Cristian Zarcu for RSF School Board

Author: Cristian Zarcu

Date: September 24, 2022

"The greatest danger for most of us is not that our aim is too high and we miss it, but that it is too low and we reach it." Michelangelo

My name is Cristian Zarcu and I am a candidate for the RSF School Board. My wife Ilona and I are the proud parents of three boys, Tyler, Alex and Liam -- a sophomore in college, a senior in high school and a sixth grader at Rowe. Our family moved to the Ranch in 2017, attracted by the excellent reputation of the R. Roger Rowe School.

I am interested in joining the RSF School Board to help bring back Dr. Rowe’s well-known high standards for his students, teachers and administrators. We need to build on the legacy of Dr. Rowe, his pursuit of excellence in academics and all extracurricular opportunities, sense of fair play, and good citizenship which guided our district for many years. I believe that our school should be superlative, the best in all San Diego and beyond, just like our town is. For that, we need to bring back that pursuit of excellence, and nothing less should be acceptable. I am a firm believer that all of our school students should be at grade level or better. None of our children should ever find themselves behind in math, reading/writing or science, and we should continuously strive to achieve that.

Some folks run for School Boards for personal gratification, self-validation, social or political reasons. For some, being a School Board member becomes a defining attribute of who they are, and they forget why they’re on that Board to begin with. Such people need to be reminded that a School Board's only role is to serve the very community it represents. Their job is to safeguard our children’s futures by ensuring that our school offers access to great academic programs and a safe school environment every single day. A great community is built around a great school, and it is the promise of an excellent education that sways parents to move into our town, helping to maintain RSF’s status as one of the most desirable communities in our country.

For me, running for the School Board is about one thing and one thing only – our children. My goal is simple: I want to unite the community around our children. Children are our future, our hope, and they are the source of the most pure and deep love we all share.  I don’t seek self-validation, I’m not trying to prove anything to myself or others, and I’m not looking for a political career. In fact, I’m the furthest thing from a politician, as I am very principled, I tend to speak my mind and I’m not afraid to say who I am or what I stand for. So my motivation to be on the board is really simple - I want our kids to be at the center of every decision our school makes, period.

Our school has enjoyed an outstanding reputation for many years, and we need to protect that reputation by ensuring that the education our children receive matches it fully. Recent years’ test results seem to indicate that Roger Rowe students may not be as well prepared as we would all expect. We have seen test scores dip below grade level for too many of our students, while attendance at our school has been slipping, as parents have become frustrated and many families have left our district. That is not an acceptable state of affairs in my opinion, and we need to act fast to correct course. The support received by a petition to reform our school programs, which I circulated among Roger Rowe parents recently, confirms the drop from our historical educational excellence. Almost two hundred parents signed to support my effort to have our school programs reformed and transformed into multi-level Honors programs, based on individual student ability. Multi-level programs would allow for a more tailored experience which would create less stress for students as well as teachers, and address the needs of each student in a more efficient fashion. Grouping students by similar levels of ability would give them a better chance to understand a material geared specifically to their level, would give them more confidence to ask questions, and also the ability to advance in accordance with their individual results. Remediation for struggling students should be swift and effective, to bring students back to grade level, without delay and without getting them stuck on the remediation track indefinitely.

Our school has to return to its roots of excellence, and provide our children with opportunities to learn and advance their knowledge at every level. The administration should refocus its attention back to the fundamentals of education, reading, writing, math and science, and cater only to our children, upholding the values of our local community, and not succumb to outside interests and influences. We shouldn’t allow distractions like social engineering and indoctrination to take our eyes away from what’s important: providing our children with a solid educational foundation and the critical thinking skills required for future success, thus enabling them to pursue any goals they may set for themselves.

RSF children go to the same school for nine years, K through 8th grade. That is a very unique model, which can be a blessing, if our school excels, but it can also be a curse if it doesn’t. That places a great level of responsibility on our administrators to ensure that our children receive an outstanding education, as they attend Roger Rowe during their most formative years of life, when their thinking is shaped, and entire philosophies of life potentially get established. We have to make sure we get this right, as it will impact our children’s lives forever.

Please go to my candidate website www.cristianzarcu.com to learn more about my top goals of Improved School Safety, Better School Programs, Real Science - Not Ideology, Transparency and Urgency, and if you like what you see, please vote for me on November 8th.

Cristian Zarcu

czarcu@trade-dynamix.com

917-664-7645