Carolyn Bogott has been a school board member for 13 years, having been elected four separate times.

Monday, September 27, 1999

Carolyn Bogott has been a school board member for 13 years, having been elected four separate times.

Yet Bogott still has some unfinished business.

"I’ve planned for one more term all along," she said.

Bogott will seek one final term at the Austin Board of Education’s Nov. 2 election for four open seats.

"We’ll never accomplish everything I want," she said, "because I want the very best."

And that’s not always possible in a world of widespread priorities and tight budgets.

"It’s always a balancing act," Bogott said. "You look at the big picture and create the very best situation you can for each child."

Because of the intricacies involved, Bogott believes voters would be well served by returning her to the school board.

"I know the difficulties ahead if we have a big turnaround," she said.

One of the difficulties Bogott has faced is getting parents more involved in their children’s education.

"For some parents," she said, "going to school to talk to a teacher is a threatening thing."

In an effort to curb those anxieties, the board is overseeing an effort to put a telephone in each classroom in the district. The idea behind that initiative is to make it easier for teachers to contact parents on a more routine basis.

Bogott also likes what Ellis Middle School is doing by holding student-directed conferences, which have proven to lead to higher parent involvement rates.

Bogott, whose husband is a physician at the Austin Medical Center, has been a teacher at the Congregational Preschool for 3- to 5-year-olds for 19 years.

During her years on the board, Bogott has watched class sizes remain in what she called an "enviable position," compared to other school districts.

She is also proud of the development of the high potential program. For the first time, the district has a full-time coordinator, but the program "still needs work," Bogott said.

Bogott believes that having 17 candidates in the election – there were 12 the last time she ran – can only be good for the students.

But Bogott insisted that as an incumbent she can still be a part of change.

"Change is a must," she said. "I will be a part of change. I have been for 13 years."