David Giles has a B.A. from Harvard and a J.D. from Stanford Law, but the most important information on his resume, he feels, is the career that has followed—20 years in education law representing parents and students and working on education reform.

After Stanford, Giles obtained a prestigious Skadden Fellowship which ultimately sent him into the field to work on education issues for the children of migrant workers in rural California. Giles has also worked with the East Palo Alto Community Law Project, the U.S. Department of Education Civil Rights Office and the Education Law Center in Newark. Now in private practice, Giles specializes in issues such as school discipline, bullying, school residency, special education and gifted and talented programming.

"It's endlessly fascinating, and a real challenge," said Giles who always represents the child/parent. "Every case is individual."

"I bring a career devoted to representing kids and parents. A whole lifetime career of listening and responding to them. I can bring this to the Board of Education."

With his background, Giles always thought that running for a position on a board of education was something he would do. A South Orange resident since January 2001, Giles gained added incentive when his son entered the South Orange Maplewood school system a couple of years ago. Giles' son Jeremy is now in second grade at South Mountain Elementary.

A soft-spoken man, Giles does not tend to talk rashly or in sound bites. He pauses before his answers and chooses his words carefully.

On the hot-button topic of the school district budget cuts, Giles said, "I don't know if I would have come out any differently" than the current board members.

However, "it gives me a great amount of concern that the bulk of cuts were in special education." He adds, "No one should kid themselves in that these were programmatic cuts and they are going to impact everyone in the school."

"If you don't meet the needs of kids with disabilities, you are eventually going to have to expend more resources. The general education teacher is going to have to try harder to meet their needs and it will increase stress in the classroom. Everyone is hurt."

Regarding special education, Giles said, "I repeatedly have heard it said that only two hours of preschool is required and that the law says inclusion teachers are only mandated in certain subjects. But I don't think for any other program we say, 'What is the minimum required for language arts and high school?'"

"We don't shoot for the bottom there. We should shoot for the top."

Giles also worries that, although the district has brought many special education children back "in district" and reduced transportation costs, the cuts may erode these advances: "we are going to get more out-of-district placements and litigation, which will push costs up."

Ultimately, says Giles, it is our moral and legal obligation to educate every child.

But he adds, "I'm not trying to second guess the administration," saying that the school district was in an "impossible situation to cut what they had to cut in the number of days given. It's like you're asked if you want to lose a hand or a foot—these are all bad choices."

Although Giles is not sure the outcome would have been different had he been on the BOE, he still feels that he "would have brought an important voice and perspective to the discussion."

"If I am elected, a priority will be to look at the impact of these changes and my experience gives me a unique position to look at impacts and minimize the harm. I could help with future decisions on how and where [to cut]."

On the school rezoning issue, Giles said, "The BOE does have to take into account taxpayers and run the district efficiently. They do need to run schools somewhere near capacity, which means we have fewer choices on where school boundaries can be drawn."

Giles said that rezoning is something that all school districts need to do periodically and that he agrees with the goal of maintaining socio-economic and racial balance, but he also felt compassion for those who were being moved, "It's disruptive. It's scary." However, said Giles, "What I don't know is, what are the statistical demographic tools that were used? Could they have anticipated the need for rezoning further in advance ?"

He added, "Ideally this should have been dealt with sooner for parents to have time for input," although he noted that there is an upcoming public forum on the rezoning on April 12 and he understands that the district administration has been open to meeting with parents whose families have been targeted for rezoning.

"I personally don't know that we have any choice. I think the overcrowding is disruptive so if we don't do something now we'd have to do something similar next year."

Continued Giles,"This highlights that we must make sure all of our schools offer an excellent education."

Returning to his comment about supporting socio-economic and racial balance in the schools, Giles pointed out that his background gives him an interesting perspective on class and race. His father was black and grew up in Detroit, went to college and became a chemist. Unable to find work in the U.S., he traveled to Mexico to work. There he met David's mother. Ultimately, his parents moved to Southern California where the older Mr. Giles became one of the first black chemical engineers for McDonnell Douglas.

Said Giles, "My background does personally affect my view of leveling and achievement issues. I know that it is possible for us to be successful in making our district one where all children reach their full potential."

While travelling the district and speaking to many people during the campaign, Giles said that several themes have come up.

"I've heard from parents who are concerned that their children aren't being challenged and heard concerns from parents of kids with disabilities and if you look in any family, it's amazing—kids are all very different. It may sound cliched that we have to meet the needs of every child, but we do!"

Most important, said Giles, is providing a "solid core education program. If you don't have that, you can invest tremendous amounts in supplemental programs to make up for it but it's not going to work. I think the district is on the right track in improving curriculum."

"Interestingly," said Giles, "I hear complaints more about elementary schools than about the high school. To meet the needs of all and address the achievement gap, we need to start in the elementary schools." Technology offers some opportunities to improve efficiency and enrich teaching, said Giles but is "not a panacea."

More importantly, said Giles, "is a rich curriculum." He said that there are a group of parents who feel their children are neglected and not challenged, that we are "teaching to the middle. I think it's important to develop the capacity of the teachers to tailor instruction to each child." Giles noted, "You've got to make sure all our kids know at an early age that they can learn at high levels so they don't [get bored] and check out."

Giles said he supported Superintendent Brian Osborne on continuing the development of principals and supervisors as instructional leaders. He noted that the district is doing the right thing in developing a "professional learning community. Teaching can be very isolating" — something Giles knows from experience, having spent time teaching 10th grade early in his career.

But is all of this moot in light of the state cuts to public education? No, said Giles, but the "BOE has to step up. We have to take some leadership in the state. The current funding system is broken statewide. We need to control costs and increase revenue."

"I've spent better than 20 years working in education. People are looking for the answer to reform public schools. I've seen many efforts and grown skeptical of fads coming through schools." Giles added, "There are no simple answers."