mateo County Community College District is a vital link between our locally run K-12 school systems and our state-run four-year colleges and universities, and is the primary provider of career and job skills training in San Mateo County. In these economically and technologically challenging times, education is vital to creating a prosperous future, both for individuals and for society at large. The following ten points highlight the key areas I will focus on to make sure that our Community College District is effectively serving the needs of San Mateo County's residents and taxpayers:

1. Keep Our Budget Balanced. Continue the process of keeping the District's budget balanced and focused, in keeping with the Board's core values statement focusing our efforts on our core mission of transfer education, workforce training, and basic skills classes, and in alignment with our new Strategic Plan;

2. Protect And Diversify Our Funding. Protect our local community funding against possible threats and continue to develop alternate sources of funding for our programs, such as Federal, State, and private grants, so that we can continue to maintain control of our own destiny. Think "outside of the box" in order to come up with creative ways to generate new revenue from our facilities and District resources in order to provide more resources for our classroom educational programs;

3. Keep Programs Relevant. Review our current academic programs and conduct community needs assessments in a regular and timely manner to make sure that courses are kept up-to-date and continue to address the greatest current needs of the community in terms of educational content, knowledge, skills, and workforce training;

4. Promote Student Success. Recognizing that our students come to us with a wide range of goals and abilities, develop better and more individualized metrics for tracking student success, and use these to both improve the performance of existing programs and develop new ones to ensure that students successfully achieve their goals;

5. Focus On Jobs. Use our resources to provide job training programs and apprenticeship opportunities that prepare student for jobs that are in demand locally, and pay enough to live on in San Mateo County. Use our local tax dollars to create jobs locally whenever possible;

6. Build Our 4-Year Degree Programs. Launch our initial Bachelor's degree program at Skyline College in 2016, and build on this pilot program to expand our ability to offer more four-year degrees at all three of our colleges. Also continue to work with local universities to offer Bachelor's and Master's degree opportunities on our Community College campuses;

7. Collaborate With K-12 Schools. Continue to reach out to our local elementary and middle schools to build pathways to college for all San Mateo County students. Work with our high schools to encourage concurrent enrollment of local high school students in our Community College classes, both on our campuses and on the high school campuses;

8. Invest Our Bond Proceeds Wisely. Make sure that our Capital Improvement Program funds are invested wisely and safely, and are spent on the most critically needed facilities and equipment for our academic mission. Also use these funds to reduce operating costs, thus freeing up our general fund revenue for classroom use;

9. Rebuild Our Coastside Presence. Continue our efforts to increase the number of classes we offer on the San Mateo County Coast, both through partnerships with Coastside schools and in our own facilities;

10. Keep Lines of Communication Open. Work hard to reach out to the community and communicate with all of our constituencies, both on and off campus, with mutual trust and respect, in an open, honest, and transparent manner.