Randy Kenyon, Assistant Superintendent, Business Services
Los Altos School District, Los Altos, California

“Lapkoff and Gobalet's enrollment projections have been accurate to within 1%--astounding! They are quick to respond whenever we have questions or need information.  Shelley and Jeanne are very convincing presenters at our board meetings.  They have made themselves indispensable to our district.”

Marge Gratiot, (retired) Superintendent
Los Altos School District, Los Altos, California

"Lapkoff & Gobalet have worked with our district since 1997, helping us with enrollment forecasting, decisions to open and close schools, and attendance boundary realignment.  Their work has been exemplary; we are particularly satisfied with their accurate enrollment forecasting, quick response to questions, sensitivity to political issues, clear explanations of methodology, and wonderful software support."

Fernando R. Elizondo, (retired) Superintendent
Salinas Union High School District, Salinas, California

“To tout the thoroughness and accuracy of Lapkoff & Gobalet Demographic Research, Inc., is to understate the quality of their work. In the Salinas Union High School District, Dr. Gobalet was involved directly in two important projects.  In the first she supplied projections for realigning our middle school attendance boundaries.  At the completion of the process in working with a large task force of community members, Dr. Gobalet was commended for her work.  Dr. Lapkoff’s enrollment forecasts were less than 14 students off of the actual enrollment approximately a year later.  A magnificent job, taking into consideration the multitude of factors in projecting middle school student areas.  In the second project, Dr. Gobalet provided the leadership in the Census 2000 realignment of trustee areas.  She again worked with a very diverse group and redrew trustee areas, taking new demographic patterns into account. In both projects, Dr. Gobalet was very professional and LGDR’s projections were extremely accurate, facilitating the positive flow of recommendations that were finally adopted.  This is an organization that knows and understands the business of demographics.”
 

David R. Cartnal, FAIA
BFGC Architects Planners, Inc.

"These ladies are the 'Gold Standard' and, literally, wrote the book on demographic projections--they are the very best and always professional."


 

Jacques S. Whitfield, District General Counsel
Grant Joint Union High School District, Sacramento, California

"LGDR provided excellent demographic research services to our District.  They have the ability to synthesize a myriad of complex data and quantify that data into easy-to-understand language.  We highly recommend them without reservation to any other school districts needing competent, thorough, and insightful demographic analyses."

 

William D. Barr, Ed.D., (former) Monterey County Superintendent of Schools
Monterey County, California

"My professional association with Dr. Shelley Lapkoff and Dr. Jeanne Gobalet extends back well over a decade. With this history, I am fully prepared and willing to attest to their accomplishments as researchers, demographers, communicators, and educators."
 

Susan Lyons, Senior Administrative Analyst
Assistant to the County Administrative Officer, Monterey County, California

“The firm of Lapkoff and Gobalet was retained by Monterey County in 2001 in order to prepare the County's Redistricting Plan.  The County included in the Supervisorial redistricting process a comprehensive outreach to the public and other agencies within the County.  Dr. Jeanne Gobalet was an outstanding professional and provided clear and concise information for the County, with impeccable customer service.”

Albert M. Moore, M.S.W., Special Assistant to the Chancellor
West Valley-Mission Community College District, Saratoga, California

“LGDR is simply the best consulting firm with which I have ever had the pleasure to work.  Our District completed a review of its trustee service areas and, ultimately, chose one of 12 plans that Jeanne Gobalet carefully and competently crafted to redraw trustee areas within the District's boundaries according to brainstorming and direction from the Board of Trustees.  Not only that, she also managed the process by which we received approval from the County Committee on School District Organization.  In the past, I have had my share of complaints concerning the value and competence of some consultants. But LGDR stands heads and shoulders above any with which I have worked . . . on any subject! Jeanne was exhaustively thorough, an excellent time manager, a skilled pacifier and unifier, and backed everything up with data and research that was presented in an easy to understand and professional PowerPoint format with appropriate hard copy back-up.  Finally, working with Jeanne was a pleasure; her warm, easy-going approach was calming and supportive.  LGDR will never disappoint!”

                                                                                                                                                                                   

James C. O’Conner, (retired) Deputy Superintendent, Business Services
Castro Valley Unified School District, Castro Valley, California

“LGDR has provided Castro Valley Unified School District with services related to the demographics of our community for the past 15 years.  These accurate enrollment projections of our needs provide clear, concise, and reliable information for staff and board decisions.  This database has been used effectively to win community support of two general obligation bonds.  Moreover, community surveys have indicated strong community confidence in the financial and demographic data presented by the district which is based on the expertise of LGDR.”

 

Thomas Himmelberg, (retired) Superintendent
San Leandro Unified School District, San Leandro, California

"While I was Superintendent between 1992 and 2002, Lapkoff & Gobalet Demographic Research, Inc., provided analyses to the San Leandro Unified School District.  Each year we received a valuable, updated demographic analysis that was very useful for our facilities planning.  Dr. Lapkoff’s Board and staff presentations were excellent.  She presented complex and detailed information in an easy-to-understand and interesting way.  I strongly recommend that other school districts consider using the services of Lapkoff and Gobalet to assist them in their long range facilities planning."

