What Good Looks Like Twenty-five years. 365 days per year. Exclude birthdays, holidays, and other special occasions. Round down to 330. Three children. Two parents. One family. 8,250 dinners, and Danielle Cohen has planned and prepared them all. Over the years, Danielle hasn’t confronted many issues that she was unable to solve. Between a career in software engineering, a position on the Campbell Union School District’s School Board, a passion for competitive sports, copious hours of charity work, and a family that requires an exceeding amount of time and attention, Danielle has proven her superhuman abilities over and over again.
puts it, “She does not just participate, she is very, very active. She’ll take an active leadership role in any endeavor she goes after.” Although mapping out and putting together 90% of her family’s dinners is one source of extreme frustration, nothing can stop this Superwoman. As a mother of three, Danielle’s constantly busy. Luckily, her daughter, Taylor (23), and her son, Scott (18), are both away at college. Her youngest son, Kevin (16), is still at She is second to none with respect to her level of inten- home. Kevin is on the autism spectrum, and afternoons at sity, which is an enormous factor in her ability to partic- the Cohen’s house are deipate in all the activities and voted to him. Danielle and Adam, her husband of 25 jobs that she’s a part of. As years, take him to and from Dr. Eric Andrew, the current Superintendent of the CUSD,
She does not just participate, she is very, very active. She’ll take an active leadership role in any endeavor she goes after.
By Andie Burns
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yoga, junior bowling league, Hebrew school, piano lessons, social skills classes, therapy, and other outings. Danielle believes that “my other two kids benefitted
her daughter entered the Campbell school system, and was an active member for many years. She sat on a bond oversight committee, then in the early 2000s,
If we don’t have a quality public education system, we’re going to have a large quantity of adults that don’t have the skills to provide structure in a community. from the fact that I had to be home in the afternoon,” because she’s always been a presence around the house and it helps her be available for them. In the mornings when she isn’t in the District Office, she plays competitive tennis in multiple leagues, which she picked up six years ago. Tennis gives her not only a chance for exercise, but “it’s become a really great social aspect” of her life as well (Cohen). Evenings are usually spent at her part-time job at Oracle Corporation. She is a software engineer, and has been ever since she graduated from UC Davis in 1986. Danielle joined the PTA when 2
during the recession, she was asked to represent her region in another committee that had to decide which of
the 13 schools in the district had to be closed for budget reasons. The superintendent was impressed by her analytical and communica-
tive skills, and when two of the School Board members stepped down midterm, “he asked me to apply. So I applied. There were 14, 16 people who applied for the two spots, and myself and one other fellow were appointed to the board. That was in 2004, and then we officially ran for the board that November. So February of 2004 was my first year, and here we are November of 2014, ten years later” (Cohen). She also serves on the Santa Clara County School Boards Association and on the California School Boards Association, where she was asked to be a delegate. This fall, Danielle
will be running once again for the Board. Currently, California is going through the first major shift in public school funding since the
1970s. Rather than the state distributing money to each county and having the county decide on programs that every school must implement whether they need it or not, we now have the Local Control Funding Formula. The LCFF allows each separate district within the county to develop a personalized Local Control and Accountability Plan, which is submitted to the county for review. The LCAP “requires your school district to focus on the eight key areas that help all students succeed, provides extra funding for students with greater challenges, and gives your district more flexibility for how to spend its money to improve local schools” (CAPTA). The eight key areas fall under the umbrella terms of Conditions of Learning, Pupil Outcomes, and Engagement (LCAP Quickguide). Each district’s School Board drafts and Accountability Plan that details the amount of money they will be spending on certain programs, meaning the funding goes where it’s needed most. Last year, the Campbell Union School District was able to add an “11.68% increase in funding and supports on
verse as ours, a quality, the total budget” for English free public education is Learner, Low Income, and the only thing that’s goFoster Youth students, who ing to ensure that going make up 77.7% of those in forward we have a stable the district (CUSD LCAP). adult society. Particularly Danielle is relieved that her as the middle class starts district will no longer be wasting money on counto disappear, you have the wealthy and the poor, ty-provided programs that and if we don’t have a are unnecessary to the stuquality public education dents in Campbell. She has system, we’re going to noticed many improvements have a large quantity of with the new programs, and adults that don’t have the described to me the imporskills to provide structure tance of having higher-qualin a community. ity public schools: Danielle’s job on the CUSD I’m very, very passionate School Board has changed about public education. slightly with the new funding, I think in a state as di-
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and she has exwhich have helped form her pressed how importunique personality. For example, during an ant it is to have a woman with so much Annual Girls’ experience on the Board. She knows Trip what her district needs vacamost, and now has effective methods to tion with provide it. That being said, Danielle’s life is not limited to her experience some of her on the School Board. She has many facets, all of
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close friends, Danielle found herself on a spiritual journey. A woman, their guru, led a guided meditation with the purpose of discovering each woman’s spirit animal. Despite her lack of belief in the power of meditation, Danielle found herself wandering through a field in her mind. As she drifted through this mental space, she heard a rustling in the tall grass behind her. She turned around, and saw it: A skunk. The creature made its way through the brush, and lumbered into the distance. With some
disappointment, she confessed, “‘I’d like to consider myself something majestic. Some kind of falcon, maybe?’” The guru, on the other hand, was impressed. She explained that skunks, although seen as undesirable, are really just using intimidation to achieve their goals. They know what they want, and they take it. They aren’t afraid to (literally) raise a stink, and they are intelligent and direct animals. These traits seemed to correlate with Danielle’s own personality, and helped her to view herself not only as majestic and respected, but also as steadfast and ambitious, like the skunk that appeared to her through the guided meditation. This November marks Danielle’s fourth campaign to be reelected to the CUSD School Board. She has been serving for a decade already, and plans on continuing to do so. There may only be three positions open on the board for four candidates, but
no other candidate has as much experience in this position as Danielle does. Recently the League of Women Voters held a Candidate Forum in which those running for a position answered questions from the community. Leah Reid, a School Board member from 2006-2010, said that “watching her up there was very impressive to me. She’s done a lot of public speaking because
“The reason I’m staying with it for four more years is that I have the history of knowing the other ways we can measure our effectiveness.” Despite her numerous talents in a variety of fields, Danielle is a relatively humble person. She works because she loves what she does, and earns everything that is given to her. When she was asked to be a delegate to the CA School Boards Association, Danielle says that “I was just doing my job, but somebody who knew what good looked like said, ‘You do a good job.’” Validation like this helps confirm that the choices she makes are she’s on the board… She was smart ones. On a personal by far the most comfortable level, however, it doesn’t take speaking up there.” Danielle’s much to please Danielle. “My numerous years of experibar for pretty good is low,” ence with the CUSD, Santa she admits. “There was just a Clara County School Boards study that said that the hapAssociation, and California piest people have the lowest School Boards Association expectations, [and] I view are what make her a perfect myself as a pretty happy candidate for reelection this person! I have a great Autumn. In her own words, life.” 5