Where I Stand

I am a retired Navy Lieutenant Commander with 25 years of service, bringing deep expertise in fiscal accountability, personnel management, and strategic leadership.

Education has defined my career; I hold a Master’s in Postsecondary Education Leadership and a California Substitute Teaching Permit. My background includes education, training and readiness, and leading complex organizations.

As an independent, grassroots candidate, I look at Oceanside Unified through a lens of performance. I will bring a disciplined, back-to-the-basics focus to the board, ensuring resources directly support classroom learning, empower teachers to lead, and restore academic proficiency as our highest priority.

My connection to the Oceanside Unified School District is deep, daily, and defined by direct service to our community's youth. Over the past seven years, I have worked on the ground inside the district as a school bus driver, which included stepping into the classroom last year to serve as a K-12 substitute teacher. Today, I continue my dedicated service as an OUSD bus driver.

This unique, hands-on timeline has given me an invaluable bird's-eye view of the operational, academic, and systemic issues currently impacting our schools. Driving a school bus allows me to connect with families across Oceanside and see the direct realities of our students’ lives before they even step foot on campus.

Transitioning into the classroom as a substitute teacher last year gave me a front-row seat to the precise academic and behavioral challenges our educators face every single day. I have seen firsthand where our resources are falling short and where top-heavy policies fail to support the people on the front lines.

I am running because my years of service inside our schools have shown me that our current trajectory is not serving Oceanside's children effectively. I bring a deeply rooted, practical connection to this district — one built on the daily realities of working directly with our students.

I will use this frontline perspective to bring accountability, safety, and a renewed focus on academic fundamentals to the school board.

Our district faces three critical and interconnected challenges right now. These are low academic proficiency, systemic budget deficits driven by declining enrollment, and top-heavy administrative policies that disempower classroom teachers.

First, we have an academic crisis. Current state data shows that roughly 32 percent of Oceanside Unified students are proficient in math and only 42 percent in reading. Despite record per-pupil spending, our kids are falling behind. I will address this by shifting the board's entire focus back to educational fundamentals like reading, writing, and math. We must redirect resource allocation away from bureaucratic programs and put it directly into classroom instruction.

Second, we face a major fiscal cliff. Years of enrollment decline compounded by a drop in average daily attendance have generated structural budget deficits. This has forced the district to rely heavily on one-time funds to survive. As a retired Navy Lieutenant Commander who has managed multi-million-dollar operational budgets, I will bring rigorous oversight to our finances.

We must stop the deficit spending, audit administrative overhead, and ensure that tax dollars directly impact student achievement rather than inflating top-heavy district management.

Third, we are losing talented educators because teachers have been stripped of classroom autonomy and disciplinary authority. Through my years driving an OUSD bus and working as a classroom substitute teacher, I have seen firsthand the behavioral challenges that disrupt learning environments.

I will advocate for strong, common-sense discipline policies that restore order to our classrooms. We must trust our frontline educators, empower them to manage their classrooms effectively, and bring real accountability back into our school culture.

When reviewing any item on the budget, my overarching question will always be, “How will this help our children and academic achievement?” My approach to fiscal management will be defined by this strict priority, alongside clear oversight and complete transparency.

In the military, I spent years managing multi-million-dollar operational budgets. I know how to distinguish between essential operational needs and bureaucratic bloat. When it comes to school board spending, taxpayer dollars must follow the student into the classroom.

Oceanside Unified is spending record amounts per pupil, yet our academic results are unacceptable. This tells me that our fiscal problem is not a lack of funding, but a misallocation of resources.

If we face potential cuts, I will fiercely protect the classroom, our teachers, and student safety. The very last places we should look to cut are the frontline personnel and resources that directly impact academic instruction.

Instead, I will prioritize a comprehensive audit of top-heavy administrative overhead and underutilized programs. Over the years, school district administrations have a tendency to expand at the top while classrooms are left to scrape by.