 

Nhien Thien Luong, MPH
Senior Health Care Program Manager
Santa Clara County Public Health Department
Epidemiology & Data Management Unit

"We have been pleased to work with Lapkoff & Gobalet since 1992.  They contribute a degree of demographic expertise that we have not had on our staff.  We have used their post censal population estimates for computing rates of many different diseases and conditions.  Their GIS proficiency has been useful for our spatial analyses and mapping.  We highly recommend them to other public health agencies."

Samuel Johnson, Jr., Superintendent
San Mateo Union High School District
 
 "The San Mateo Union High School District contracted with Lapkoff and Gobalet to assist its administration in making difficult decisions regarding changes in the District’s attendance boundaries. This is a very volatile issue for any school district. Through numerous public presentations, Drs. Gobalet and Lapkoff proved to the Administration, the community, and to the Governing Board of the District that they are experts who excel in producing not only accurate data, but data which are communicated in a multimedia format easily understood by schools and community."

Laurie Orange
Senior Deputy County Counsel
Office of County Counsel, County of San Diego

"The County of San Diego retained Dr. Gobalet as an expert in a trial concerning redistricting, including redistricting software and computer mapping.  Dr. Gobalet has considerable expertise in these areas, and has an educator's ability to explain complicated technical issues in understandable layperson's terms.  Moreover, Dr. Gobalet was extremely responsive to our requests for assistance, including helping to develop lines of questioning during testimony and traveling across state on short notice to testify at trial.  We were very satisfied with Dr. Gobalet's services, and would be pleased to recommend her as an expert."

Sarah P. Daignault, Executive Director
National Business Officers Association

"Shelley Lapkoff did an excellent job presenting to our group of independent school business officers. They came from all over the country. Shelley’s ability to use demographic information to help our members see the future trends that may impact their schools was terrific! In addition to being informative, the presentation was fun and engaging."

                                                                                                                                                                                      

Mary Anne Burkman, MPH, RD
Director, Program Services
Dairy Council of California

"Our staff thoroughly enjoyed the presentation made by Ms. Lapkoff on California demographic trends and their impact on our marketing and communications strategies.  The data she presented through maps and charts was very interesting and applicable to the territory designations with which our staff operates.  She clearly had tailored the information to our specific needs and requests.  Finally, she engaged the audience frequently and effectively through cueing questions posed at the end of each major section.  This sparked considerable discussion among staff that raised pertinent points.  We deemed the session an unqualified success!"

Anna M. Caballero, (former) Mayor
City of Salinas, California

"The Salinas City Council’s decision to hire Lapkoff & Gobalet provided our Council-appointed redistricting committee with valuable support in navigating through the United States Justice Department’s pre-clearance requirements.  Monterey County is one of four counties in California that is required to have Justice Department approval before a redistricting plan can take effect.  Dr. Jeanne Gobalet was extremely knowledgeable in regards to federal laws related to pre-clearance issues.  More importantly, she understood the make-up of our community, its dynamics and history.

"Dr. Gobalet brought instant credibility to the process, which elevated the trust level of committee members.  She effectively worked with the entire committee and members of the community participating in the process.  Her support led to the Redistricting Committee’s recommendation to the City Council being unanimously approved.  As a result, the City was able to get pre-clearance from the Justice Department within our established parameters, which ensured the regularly scheduled City Council elections could take place on time.  Kudos to Dr. Gobalet!"

Wayne Green, Assistant to the City Manager, Staff to City’s Redistricting Committee
City of Salinas, California

"The redistricting process is complicated and literally filled with political land mines.  Today, there are computer programs that can draw redistricting lines and provide critical data such as standard deviation calculations.  However, these programs cannot provide advice on potential models for citizen inclusion into the process, nor can they address issues of trust.  The latter is especially true when the redistricting process requires pre-clearance from the United States Justice Department.

"For the City of Salinas, it was essential that we have extensive community participation in our process to minimize the possibility of a challenge to the City Council approved plan.  This required us to seek external expertise.  Dr. Jeanne Gobalet, of Lapkoff and Gobalet, brought professionalism and a body of expertise to the process.  Dr. Jeanne was extremely flexible and able to synthesize data into formats that were easily comprehended by all involved in the process.  Even after completion of our contract, Dr. Gobalet has assisted various City departments in interpreting census data.  Lapkoff and Gobalet have my highest recommendation."

 

Sean Heron, Executive Director
East Bay Housing Organizations

"On June 7, 2004, the East Bay Housing Organization (EBHO) sponsored the "Affordable Housing and Education Forum" in which Dr. Shelley Lapkoff developed and presented information on the relationships between affordable housing and public education.  In working with Dr. Lapkoff, we found her responsive, professional, knowledgeable about the issues, and energetic.  Her presentation was effective: interesting and accessible to a wide audience of school administrators, educators, developers, housing advocates, and representatives of community-based organizations.  We look forward to continuing our collaboration with Lapkoff & Gobalet Demographic Research."