What makes you qualified for this office?  Name three main reasons you believe you’re the best candidate for this position?

My interest in CISD arises from my committment to this community and from a desire to support and improve the the schools that are educating my own children and the children of my friends and neighbors.  The qualities I bring to the position include a vision for the future of CISD, a practiced ability to balance competing values to develop priorites and plans to achieve CISD goals, and an understanding of the district's fiscal responsibility to all taxpayers.

What are the 3 largest challenges currently facing this position/office and your road map to address them?

1.  The growth of our community is a source of both strength and potential challenges.  CISD is tasked to keep pace and manage this growth with an eye to new capital projects, expanding workforce, and needs for new educational programming.

2. Advocacy for the best interests of CISD students.  At the school board level, this includes attention to measurable indicators of student success and district performance.  CISD and individual schools should be accountable to the parents of students as well as to the public at large.

3.  Funding is needed to fuel growth and provide educational resources.  State funding for CISD has been in decline, and the district must make tough choices.  The CISD school board bridges the needs of the district with the need for fiscal accountability to the community.

Is this board currently fulfilling its obligations?

~Not Answered Yet~

What is one significant way that your ISD can reform itself to increase educational achievement?

Schools need to continue to examine how they define student success.  Educational achievement should be measured not only by rate of college acceptance, but also by how well students are prepared upon graduation to progress to adulthood and begin career training.  For many, this may mean college education; for others, vocational or technical training.  Both are needed in our community.

What special interest groups have you belonged to or attended meetings of? Include business, social, civic, educational, environmental or any other cause for which you have advocated or supported with time or money.

Professional organizations including Texas Medical Association, Endocrine Society, and American Association of Clinical Endocrinologists

What are the top 3 areas where the budget for this ISD needs to be adjusted?

~Not Answered Yet~

Do you believe a lack of funding from the state is the primary reason for lower educational outcomes compared to other states or nations.

No

What is a proper balance of local and state funding?

~Not Answered Yet~

Will you vote to limit budget increases to a factor based on student enrollment growth?

~Not Answered Yet~

What is the appropriate staffing ratio of non-teachers to teachers?

~Not Answered Yet~

What is proper gap between administration and teacher pay?

~Not Answered Yet~

What can school districts do to ensure more of existing education funds are spent on educational purposes, rather than administration and overhead?

~Not Answered Yet~

Do you oppose the use of public funds, other than for needed infrastructure, to subsidize the cost of private facilities such as stadiums, arenas and other such entities?

~Not Answered Yet~

How much money does ISD have in their bank account for "contingencies"? How much is statutorially required to keep on hand?

~Not Answered Yet~

What are your thoughts on Governor Abbott's plan to increase teacher pay to $100,000?

~Not Answered Yet~

What needs in your ISD would justify a tax rate increase?

~Not Answered Yet~

How could CISD lower the tax rate?

~Not Answered Yet~

What is CISD's current (2017) bond indebtedness? There is talk of a new bond in 2019. Will you support it and why?

CISD debt exceeds $1 billion.  The current public discussion of potential 2019 bond is preliminary, and I would value the opporunity to review a proposal before judgment.  While the school board must advocate for the needs of the district to meet its objectives, the board must ask tough quetions of the superintendent and administrators and not simply rubber stamp budget proposals.

What level of school safety is appropriate? What ideas do you have  to make our campuses more safe?

There is an absolute when it comes to the physical safety and security on CISD campuses.  We must affirm that NO violence against students, staff, or visitors is acceptable.  Campuses are and must continue to remain areas for safety and education.  The district must continue to prioritize policies that improve student safety and revisit those policies and procedures which do not.

What are your thoughts on Governor Abbott's Marshall and Guardian Plans?

While Governor Abbot's proposals are ultimately to be decided in the state Legislature, I welcome the public discourse on school safety.  Because our youth, our most precious resource, spend so much time on campus, we as Texas and as Americans must do more to prevent senseless violence within our schools.  While we continue to monitor changes in state law, the CISD school board can and should advocate for common sense policies to protect our children.  While I remain open to discussion, I believe the best way to achieve this end is to favor district policies that keep firearms off campus.

Have you ever been convicted as result of arrest?  Ever had any tax liens? If so, give start & resolution dates?

No

Do you believe the private conduct of a public official is relevant to that official’s suitability for office?

Yes

How will you improve the transparency and access to financial and other records of ISD for the public?

Transparency and communications are important values to safeguarding public trust.  The supposition should always be that records are publicly available unless there are overriding contradicting values.

What political party have you affilated with over the last twenty years? Do you believe in that party platform(all of it or % part - if %, please describe what you disagree with?

~Not Answered Yet~