Public education shouldn't be about managing deficits or lowering expectations. Here's where I'll focus if elected.
01 - Restore Academic Excellence and Real Choice
If you asked any parent what their absolute dream for their child's education would be, it would be a custom-tailored, individualized education - whether their child is struggling or advanced. One kid might be ready to be pushed further in math, another in chemistry, another in English or the arts. The subject doesn't matter - what matters is that our schools can actually challenge each kid in whatever area they're ready to be challenged in, instead of holding every student to the same pace. A school board's job should be to get as close to that vision as possible, maximizing the unique potential of every student.
Instead, the current board majority is moving in the opposite direction. In 2023, it eliminated Advanced Standing and honors courses for freshmen and sophomores districtwide. That was a mistake - it limits student potential and ignored the community's feedback, flattening opportunities and capping our kids' potential despite intense pushback from parents and teachers. Three years later, the board reviewed the policy again this spring and, in a 3–2 vote, chose not to restore consistent honors access across all four district high schools. [Cite: The Almanac, April 2026]
Equity means opening doors for every student, not closing them.
College admissions are only getting more competitive - Harvard's acceptance rate alone dropped from 4.2% to 3.2% in a single year Top Tier Admissions, 2026 - and our kids deserve to be well positioned for it, whatever their path, whether it's science, the arts, or a vocational track.
I believe families deserve a say before top-down changes like this happen, not after. I'll push to restore advanced courses and honors access, and insist that any future changes to core academics go through real community input first - not a closed-door process.
02 - Fiscal Discipline and Transparency
This community hands SUHSD close to $300 million a year to educate our kids [Confirm/cite specific source before publishing], including an automatic increase of roughly $10–11 million a year in property tax revenue. [Confirm/cite specific source before publishing] Yet the district has run a structural deficit while directing only 51 cents of every dollar into direct classroom instruction Ballotpedia - down from roughly 70 cents historically. [Confirm the historical “70 cents” comparison against a specific, citable district budget document before publishing] It is unacceptable that direct classroom spending has fallen this far. The rest is consumed by administrative growth - not the teachers and students who should be receiving it.
Especially in years when federal education funding is being cut, we need to make sure our property tax dollars are going to the right place - our teachers and our classrooms, not administrative expansion at the top. I'll aggressively reverse this trend of administrative bloat and bring the same budget accountability I use running a product organization to how this district manages your tax dollars. Your tax dollars belong in the hands of our teachers and students, where they can have a real impact - not in expanding district administration.
03 - Prepare Students for an AI-Driven Economy
We live in the epicenter of the global technology economy, yet our board has been reactive rather than proactive on AI in the classroom, student data privacy, and modern curriculum design. Our students deserve a curriculum that prepares them for the world they will actually inherit - schools that lead in the AI era, not follow. Neighboring districts are moving aggressively on AI literacy and data protection. Our kids are entering an AI-driven workforce, and they deserve a board member who actually understands the technology shaping their future - not one learning it for the first time on the job. As a product and technology executive, I'll bring that technical literacy and entrepreneurial mindset directly to board decisions.
04 - A Board That Actually Listens
Too many recent decisions have been made top-down, in a silo, without real engagement from the families this board serves. I'll restore the partnership between our schools and our families - a board that listens to parents and teachers, values their input, and holds the district accountable for clear, measurable student outcomes, not top-down mandates. I'll push for parents, teachers, and students to be brought into decisions before votes happen, not after the fact.
Together, we can bring common sense, excellence, transparency, and a forward-looking vision to SUHSD.