Facebook page: Re-Elect Kay Coskey and Davina Drabkin-BSD School Board

Website: Coskeyanddrabkin4burlingameschoolboard.com

Linkedin: Kay Coskey

My name is Doug Luftman and I am honored to be a Burlingame School District Board member and to have worked closely with my fellow members, the District administration, teachers and staff, the Burlingame Community Education Foundation as their current Board liaison, PTAs, Dad’s Clubs, City Council and our community. We together have furthered the District’s strategic educational direction for the children of Burlingame.

I have two children, who have attended Burlingame's elementary and intermediate schools. My daughter attended Washington and Franklin Elementary Schools and graduated from Burlingame Intermediate School (BIS) last year. My son attended Franklin Elementary School and currently is a sixth grader at BIS. 

I also have worked in our community as a board member for such non-profit organizations as Burlingame AYSO and Franklin Dad's Club. In addition, I volunteer for various local community events and have coached and managed different youth athletic teams. 

My passion for supporting public education and volunteerism stems from my deep ties to public education. My wife and I are products of the public education system and we are passionate about volunteering and giving back to our schools. My wife is an educator and we both have been deeply involved as board members at the PTA and Dad's Club as well as BCE Scholar Circle donors. We have helped raise hundreds of thousand of dollars for our schools and promoted unique community give back events, such as the Franklin Carnival, first-run movie pre-premier nights (i.e., school-wide viewings of such films as the latest Star Wars films and Finding Dory the night before its release) and Big Night Out camp out.

I attended UCLA where I graduated with an electrical engineering degree. I then attended law school where I graduated with honors.

My family and extended family have a longstanding history of working in California and New York City public schools, both as teachers and principals. I am proud of their accomplishments, including my mother's founding of a New York City public school, as its founding principal, that has been ranked number 1 in the state of New York and number 17 in the country. I have grown up appreciating the rewards and challenges of being a public educator and strongly believe that we need to continue to find new ways to show our appreciation for and to support such an invaluable and selfless profession.

From a career perspective, I am a long time Silicon Valley tech executive with a passion for promoting innovation and making a difference in the world. Through my roles at startups to Fortune 500 technology companies, I have had the honor of working with such technology luminaries as Dr. Larry Roberts, one of the three founders of the Internet, Jeff Hawkins, the founder of Palm, Inc., the handheld and smartphone company that started the smartphone revolution, and David Hitz, founder of NetApp, a revolutionary network data storage company.

By working closely with dedicated and tireless tech professionals over the last two decades, I have seen how a high quality, well rounded education is so critically important for our local community, our state and our nation's future. I am a vocal proponent and advocate for improving commercial competitiveness in the U.S. and have actively worked with local, state and federal public officials and leading academic institutions and industry groups, to help enhance California's innovation agenda especially around science and technology.

This passion for giving back is what drove me to get even more involved with our District by becoming a Burlingame School District Board member.

I am running for another term as a member of the Board to continue all of the great things that our District has accomplished, to support our teachers, principals and staff, to further our long-term District vision and to continue to build and give back to our Burlingame community.

Thank you in advance for your support.

Building on the successes that we’ve already had in maintaining our world class schools, the following is my vision for the future:

Additional Focus on Science, Technology, Engineering, Arts and Mathematics (STEAM) / Next Generation Science Standards (NGSS) — We should continue to increase our attention on STEAM / NGSS learning in the years to come to ensure that our children are ready for the 21st century. I am excited that we on the Board recently approved a new Director of Innovation, who will ensure that our teachers and students are further empowered to more effectively use technology in their classroom as an enhanced learning tool. 

Further Support for Our Educators — Good teachers and principals make good schools.  We need to give even more support: create more robust professional development plans to help those who need it, empower those who want to learn more, reinforce that the District prefers, wherever possible, to hire from within, and provide a more clear career path for those who want to pursue a greater leadership role in the District. It also is critically important for the educator's voice to be heard early and often in the decision-making process since they have invaluable insight into how best to educate our children. We also need to continue to show our appreciation for our teachers. This is something that doesn't cost much and is in abundant supply. We can work with our community leaders through such organizations as the PTAs, the Dad’s Clubs and BCE to help develop more specific and regular appreciation events for our teachers and principals. They are at the core of our District's education prowess and we need to ensure that our community's appreciation of their role and sacrifice is regularly expressed. 

Maintain A Holistic District View—Understandably parents from a specific school are passionate about their school and the needs of their children at that site. I believe it is critically important as a Board member to ensure that one keeps a holistic view of the entire District to ensure that all of Burlingame's children are served. 

Continue To Improve Special Education—In the past, resources have not been as optimized as we would like them to have been. We have made progress, but I believe we can focus additional attention on special education including further supporting specific learning differences. Additional resources should be made available to our parents, teachers and principals to help them be even more effective in working with Burlingame students who just learn a little differently from everyone else.

Further Engage Community Shareholders—Over the next few years we want to promote more activism and involvement in our schools from parents, grandparents and caregivers. There are many ways to serve, and it is fun and rewarding to help our kids, their teachers and their schools.