Why are you running for McKinney ISD board of trustees Place 6?
I am running to help improve opportunities for our kids and to create an environment that pursues excellence.What experience—professionally or politically—do you have that would prepare you for this position?
I have both a technology and education background. I have worked with CTB, McGraw-Hill, the NWEA and The Princeton Review developing products and working in business development. In Texas, I developed and managed the MSTAR program and TMSDS. I currently sit on several district science, technology, engineering and mathematics advisory boards, and I am a partner in Five Star Innovation, which partners with the military and school districts for robotics and coding competitions. These experiences have given me great insight into the current education space [and] also what is coming in the future.If elected, what would your top priorities be for the district?
My top priority is being a voice for the community [through] leadership. I have often been on the receiving end where leaders refuse to respond or even accept a meeting request. Personally, I can commit to being a responsive leader. Second, I want to help drive opportunity and partnerships for MISD by actively working with companies in our area to identify the skills and certifications they need their employees to have so our kids can have strong careers right after high school. Third, I want to pursue strong internship programs for our students during high school. Fourth, I want the development of these certification tracks to be explored by our kids starting in elementary [school].If elected, how would you help address those issues?
I would work with leadership to create a superintendents cup competition. I would then create an advisory board of local, state, national and international organizations and the military to provide input into our programs. I see this as helping solve the issues surrounding the debt without [a] degree issue. In the end, there is no substitute for hard work.What do you see as the biggest challenges the district will face in the coming years?
The biggest problem I see is financial. We see [technology] costs increasing at incredible rates while the promise that they will just replace textbooks dollar for dollar has been an unrealized promise. [Technology] companies simply have moved their fees to multiyear licenses whereas books had a high expense in the first purchase year but the next 5-7 years you only paid for lost or destroyed books. When you look at it, [technology] has become much more expensive over the long term. Do not get me wrong, I love technology, but some of it really was not developed from direct research and is ineffective as well as expensive. I want to make sure we are really looking at the research before jumping off into some of these large purchases.
Debt without a degree is the single biggest topic that scares me. It has the potential of undermining the quality work our school districts do. We have to find a way to teach persistence to our kids so they will not fall into this trap. This is a struggle all schools and universities are trying to solve.
Editors note: This article has been updated to include contesting candidates and their Q&A's.
