New ACSA President Frank Gomez has outlined his vision of what he wants the association to accomplish during his term in office. Following – in his own words – are his priorities.

Adequate funding
ACSA’s vivid description states, “ACSA will be the primary and most trusted resource to California’s governor and Legislature concerning educational matters through a united voice.” ACSA will continue to provide the focus of our efforts in making sense of budget proposals and where our local legislators stand. ACSA helps give purpose to our local efforts in educating our parent communities.

ACSA also helps to unite our position into one voice and one effort, in providing common association talking points to inform not only our legislators, but also parents in our own backyards. The groundswell created by our efforts so far to protect Proposition 98 is working. In a recent poll by the Public Policy Institute of California, it was noted that “Californians agree that K-12 education is the major spending area they most want to protect from state budget cuts… 57 percent of public school parents believe the current level of state funding for their local public schools is not enough.”

But our job, although already making a significant difference, is not finished, especially with the work in our local communities. I believe that with the continued work of all of us in ACSA we will succeed in the end.

Professional development
Our mission statement also says, “ACSA will support California’s educational leaders.” Past ACSA presidents Sonny Da Marto and Sandra Carsten created our signature campaign of “Leadership Matters,” with Past President Bob Lee chairing that task force.

ACSA has initiated our Leadership Coaching programs to assure that being an administrator does not have to be the loneliest job in education.

There was an outcry from our membership for more support in the area of curriculum and instruction and ACSA responded with the Learning and Teaching Task Force, chaired by Jeanie Cash, the chair of our Curriculum, Instruction and Accountability Council.

I continue to challenge ACSA to reinvent the numerous workshops and academies in order to meet the needs of a changing administrative membership. After all, this job is about blood, sweat and tears.

Member services
One of ACSA’s core values addresses the concept of unity and diversity. It simply states that ACSA has a “belief in inclusiveness and a unified purpose.”

ACSA has done an outstanding job in increasing the number of members year to year. I believe that membership is about more than just numbers. It is about people. It is about you and me.

Diversity and unity is about diversity beyond “the me generation to the thumb generation.” Diversity and unity is more than diversity beyond ethnicity, such as the rainbow of colors sitting in harmony at any ACSA gathering.

Diversity and unity is also about the differences in ideas and thoughts. Joel Barker did work years ago on paradigm shifts. His latest work deals with the diversity of thoughts and ideas. He states that diversity of thinking leads to innovation. Innovation leads to the wisdom of an organization.

Wisdom is what sustains and, at the same time, helps an organization move forward. I challenge ACSA to continue its fine work reflected in our core value.

It’s up to all of us to accept the challenges facing us in the upcoming year. I think that back in 1971, our ACSA officers and founding board of directors had it right when they wrote, “Do you take ACSA for granted? After all, it is the administrator organization in California that serves all administrators, regardless of assignment. ACSA is a revolutionary concept.”

I believe that it was a revolutionary concept in 1971 and remains a revolutionary concept today, as long as we continue to push ourselves to higher levels of excellence.

When I was a kid growing up, every time I went out the front door – whether it was to play, to be with friends, or to go on a date – I remember Mama Gomez always saying to me, “Frank, be a good boy!” My response was always the same. “Mom, my purpose is to make you proud of me.”

Now, here I am years later, and you are sending me out to represent you up and down the state this upcoming year as your ACSA president. I have only one response to your invitation: “My purpose is to make you proud of me in representing ACSA.”