Meet Your New Officials: David Forbes

Alameda Sun Thursday, December 2, 2004, By Suzanne LeBarre

England has long been renowned for its naval prowess, capable of defeating the most stalwart enemies in battle at sea. As one of two newly elected officials on the Alameda Board of Education, British-born David Forbes takes a seat at the helm, insistent on waging the war on budget cuts.

Forbes enters the position with a short but significant history vying for improved education in the Alameda Unified School District (AUSD). He served as Edison’s PTA president when his eldest daughter was a student (she now attends Lincoln Middle School) and has presided over the Alameda PTA Council for three years. He has also participated in budget committees, contributed to campaigns for Measure A and Measure C, which both served to spruce up schools, and serves on the Board of the Alameda Education Foundation (AEF).

Though his level of involvement suggests otherwise, Forbes is a relative newcomer to Alameda.

He grew up on the south coast of England where he took up sailing full-time after attending the Royal Naval College in Dartmouth. Skippering private boats, he traversed the high seas for nearly a decade before docking in San Francisco, a locale he found much to his liking.

In 1990, he moved to Alameda to pursue a position running the sailing school at Club Nautique. He has since obtained U.S. citizenship and is now the company’s general manager and vice president.

He also trains sailing instructors for the United States Sailing Association, a position that entails setting educational standards, writing tests and approving textbooks.

“I’m one of the top instructors in sailing in the country,” he said, continuing that when he trains new teachers he emphasizes that, “The goal is not for the instructor to teach but for the students to learn.”

The pupil-centric viewpoint is one he shares with fellow school board member William Schaff, with whom he campaigned in the Nov. 2 elections, and may help explain why the pair ran on the same ticket.

“We know and respect how each other thinks,” Forbes said, citing projects they co-supported, like the school parcel tax and bond measure. They are confident that their solidarity in past decisions will facilitate decision-making in future school board referendums.

Schaff and Forbes insist that they also share more general assets.

“We have leadership skills and communication skills,” Forbes and Schaff wrote in their candidates’ questionnaire, the latter of which Forbes plans to exercise proactively.

“One of the things I want to do is to get back to active listening. Just sticking our e-mail addresses and phone numbers out there and being passive listeners isn’t enough. We need to be active listeners,” he said. How so? “Get back to me in six months,” he replied.

Six months from now may be too late. By March 15, the school board must submit budget cuts. With an alarming deficit and a grid-locked system offering few alternatives beyond cutting back on spending or dipping into reserves, Forbes may be doing a lot of listening: from upset parents and teachers.

“We’ll be in that ugly position of having to get definitive on making cuts,” he said.

“When we’re looking at cuts, we need to do it in an equitable fashion—not necessarily equal,” he continued. Under this line of reasoning, schools will be cut based on their current resources, not on a set standard, to ensure the continuing survival of educational facilities in West Alameda.

When asked why he ran for school board Forbes quipped that he needed to have his head examined.

For the veteran seafarer, school board may be his toughest swell yet.

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Last modified: November 19, 2004

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