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Guzman Embraces MUSD President Position

Posted By admin On December 11, 2008 @ 11:39 am In Bell Gardens, City of Commerce, General News,
Montebello, Monterey Park | No Comments

Gerri Guzman has assumed the role of president of the Montebello Unified School District Board
following a brief reorganization ceremony on Dec 2. Like outgoing president Marcella Calderon, she
will be leading the board through uncertain economic times.

State budget cuts that were threatened at the beginning of the year had already forced the board to
eliminate a number of administrative positions in the district. Those threats have redoubled in recent
months.

“We are preparing for some additional cuts from Sacramento,” Guzman says. This means tightening
up policies and practices, while making sure students are the last to be impacted.

Guzman has been a board member since 2001 and says she will be cutting her day job hours to
devote more time to the board. Schools in the district will have plenty of access to her, she says.

Her goal is to do at least one school site visit a week. To make the best use of her time at the school
sites, Guzman proposes forming committees of teachers, parents and staff at each school with whom
she can meet and work with whenever she visits.

“It isn’t just me looking at the school from a board member’s perspective. We’re looking at it as a
team… we can strategize,” she says.

Guzman says she will have an open door policy, to the point of giving the public her cell phone
number. “I would like to be more inclusive and allow more of the stakeholders a say in the decisions
we make at the school district,” she says.

She hopes to spend one half of a typical day at the district office going over business contracts, and
the other half meeting with parent groups to discuss such policies as how the district should handle
high-risk students. And for parents who cannot make it out to the district office, she would like to go
to them by doing walks through their neighborhoods.

A joint “health leadership” initiative between Montebello’s Mayor Rosie Vasquez and herself is also in
the works.

“We’ll be working on how cities and school districts can collaborate to create a healthy community,”
she says. One example is to work out a partnership in which residents in Montebello can use school
fields outside of school hours.

“We can work with the city so that the community feels welcome at 8 at night, after dinner, to walk
on that field,” she says. Partnering with the city on this might also make economic sense especially if
some maintenance costs are shared, she says.

Another health issue that she hopes to tackle with the city is the lack of large supermarkets in areas
like the south end of Montebello.

“We’ll look at how we can lure businesses over. We’ll do it collaboratively as a school district as a
city. We’ll have much more power and voice,” she says.

Guzman is a 40-year resident of Montebello and served as the city’s treasurer from 1999 to 2007.

The board also appointed clerk David Vela to vice president. Edwin Chau replaced him as clerk.

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