{"id":4360,"date":"2008-02-29T00:00:00","date_gmt":"1970-01-01T00:00:00","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/lesliedinaberg.com\/wordpress\/?p=4360"},"modified":"2015-03-31T17:26:15","modified_gmt":"2015-04-01T00:26:15","slug":"noozhawk-talks-leslie-dinaberg-sits-down-with-nancy-harter","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/lesliedinaberg.com\/wordpress\/?p=4360","title":{"rendered":"Noozhawk Talks: Leslie Dinaberg sits down with Nancy Harter"},"content":{"rendered":"
\"Nancy<\/a>

Nancy Harter, courtesy photo<\/p><\/div>\n

After eight years of service of service on the Santa Barbara School Board<\/a>, Nancy<\/a>\u00a0Harter <\/a>has earned some reflection time. She talks about what it was like to sit on\u00a0the board, and what she has planned for the future.<\/p>\n

Leslie Dinaberg: How did you get interested in running for school board?<\/strong><\/p>\n

Nancy Harter: In March of 2000 when the secondary bond (a $67 million bond to
\nimprove the infrastructure and modernization of aging campuses)
\nwas on the ballot, Irene Falzone and I co-chaired the campaign. She was a
\nSanta Barbara High parent at the time; I was a Dos Pueblos parent. Once I got
\nthrough that election I started to become a regular at board meetings, then I
\ndecided to run in November.<\/p>\n

LD: Are your kids out of the school system now?<\/strong><\/p>\n

NH: Yes, long since. People run who don’t currently have kids in the system and
\nI think that they can do a terrific job, but for me, a big part of being on the school
\nboard was having that network and knowing at least a couple of staff members
\non every single campus and on some campuses knowing a lot of the staff
\nmembers, so when issues would come up you had people to call, people to
\nnetwork with and find out what would be the impact would be on the school.<\/p>\n

LD: I think you get less agenda-driven information if you’re calling them as<\/strong>
\n someone that you’ve known for a while, as opposed to as a board<\/strong>
\n member.<\/strong><\/p>\n

NH: Right, for me it made a big difference. Actually one of my favorite columns of
\nyours was the one about going to the PTA meetings because that’s what
\nhappens, you start going to the PTA meetings, you take on more and more
\nresponsibility, the next thing you know you’re the president and then low and
\nbehold, the next thing you know you’re running for school board.<\/p>\n

LD: The whole thing has been interesting to me because I started covering<\/strong>
\n school issues before my son was in school. My perspective definitely changed<\/strong>
\n having been involved on the inside.<\/strong><\/p>\n

NH: Yes, your perspective changes. You personally have a lot more invested and
\nthere’s just that unbelievable personal connection.<\/p>\n

LD: That probably gives you a good insight too.<\/strong><\/p>\n

NH: I think it did. My kids attended the Goleta Elementary Schools<\/a> but for
\nsecondary, I was a secondary parent from 1992 until 2005, so for 13
\nyears.<\/p>\n

LD: Were you ready to be done?<\/strong><\/p>\n

NH: I wouldn’t say that, because there are still issues simmering on the stove
\nthat I would really like to be a part of but, you know, better to leave a day early
\nthan a day late was how I felt about it. I really was not anxious to do another
\ncampaign. Sort of the upside and the downside of school boards in Santa
\nBarbara is that really good people always run, but it’s an election. You can’t just
\nassume that you’ll be able to retain your seat without running a
\ncampaign.<\/p>\n

LD: What were some of the highlights of your school board experience?<\/strong><\/p>\n

NH: … A big part of it was building relationships, creating a bigger network,
\ncreating relationships with other agencies. The City of Santa Barbara for
\ninstance, we’ve got a great relationship with them now and it was virtually non-
\nexistent when I came on to the board.<\/p>\n

… Another big piece for me was the whole paying it forward sort of piece. When I
\ncame on to the board it was a great board-Fred Rifkin, Claire Van Blaricum,
\nBob Noel, Steve Forsell-and Claire really helped me with my campaign and
\nmentored me as a new board member. I took that responsibility really seriously,
\nso there wasn’t a single election cycle that went by in my eight years where I
\ndidn’t encourage somebody to run, help them with their campaign and then help
\nthem get started on the board.<\/p>\n

LD: Are you going to stay involved in local politics or local school issues?<\/strong><\/p>\n

NH: For me it’s about educational policy. I’m not interested in running for
\nanything else, I’m really happy to be involved in the nonprofit world and efforts
\nsurrounding the schools but I don’t think I’ll ever run for anything again. (Laughs)
\nIt’s a really different skill set to put yourself out there and sell yourself to
\nsomebody with that tape running in your head of your mother saying that the
\nleast interesting topic of conversation is yourself, it’s just hard to put yourself out
\nthere. But I find it very easy to work with other people and collaborate with other
\npeople over issues to come to resolution. I’m not a natural born campaigner,
\nthat’s for sure.<\/p>\n

