TELL US ABOUT YOURSELF
JOHN SULLIVAN, 40: A Senior Day custodian in the in the La Mesa-Spring Valley school district, I’m also senior Vice Commander at Alpine VFW; I served 14 years in the Navy as a Quartermaster.
TRAVIS LYON, 40: I am the president at a healthcare management company. I also am currently an elected trustee of the Alpine Union School District.
JOSEPH PERRICONE, 65: I’m a contractor for 35 years.
WHAT PROMPTED YOU TO RUN FOR ALPINE BOARD OF TRUSTEES?
SULLIVAN: It’s been something I’ve wanted to do for awhile, not necessarily here in Alpine. I moved here four years ago and I’m on the negotiations team for my district, involved with negotiations and bargaining. I feel like I have a pretty good relationship with the employees up here in Alpine and they’ve been asking me for the past two elections to run. I met the teacher’s president of Alpine and she encouraged me to run but I wanted to make sure it was the right time for my family and me.
LYON: I decided to run for the school board in 2016 because I have children in the district and am running for re-election for the same reasons. As a parent with children in the district I am intimately invested in the success of the district.
PERRICONE: I ran for the school board for the children of Alpine as I believed then as I do now they are our future and deserve the finest education we can give them so they can reach their potential and live productive and happy lives as adults.
DO YOU HAVE CHILDREN IN THE ALPINE SCHOOL DISTRICT?
SULLIVAN: I am divorced and my kids are not in this district.
LYON: Yes. Reagan and Taylor are 3rd graders at Boulder Oaks Elementary and Henry started transitional Kindergarten at Creekside Early Learning Center this fall.
PERRICONE: Both my son and daughter are young adults now and attended Boulder Oaks elementary School then went on to graduate from Joan Mac Queen Middle School.
WHAT IS YOUR
TOP PRIORITY?
SULLIVAN: Right now, just speaking with the employees, the reason they asked me to run is they feel their voice isn’t always heard. They feel there is a lack of communication with board members, both certificated and classified. I Zoomed with both and it was an echo across the board that they wanted the communication to be better. I feel that any elected official should have an open door policy, that anybody should be able to come talk to me without fear of repercussions.
First off, I would just make myself available. One thing teachers mentioned is they don’t see board members a lot although being on the board includes making yourself visible at school and functions. I would make myself very visible, meet with everyone, get to know everyone.
Once established, to use the district I work in as an example, our union invites one board member to each board meeting to have a meet and greet; that’s something I’d like to introduce with Alpine. It gives time to voice concerns from both sides and also talk about the positives in the district. I’d like to institute that with Alpine.
LYON: Getting our kids back on campus for in person learning in a safe and organized environment was a top priority. I am very proud that our district was able to do this while also offering distance learning for families who wanted that option. Alpine was one of the first schools in the state to offer learning pods for parents, one of the only public school districts in the county to apply and receive a waiver, and has opened with the safety of our kids, our teachers, and staff at the forefront. We do a lot of great things in our Alpine schools like engineering, dual language, transitional kindergarten and our reopening plans were a prime example. The biggest improvement I would focus on would be to continue to market our successes.
PERRICONE: My top priority for my final term would be to give our great teachers the tools to help raise the children’s math scores so they can compete for the jobs in the twenty-first century.
IS THERE ANYTHING YOU THINK IS DONE ESPECIALLY WELL THAT YOU’D LIKE TO GROW OR FURTHER DEVELOP?
SULLIVAN: I think where the district is doing well is keeping the parents and community informed through social media and web. Alpine’s a really good example of how to keep parents in the know. I’d like to keep that going and I feel that Dr. Newman’s view of where he sees the district going is good.
My goal, if I do get on the board is I’d love to see Alpine as the district of choice for East County. That starts with a good board and employees. Emotions trickle down to the children and at the end of the day, the kids come first.
Growing up, I was raised in foster homes and I knew I’d end up working with kids somehow. I didn’t see ‘custodian’ but it actually gives me a chance to work with the many foster kids in our district. I can totally relate. I love working with preschool to 8th grade.
LYON: A: Our engineering program has set the standard in San Diego county over the last 5 years. We continually outperform larger districts with more funding and have won awards at the local, regional, and national levels.
This is a result of our great teachers, wonderful support from our parents, and the ingenuity of our kids. We recently renovated the library at our middle school to a lab space for creative projects. I will continue to advocate that our district continues to support this program and other programs like musical arts, dual language, et cetera that have thrived.
PERRICONE: Joan McQueen Middle School has a fine robotics and programming class which our students have competed and won national awards for their designs. I would love to see these programs expanded to lower grades as this area of science is a growing field in the years to come and produce many high paying jobs.
DO YOU HAVE ANY COMMENT ON THE ONGOING HIGH SCHOOL SITUATION?
SULLIVAN: My displeasure with this is the fact that I felt a “small high school with some adult education classes” was presented back at the public forums. Even if it wasn’t intended, I felt like parents were misled about what was going into Alpine Elementary School. It’s a high-visibility property right on Alpine Boulevard. Perricone voiced it and I voiced it too: I’d love to see a high school up here. Alpine owes it to their students or we’re going to end up losing people to other schools.
LYON: I have been a longtime supporter of the pursuit of a high school in Alpine. Although Alpine was not successful at the state with its unification petition I have continued to advocate for working to incentivize our high school district to complete its plans to open a high school in Alpine.
PERRICONE: The fight for a high school in Alpine has been going on for at least twenty five years. Our school board sued Grossmont to build the high school that was promised Alpine but we lost in court. Alpine voted for prop H and U because we were promised a high school. The people of Alpine are still paying for prop H and U every year but still have nothing to show for it. Moving forward I will continue to work to bring our community what they were promised and are still paying for.
