When I began my teaching career I set out with a goal of eventually evolving beyond the classroom. I knew I wanted to be more involved in the education process, and this is the next step. I strive to see my home community and school district be great and I know that process starts with a school board that serves to empower our students, retain the best teachers and facilitate parental involvement in the schools.

I believe my skill set and unique insight will prove invaluable to the board. I bring several goals and areas which I feel are personal priorities, but my biggest aspiration is to aid in re-establishing the community’s trust in the district. In addition, I hope to attract, retain and cultivate the best teachers for our district as I understand firsthand how vital that is to the success of our students.

I feel the current issues facing our district will continue to remain lingering issues over the next several years. Recapture and state policies continue to impact the budget. District-level budget cuts to programs and teacher retention are having far reaching implications. Lastly, the district is also facing a divided community, and it is paramount that our school board trustees work together to bring a sense of unity to our schools and community at large.

As a proud GCISD parent and alumnus, I am passionate about the community I grew up in. I want to get back to the basics and return the focus toward educating our children. I want to take GCISD's level of excellence in education to new heights, free from political and social agendas. I now seek to utilize my skills and experience to give back to the school district that impacted me.

My focus will be on decisions that have the most impact on all our students and staff while representing our community. Top items of importance are transparency in education, ensuring a safe and healthy learning environment, raising our academic standards and closing educational gaps. I will collaborate with teachers and administrators to create standardized curriculums across all grade levels and subjects and increase teacher pay and support our teachers in the classroom.

The board must continue to become more fiscally responsible while increasing our standard of education. Our focus must be on helping those that need it the most while continuing to challenge all students. Standard curriculums across all grade levels and subjects must be implemented. In addition, teacher retention is an issue both locally and nationally, and to retain the best we must pay and hire the best.

Last year I ran for the school board but came up short. Since then, I’ve observed how some of the board policies were implemented and how they have impacted our teachers, students and community. Now I feel there is even more of a need for a person with my leadership and work experience on our school board. Our board must work together to find solutions to difficult issues that our district will face.

When decisions are made by majority rule without community feedback or discussion, there will always be a portion of the community who feel unrepresented. That isn’t good leadership. I want to help bring the members of the board together to collaborate, debate, and reach consensus on issues facing our district. The board must regain the trust and confidence of our community. The only way we can begin doing that is to work together toward solutions.

It’s difficult to only select a few because there are so many areas in public education that need to be addressed. If I had to pick the most important right now, I believe they are: 1. Experienced teacher retention, recruitment and compensation. 2. Fiscal sustainability of effective programs and operating funds. 3. As a district, regaining the trust and confidence of our community.