Mark Hinkle considered running for the Morgan Hill Unified
School District board but decided instead to give Gavilan board
incumbent Laura Perry some competition.
Retired IBM engineering manager Mark Hinkle was interested in serving on education boards and considered running for the Morgan Hill Unified School District board but decided instead to give Gavilan board incumbent Laura Perry some competition.
Hinkle, who is on the statewide board of the Libertarian Party, said his previous elected experience is limited to homeroom senator in high school, but he has run for the Gavilan board twice, the last time two years
ago. He describes the Libertarian philosophy as maximizing personal freedom – the price of which is responsibility.
“You ought to be able to do anything you want to do so long as you respect the rights of others,” he said.
Why he is running:
“In part, I have the time; in part I got interested when I read the Master Plan (two years ago) and discovered that one-third of the student body had an average of 1.0 or below. If that’s still a concern, it needs to be addressed.” (Gavilan says this is no longer the case)
What he would bring to the job:
“My skill set is experience dealing with budgets as a high-tech manager. Budgets will be a key issue. I have a fair number of contacts around Silicon Valley so I can work with businesses for tours, resources.
“I have served as a major fundraiser for Libertarian Party statewide so I have the experience to do personal one-to-one solicitations.”
Hinkle said he has been on the Gavilan campus six times in the past year, for a forum and tours. He said the budget, student performance and making sure the college remains focused on the students are Gavilan’s top challenges.
“Any cuts must not be directly related to student education,” he said. “The college needs to do more community outreach, get involved with local businesses and get more students to attend Gavilan instead of West Valley or De Anza. We will need to do more marketing.”
About the enrollment cap where the state will not fund more than a certain number of students:
“Gavilan has hired a grant writer,” Hinkle said. “I wouldn’t be opposed to an increase in fees in order to fund the student growth.”
He said there is very little correlation between class size and student performance. Students in Japan succeed in large classes, he said.
Should the school have waited until after the election to choose a new president?
“If they find somebody now they should go ahead and hire them,” Hinkle said.
(The presidential search committee narrowed the choice down to three last week.)
On the role of a college president:
“The role of a college president is to act as a CEO and head cheerleader and also to raise funds,” Hinkle said. “This is where the buck stops.”
On the role of a college trustee:
“The role of a trustee is to review and set policy, also to deal with the budget and to handle certain personnel issues,” he said.
Hinkle said he would not be adverse to cutting extracurricular activities in a budget crisis.
“They create a community atmosphere – theater, sports,” he said. “If push comes to shove, my preference would be to cut one totally.”
Hinkle said he would keep the activity with the greatest number. “I’d give it to the squeaky wheel,” he said.
He would also not approve trying to get a bond issue passed to fund capital improvements.
“I’m dead set against bond issues,” he said. “It’s a bad way to fund things.”
He would prefer a building fund to set aside money for capital projects – “like homeowners associations do,” he said.
On the possibility of mid-year state budget cuts, Hinkle said, “It is appropriate to dig into reserves only for the mid year but from there on out we must build it up.”
Voters throughout the college district, which stretches from the South San Jose portion of the Morgan Hill School District to San Martin, Gilroy and San Benito County, vote for the local seat. Voters districtwide also cast ballots for the two contested seats from San Benito County. Incumbents Lucha Ortega and Elvira Robinson are being challenged by James De La Cruz, Rito Ramirez and Ruben E. Lopez.
