She had asked me how to turn an area of her expertise, secondary school education, into writing that the general public would find rewarding and enjoyable.
"When you are in charge of managing millions of dollars, that requires knowledge and expertise in school finances, it's a complex position, and there just aren't enough people around who have been trained for this".
But in the two years till then, how are children who have poor access to computers and computer science expertise in school going to be served, when teachers, it seems, are now struggling to understand what they should be teaching in this subject area?
It ignores the alternative models, expertise and school improvement literature all around us.
Community took a back seat to expertise, and schools once exclusively devoted to undergraduate learning sought prestige through the development of graduate and professional schools.
We are already working with the Open University on Vital, a programme encouraging teachers to share ICT expertise between schools.
In the case of gifted and talented classes, that might mean including the nuanced expertise of schools and teachers in making decisions for gifted classes in their community.
"We hear of the additional expertise that schools in other [better funded] authorities are able to employ to address issues like disadvantage and we aspire to do likewise, but we can't.
She is a licensed neuropsychologist with special expertise in school-age neuropsychological assessment, as well as with graduate training and teaching experience and expertise in statistical design and data analysis.
These will require them to provide qualified teachers in specialist subjects to state schools, share expertise to help state school students get into top universities and run joint extracurricular programmes in which the state school is an equal partner so that children can mix and sectors learn from each other.