LD: When we scheduled this interview I thought it would be completely non-<\/strong>
\n controversial, but I did read your op-ed piece in Noozhawk and I have to ask you<\/strong>
\n about the Bob Noel editorial. Why did you finally write that?<\/strong><\/p>\n

NH: You know, I’m not interested in rehashing it. I stand by what I said and I
\ndon’t need to keep beating the drum. It really had to do with calling for the
\nsuperintendent’s resignation and then not participating in the process. … it was
\nmore about the method than about the message.<\/p>\n

LD: Is there anything you wish you would have said or done differently in<\/strong>
\n retrospect?<\/strong><\/p>\n

NH: … I’m not a regretful person, so I would say no. I think I worked really hard
\nto keep a high level of discourse, and that was the kind of board that I came on
\nto, and I think I succeeded.<\/p>\n

LD: So what’s next?<\/strong><\/p>\n

NH: I have always been involved in the nonprofit world and I’m taking on some
\nnew nonprofit responsibilities and I would just really like to pour myself into that in
\nthe short term and then see how things play out. There’s no grand plan in place.
\nYou acquire this incredible body of knowledge about educational policy and then
\nyou go off the board and it’s like, so now where do I take this? So hopefully there
\nwill be some opportunities that allow me to tap into that expertise, but I don’t
\nknow what they are yet.<\/p>\n

LD: Do you have any advice for anyone considering local public office?<\/strong><\/p>\n

NH: I think a lot of people don’t run because they think that as a school board
\nmember that you have some sort of legacy building obligation, that somehow you
\nneed to create some new program or accomplish some grand achievement and I
\nreally think that that is a mistake. I think that you can build a legacy by coming
\nreally well prepared to every single school board meeting, by talking to your
\nfriends and neighbors about issues and getting different opinions. I don’t think it
\nhas to be something physical left behind when you’re done with your
\nterm.<\/p>\n

I think that there are a lot of really smart capable people out there who have a
\nreally passionate interest in schools and then talk themselves out of it. And we’re
\nlucky in this area in Santa Barbara and in all of our surrounding school districts;
\nthere are a lot of really smart people who are willing to run for school board. But
\nyou know I don’t think that people should be, certainly they shouldn’t be scared
\naway by the issues. You know you’re involved in group think, you’re problem
\nsolving with other people, the burden isn’t solely on you. But also, I think people
\nget scared away when they read in the paper about the occasional inflammatory
\npublic comment and that’s not every board meeting.<\/p>\n

LD: I would imagine you would have to get used to that somewhat too, not that it<\/strong>
\n would ever become easy.<\/strong><\/p>\n

NH: Well if you have a good internal compass you know which public comments
\nto pay attention and to take to heart, and you know which to just flip the switch
\nand just not pay any attention.<\/p>\n

… I think we’re lucky, especially in the secondary district, we’re one of the few
\nareas where everybody takes advantage of the public school system with a
\nhandful of exceptions and I think the secondary is one of those school districts
\nwhere you probably have the biggest group of haves and have nots who come
\ntogether every school day. And that doesn’t happen in a lot of communities.<\/p>\n

… When you have a really bad night at a school board meeting, the best antidote
\nis to get to a school campus some time before the end of the week because the
\nenergy is just unbelievable on any of the campuses. I really like it.<\/p>\n

Vital Stats: Nancy Harter<\/strong><\/p>\n

Born: San Francisco, April 29, 1953<\/strong><\/p>\n

Family: Husband Larry; daughter Anne, age 28; son Jake, age 25; and daughter<\/strong>
\n Julia age 21.<\/strong><\/p>\n

Civic Involvement: Santa Barbara School Board; Santa Barbara Education<\/strong>
\n Foundation; Future leaders of America, Berkeley Alumni Association’s<\/strong>
\n Achievement Award Program; joining the Planned Parenthood Action Fund in<\/strong>
\n January.<\/strong><\/p>\n

Professional Accomplishments: Eight years on the Santa Barbara School Board;<\/strong>
\n Masters Degree in English, taught freshman English at the University of<\/strong>
\n Nebraska; has a law degree but never practiced law. “My oldest was born my<\/strong>
\n third year of law school, so my involvement in the world has almost always been<\/strong>
\n nonprofits.”<\/strong><\/p>\n

Best Book You’ve Read Recently: Mountains Beyond Mountains: The Quest of<\/em><\/a><\/strong>
\n Dr. Paul Farmer, a Man Who Would Cure the World<\/em><\/a>, by Tracy Kidder, but I<\/strong>
\n usually read fiction.<\/strong><\/p>\n

Originally published in Noozhawk<\/a>\u00a0on February 29, 2008.<\/strong><\/h6>\n

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