We must streamline district management, eliminate redundant administrative positions, and sunset programs that do not explicitly improve reading, writing, and math proficiency.

We cannot continue relying on one-time funds to balance our structural budget. By focusing our spending on high-quality instruction and safe classrooms, we will make Oceanside schools attractive to families again. This is how we organically stabilize our enrollment, fix our budget, and protect our educational future.

We cannot control macro demographic shifts or the regional cost of living, but we can control the quality of the education we offer to families. To attract and keep families in Oceanside Unified, we must make our schools the most academically competitive and safe option in the region.

Right now, many parents are opting out of traditional public schools because they feel the system has lost its focus on basic educational outcomes. When state data shows math proficiency at roughly 32 percent, families naturally look for alternative options.

We can reverse this trend by establishing an undeniable reputation for academic excellence. We must redirect our resources away from top-heavy administrative programs and reinvest them into the classroom. Families will choose Oceanside Unified when they see a measurable, year-over-year rise in reading, writing, and math proficiency.

Furthermore, we must create safe, orderly learning environments that parents trust. Through my frontline work driving an OUSD bus and substitute teaching, I know that behavioral challenges push families away. By empowering our teachers with strong discipline policies, we ensure that classrooms remain focused on learning.

If we restore a strict focus to the basics, protect our classroom environments, and focus every dollar on student outcomes, families will choose to stay. High-achieving, safe, and transparent schools are the ultimate tool for family retention and recruitment.

I support significantly tighter, common-sense restrictions on both artificial intelligence and student device use. Our schools must be sanctuaries of focus, learning, and human interaction, which means we must actively combat the digital distractions that hijack student attention.

We need a strict emphasis on age-appropriate technology use across all grade levels. As a student, I was instructed on tenth-grade five-paragraph essays, and how to look things up using the Dewey Decimal System, long before algorithms existed. That level of deep engagement and independent learning set me up for success for the entirety of my professional career in public service.

It should be a massive wake-up call to parents that many tech billionaires and executives in Silicon Valley actively shield their own children from the very technology they sell, sending them to low-tech or entirely tech-free private schools. They understand the profound impact that screens and algorithms have on developing minds, and our public schools should follow that logic.

Regarding cell phones, I advocate for completely phone-free school days. Phones should be turned off and put away from the first bell to the last bell, including during lunch and passing periods. This removes a major source of behavioral issues, reduces cyberbullying, and forces students to engage face-to-face.

On the issue of artificial intelligence, we must protect the integrity of learning. I support a temporary moratorium on generative AI tools on all student-level district devices while we establish clear safety frameworks.

When students rely on AI to write essays or solve problems, it defeats the purpose of education and masks actual proficiency gaps. By setting firm, age-appropriate boundaries on devices and AI, we empower our teachers to reclaim control of their classrooms and keep the focus entirely on real academic achievement.

During my first year on the board, my primary objective will be to establish strict measures of effectiveness and rigorous performance evaluations for senior district administration. If we expect our students and teachers to hit performance benchmarks, the leadership at the top must be held to the exact same standards of accountability.

To accomplish this, I will advocate for a comprehensive operational audit that links administrative spending directly to student outcomes. We must review every district-level program and position to ensure they are actively moving the needle on academic proficiency.

Any administrative department that cannot prove a direct, measurable contribution to improving our reading, writing, and math scores will be re-evaluated.

Additionally, I will push to restructure how we evaluate top-level management. Their performance reviews should be tied to objective, quantifiable data, such as narrowing the proficiency gaps, reducing teacher turnover, and improving structural budget efficiency.

For too long, school district administrations have expanded at the top without being held accountable for declining enrollment or plummeting test scores.

By implementing clear measures of effectiveness within my first year, we can shift the entire culture of Oceanside Unified away from top-heavy bureaucracy and back toward measurable performance. This disciplined approach ensures that our central office exists to serve the classroom, protect taxpayer dollars, and ultimately deliver the high-quality education our children deserve.