Candidate Clarence R. Shaw , 43, is a human services administrator and county of Los Angeles logistics officer for the U.S. Army Reserve. Shaw has two young children -- Clarence II, 6, who attends Monroe Elementary School and Amber Nicole, 3, who is a preschooler.

"We need to bring more achievement out in terms of MUSD moving forward if we want to be compared to great school districts," he said. "First and foremost, we have to submit a plan to the federal government for those four schools that did not make AYP [Adequate Yearly Progress], and we have to work on bringing up our shortcomings in order to make the federal mandates this academic year."

Rich is president of the School Site Council. His 10-year-old daughter Cela was just elected student council president of Mayflower Elementary School.

The issues Rich would like to focus on if elected to the board are smaller class sizes from kindergarten through 12th grade, physical improvements to the high school, directing funding to the classrooms and not to the "bureaucracy" in the district and funding for art and music programs at the schools.

To the second issue, he noted, "The elementary and middle schools have all recently gone through cosmetic renovations in the last five years. We need to do more at the high school."

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