Brownley honored by state school boards

Completing her first twoyear session in the California State Assembly, Assemblymember Julia Brownley will be honored as the 2008 Outstanding Freshman of the Year by the California School Boards Association at the annual Education Conference in December.

Brownley was a 12-year board member and three-time president of the Santa Monica- Malibu Unified School District.

"I appreciate the training, support, resources and inspiration that they provide to school boards up and down California to help their members be effective leaders," Brownley said.

Education bills Brownley has authored during the past two years include providing more cost effective, high quality options for instructional materials, identifying alternative ways that high school students can demonstrate their competence and receive their diploma, and insuring the transfer of critical information about Head Start preschoolers to their kindergarten teachers and classrooms.

In addition to being the incoming chair of the Education Committee, Brownley is chair of the Budget Subcommittee No. 2 on Education, chair of the Select Committee on Higher Education in the 21st Century, and a member of the Select Committees on Community Colleges and on State School Finance Takeovers.