When I first ran for the Suffolk School Board, I committed to bringing greater accountability, fiscal responsibility, and transparency to Suffolk Public Schools. Over the past three and a half years, I have worked to turn those commitments into meaningful Board action. Taxpayers deserve to know how public dollars are spent, who is responsible for those expenditures, what controls are in place, and whether spending benefits students. I have consistently scrutinized monthly bills, payroll expenditures, budget proposals, purchase-card activity, year-end spending, and other financial matters rather than treating approval as routine. When sufficient information was not available to justify an expenditure or meet the level of accountability taxpayers deserve, I have been willing to vote no. I also pressed for an independent forensic audit examining purchase cards, accounts payable, cash handling, banking practices, and internal controls to help identify weaknesses, protect public resources, and restore confidence. Transparency must extend beyond finances. I have advocated for clearer budget reporting, including greater visibility into athletic, program, departmental, and instructional funding; open government and appropriate compliance with Virginia’s Freedom of Information Act; equitable access to public information; and consistent Board procedures. I have also supported adopting Robert’s Rules of Order and providing parliamentary training so Board decisions are made under clear, consistent, and publicly understandable standards. There is still more work to do. In a second term, I will continue advocating for detailed financial reporting, stronger internal controls, independent review, transparent program funding, consistent policies, open-government compliance, and a Board culture that recognizes questions and oversight as essential responsibilities. Accountability is not obstruction, transparency is not optional, and fiscal oversight is not political—they are fundamental responsibilities of good governance.

Students and Parents First has remained one of my guiding principles throughout my three and a half years on the Suffolk School Board. Parents are their children’s first and most influential educators, and schools should recognize—not replace—their fundamental role in decisions affecting their children. I have consistently advocated for greater transparency, meaningful parental involvement, access to information, and the right of families to know what their children are being taught and what policies directly affect them. During my tenure, I worked to bring meaningful change to Board policy by supporting the adoption of Virginia’s Model Policies concerning the privacy, dignity, and rights of students and parents. I advocated for replacing the division’s previous policy because I believe schools must respect parents’ authority to make important decisions concerning their children and should not intentionally withhold significant information about a child from his or her family. Parents deserve a meaningful voice when policies involve student privacy, sensitive subjects, instructional materials, or matters that directly affect their children. My commitment to parental rights extends beyond any single policy. I have consistently pressed for greater transparency in curriculum, instructional initiatives, school governance, discipline, public information, and the use of taxpayer dollars. Parents should never have to fight their school division simply to understand what is happening in their child’s classroom or school. Strong schools are built through genuine partnerships among parents, educators, students, and the community, with parents treated as essential partners rather than obstacles to educational decision-making. Over the past three and a half years, I have worked to move parental rights from campaign rhetoric to policy, oversight, and action. My commitment to this principle has also been recognized through an endorsement from Parents’ Rights in Education (PRIE) for my strong advocacy on behalf of parents and their role in directing the education of their children. I will continue supporting policies that protect parental involvement, provide families with meaningful access to information, preserve appropriate educational choice, and ensure that schools remain accountable to the families and communities they serve. Parents should have a seat at the table, a voice in their child’s education, and the respect that comes with being their child’s primary advocate. Learn more about Parents’ Rights in Education at: https://www.parentsrightsined.org/prie-pac.html

School safety has remained one of my highest priorities throughout my three and a half years on the Suffolk School Board. Our schools have faced serious challenges involving weapons, threats, student fights, classroom disruptions, and persistent discipline concerns. I have consistently maintained that students cannot learn and teachers cannot teach effectively unless schools are safe, orderly, and adequately staffed. Discipline, supervision, emergency preparedness, secure facilities, and strong law-enforcement partnerships must therefore be treated as essential components of student achievement. During my tenure, I have repeatedly advocated for a stronger law-enforcement presence in our schools, including adequate School Resource Officer and sheriff’s deputy coverage where needed. The need for stronger safeguards became especially clear following the June 2024 safety incident at Kilby Shores Elementary School, when an unauthorized adult entered the building and barricaded himself inside a restroom with two students—an alarming event that exposed vulnerabilities and reinforced the need for stronger prevention, communication, and emergency-response measures. I have also pressed for additional reliable emergency radios in our schools so administrators and staff can communicate immediately during a crisis, and I have raised these priorities during budget and year-end spending discussions because protecting students and employees must come before less essential expenditures. I have also continued to advocate for stronger coordination among Suffolk Public Schools, law-enforcement agencies, emergency responders, and city leadership. Emergency plans are only as effective as our ability to execute them under pressure. I support regular joint safety exercises and realistic emergency-response drills so that communication systems, command responsibilities, response procedures, and potential weaknesses can be identified and corrected before an actual emergency occurs. School safety must be proactive, practiced, and continually evaluated—not simply addressed after an incident. Over the past three and a half years, I have worked to move the Board’s conversation about school safety beyond responding to incidents after they happen. My focus has been on strengthening prevention, communication, accountability, staffing, discipline, law-enforcement partnerships, and emergency readiness across the division. In a second term, I will continue advocating for the personnel, equipment, training, and partnerships necessary to ensure that every student can learn and every educator can work in a safe, orderly, secure, and well-prepared school environment.

For decades, Suffolk Public Schools has struggled to achieve consistently strong literacy outcomes for all students. During my three and a half years on the School Board, I have made student achievement—particularly reading proficiency—a central focus of my governance and budget oversight. While SOL reading performance has improved for some students and schools, the data tell a more complicated story. Progress has not been shared equally, and significant achievement gaps remain that cannot be overlooked or explained away. Of particular concern is the continued performance of our students with disabilities. Virginia Department of Education data continue to show reading proficiency below 50% for students with disabilities at numerous SPS schools and grade levels, with some schools reporting rates in the 20% and 30% range. In several cases, performance has remained stagnant or declined from one year to the next. When fewer than half of the students in a subgroup demonstrate grade-level reading proficiency, incremental improvement is not enough. Every child deserves access to effective instruction and the opportunity to become a proficient reader. Over the past three and a half years, I have consistently pushed the Board and administration to address these achievement gaps through evidence-based literacy instruction, Science of Reading practices, targeted intervention, stronger special education programming, data-driven remediation, and appropriate allocation of qualified educators and instructional resources. I have also advocated for greater attention to schools requiring intensive intervention and for budget decisions that place measurable student achievement ahead of programs and expenditures that do not directly improve classroom outcomes. Literacy improvement requires more than purchasing another program—it requires effective instruction, trained educators, accountability, progress monitoring, and intervention that responds to individual student needs. We should recognize genuine progress when it occurs, but we must never allow improving averages to conceal students who continue to fall behind. In a second term, I will continue pressing for measurable literacy growth across every school and every student subgroup, with particular attention to students with disabilities and other students who remain significantly below proficiency. The goal cannot simply be better scores than last year. Our goal must be that every Suffolk student receives the instruction, intervention, and support necessary to read proficiently and succeed academically.