NEWS
3A
THE UNIVERSITY DAILY KANSAN
WEDNESDAY, FEBRUARY 18, 2009
Libby Napoli/ KANSAN
Vanessa Sanburn, Wichita graduate student, hopes to be elected to the Lawrence School Board. Sanburn is working toward a master's degree and is a full-time mom to 6-year-old Nadia, a student at Lawrence's Woodland Elementary.
Student runs for school board seat
LAWRENCE
BYMIKE BONTRAGER mbontrager@kansan.com
Most students have a hard time balancing school and a social life. Vanessa Sanburn not only handles working toward a master's degree and being a full-time mom, but she also wants even more responsibility. Sanburn plans to run for a position on the Lawrence public school board.
Sanburn, Wichita graduate student, decided to run when she discovered no one had applied to fill the position.
"I thought that was really sad." Sanburn said, "because I think it is really important that people stand up and work really hard to make sure the school system here stays really great."
Seven others have since joined the race for the seat.
Sanburn sad she thought the lawrence school system was facing many difficult decisions because of budget cuts made this year. The most important issue, Sanburn sad,
is making student achievement the school board's first priority.
"There's a direct relationship, a one-to-one relationship between how much money you put in the system and how well students do," Sanburn said. "If we are pulling money out, we don't want the students to stop achieving, so we are going to have to be really careful and really deliberate in what decision we make."
Sanburn acknowledged the need for community feedback in decision-making
"I think it's important that we have maximum input from the public and from the stakeholders who want to talk." Sanburn said. "Talk to the teachers, talk to the students, talk to everyone."
As faras reforms in the Lawrence public school system, Sanburn said she thought the mandates on teaching human sexuality education should be addressed.
"It doesn't have clear guidelines as to what that means or how that needs to be done," Sanburn said.
"Adolescents, especially, deserve a fundamental right to what can keep them safe regarding human sexuality."
Sanburn moved to Lawrence from Wichita, where her 6-year-old daughter, Nadia, attended a private preschool.
Sanburn and her husband, lake said they chose Lawrence because of the "excellent" public school system.
Both her husband and daughter are supportive of her running for the school board position.
"I think she has the leadership and dedication to be a great candidate," Jake said. "I'm a community member too, and I have a stake in making sure there are qualified people in charge of our public school system."
The day before the presidential inauguration, Sanburn told her daughter she was running for a spot on the school board. The next day, Nadia gave her mother's first campaign speech. Nadia explained to her class how important the day was
because of Barack Obama's inauguration, and she encouraged her classmates to tell their parents about her mother's run for a seat on the school board.
Sanburn realizes being a member of the school board is a big responsibility, but she thinks she will have enough time to dedicate to the position between being a student and a mother.
Kenna Heim, a teacher at Woodlawn Elementary, the school Nadia attends, said Sanburn is an involved parent.
"She would work hard to help our education system," Heim said. "She's always willing to pitch in."
Sanburn is working toward her master's in social work. In the past, she has worked for Planned Parenthood as a health educator and community organizer.
The election is April 7; advanced voting begins March 18. Three of the board's seats are up for election.
ECONOMY
GM, Chrysler request $14B more in government loans
BY TOM KRISHER AND
KEN THOMAS
Associated Press
DETROIT - General Motors and Chrysler asked the government for an additional $14 billion in aid, a dramatic acknowledgment that conditions in the U.S. auto industry have grown significantly worse in just two months.
Meanwhile, the United Auto Workers union said it had reached a tentative agreement with Chrysler, GM and Ford Motor Co. on modifications to labor contracts. Such
GM presented a survival plan that also calls for cutting a total of 47,000 jobs globally and closing five more U.S. factories. That represents the largest work force reduction announced by a U.S. company in the economic downturn. Chrysler said it would cut 3,000 more jobs and stop production.
concessions were also a condition of the government bailout.
GM said it could need up to $30 billion from the Treasury Department, up from a previous estimate of $18 billion. That includes
without new funds.
"Today's plan is significantly more aggressive because it has to be."
GM's request includes a credit line of $7.5 billion to be used if the downturn in the auto industry is more pronounced than
$13.4 billion previously allocated and $9.1 billion in new loans. The world's largest automaker said it could run out of money by March
RICKWAGONER GM chairman and CEO
but the automaker claimed it could be profitable in two years and fully repay its loans by 2017.
expected.
Chrysler LLC requested $5 billion in new loans on top of the $4 billion it received in December. The company had said it might need an extra $3 billion.
President Barack Obama's top spokesman told reporters aboard
AirForce One on Tuesday that you wouldn't rule out bankruptcy for the Detroit automakers.
The GM job cuts include 10,000 salaried and 37,000 blue-collar positions, amounting to 19 percent of its current global work force of 244,500. A total 26,000 of the cuts will come from outside the U.S. The cuts would take place by the end of this year.
GM Chairman and CEO Rick Wagoner said the plan submitted Tuesday was more aggressive than the one presented to the government on Dec. 2 because in two months, the global economy and auto sales had deteriorated.
"Today's plan is significantly more aggressive because it has to be," Wagoner told reporters. "We have taken stronger actions, we needed to."
Chrysler had 54,007 employees at the end of 2008, so Tuesday's cuts would equal about 6 percent.
Auburn Hills, Mich-based Chrysler said the economy and the market for new cars had deteriorated significantly since its initial request. Chrysler said it now projected that automakers would sell 10.1 million vehicles in the U.S. this year, the lowest level in four decades.
models, according to company president Jim Press.
Chrysler will eliminate three
GM is also evaluating options for a sale of its Hummer division and sought buyers for its Saab unit.
Selling or eliminating those brands would leave GM to focus on Chevrolet, Cadillac, GMC and Buick, with Pontiac reduced to one or two models.
GM Chief Financial Officer Ray Young said the company hoped to exchange two-thirds of its roughly $28 billion in unsecured bond debt by the end of March. Bondholders, he said, signed a letter saying that they were making progress with the company.
THIS WEEK ON CAMPUS
PAID FOR BY KU
Join AIESEC on Thursday, February 19th,2009 for a night of Middle-Eastern and
for a night of Middle-Eastern and North African culture
Learn about opportunities to work abroad through AIESEC, and then you are welcome to participate in a "Global Village" where KU students from countries in these regions will have booths displaying their country and culture.
You will be able to ask questions and gain cultural enlightenment. The festivities begin at 7 pm in the ECM (Across from the Kansas Union, north of the Alumni Center)
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