Q&A: Meet School District Trustee Steven Taglio

Los Altos resident as interim trustee in November and , filling Margot Harrigan's seat as she leaves after a 12-year tenure.

Taglio, a fixture at most board meetings, has been involved in the schools and district as a whole for many years now in various capacities, including the Los Altos School District Technology Committee, the Covington School Committee, the Covington Site Council, and as a Covington PTA president.

He is vice president of marketing for Dyned Corp. in Burlingame, an English language-learning software and training company.

The interim position ends in one year, after which he has the option to run for election to a four-year term.

Patch: At the interview, you were uncertain of whether you'd run for election next year. Have you thought about that anymore? What are your current thoughts?

Steven Taglio: I’d still like to make sure I’m not a flop at this. So let’s see how I do first. … Let’s see if I can do this and see how itt goes before it makes sense that it could be a mult-year thing. Let’s assume that I’ll plan to try to run right now.

Patch: Which schools did/do your children attend? Is the school district one reason you moved here?

Taglio: My son attended both Springer and Covington, Egan, and currently at Los Altos High. And my daughter is currently a sixth grader at Covington. Too be honest with you, I think my wife was thinking school districts at the time, I wasn just thinking the basics, bigger house and all that. We really lucked out.

Patch: Did you grow up locally?

Taglio: I grew up in Loomis, which is a small town off of Interstate 80 between Sacramento and Auburn, on your way out of town to go skiing. I lived there through junior college. I came down here to school at Santa Clara University and I stayed.

Patch: The current board appears to be very pressed to do something about Bullis Charter School, both in the current legal battle and finding a permanent location. What are your thoughts on those issues? What can you add to those tough discussions?

Taglio: I think the legal btttle is an unfortunate distraction because if you look at it across the board and measure the same sizes, other groups are not getting that extra attention. There is a special ed population that is about 10 percent of the population. We have an ELL (English Language Learner) population that is 10  percent. We’re not looking at those conversations so often because we’re so busy dealing with the (BCS) issues.

For what I’ll add, I think it’s just going to be open and listening—fresh set of ears, fresh set of eyes.

Patch: What do you/your family do in your spare time?

Taglio: I don’t think I have any left. I have children and older parents so there isn’t much spare time left after those basic family dynamics. The kids love going on vacation with us in warmer climates.

Patch: Where do you think you can uniquely benefit the school district?

Taglio: I have a background in planning and strategy, that’s been with me throughout my career. Hopefully I can bring those skills. I have a background in marketing. Hopefully I can bring in those skills. I think a lot of what the district needs to do is communications – making sure people are aware of all the options and communicating the needs of the district and everyone so everyone can understand what we’re playing off.

We need to be more proactive of keeping the community engaged. Twenty-five percent of the community has children in the schools and they tend to be the ones who get messages from Jeff, but how do we reach the other 75 percent?They contribute to the schools, too. That communication needs to be worked on.

Patch: You were the only candidate with an employee recommendation. Do you pride yourself on working well with others?

Taglio: That was sweet, wasn’t it? I think that’s core to a lot of the PTA work at the school and that’s key to any of these types of jobs where you steps into a different role and get different groups together. So, yes, I do pride myself in that.

Patch: What would you need to improve about yourself in this new board position?

Taglio: Obviously my voice doesn’t carry well and speaking up is something I think about but don't always put into action. So, I'll need to work on that. (Taglio chuckles.)