My background
1. What district are you running in?
District 2
2. Have you attended Board meetings on a regular basis? Have you attended constituent board meetings?
As a business owner and father of three under 5 years old, time is at a premium. As such, I have only attended a few in person, but always review the agenda and watch the live stream. I am also part of a group of parents who always have representation in person and give a full report after the fact. While not physically in the building, I’m very much in tune with what the school board is doing.
3. What, if any, has been your involvement in schools and/or district activities?
My boys are not attending CCSD until next year, so I am just ramping up my involvement in CCSD affairs.
4. Do you have children? Do/did your children attend public school?
Yes, I have 3 kids, and next year my oldest will start kindergarten in CCSD.
Why I’m running
1. Why are you running for the Board? If elected, what will be your priorities?
As with most candidates, there’s not a single reason for my running. Chiefly among my reasons are the removal of extreme ideologies from the classrooms. I do not believe politics belong in the classroom, and we most certainly should not be indoctrinating our children to hate America in our schools.
2. What particular experiences or skills have prepared you to serve as a board member?
Also multifaceted answer, but I am a father, small business owner, and entrepreneur. I regularly negotiate contracts with the government and understand the complexities of government budgeting and the way taxpayers’ dollars are spent. I know the different ways governing bodies try to distort reality to further their agenda. When it comes to taxpayers’ dollars, that simply cannot stand. Secondly, as a father who’s been frustrated by being unheard, I am going to be a voice of the parents, not of special interest groups.
3. How do you feel about public/private partnerships in schools?
As a fiscal conservative, I am all in favor of letting the market “work things out” - I think the tax dollars earmarked for education should follow the students, even if that goes to a private school or homeschooling co-op.
4. What are your top 3 issues for your specific district?
In District 2 I hear primarily about school safety, class sizes (typically paired with distracting environment from discipline or woke conversations) and parent involvement. Parents feel like the district is “out of touch” with what’s happening at the local schools.
School Board Issues
1. What are your areas of concern regarding student achievement in your district?
As a schoolboard of a county (vs simply a specific district) I am concerned with all of Charleston County students’ achievement levels. Currently the reading and math achievement levels are simply atrocious – we cannot allow this to continue, change is a must.
2. What are your thoughts on the current and the proposed budget for your school district?
This district has a spending problem. We have overpaid administrators; we’re spending excessive amounts on contractors and consultants. As of 2020, less than 50% of the funds in the annual budget were spent in the classroom.
3. What committees do you hope to serve on?
Curriculum & Standards, as well as Budget and Finance. I would also like to start a new committee, with the sole purpose of community engagement and making sure ‘average parents’ understand the process and have a more intimate setting to have individual questions answered.
4. Do you think CCSD should have more transparency in Charter schools?
Transparency in all things is paramount when the government is spending taxpayers money or making policy that impacts our children.
5. What ideas do you plan to support or institute to provide equitable countywide student access to resources (i.e. tutoring and wrap around services)
As I’ve mentioned, I believe authority and decision-making discretion needs to be as close to those impacted (students) as possible. Therefore, if a principal in West Ashley needs a resource, then it is the board’s job to try to get that principal the resource they’re requesting. I do not believe in “equality in all things” as needs vary greatly. A school in Mount Pleasant may need more busses, and a school in Downtown may need more parking. I reject the “one size fits all” mindset.
6. Should the district expand mental and behavioral health offerings to students and staff? If so, provide examples.
The health and wellbeing of students is the responsibility of the schools while the students are at school. The school is not the primary care physician, nor should it supplant the proper role of the parents as primary caretakers of their child’s mental health. The district should partner with parents to provide the level of care the parents and primary care providers deem to be appropriate, and the district should assume a supporting role.
Board Governance
1. What do you see as the primary work of the board?
The Board of Trustees has two primary responsibilities. First for the policies of the district, including selecting from the list of curricula approved by the state. Secondly for the budget of the district, to include new buildings and school expansions. They are also responsible for entering into legal agreements on behalf of the district, and have a single employee, the Superintendent, for which they are charged with responsibility.
2. What is a school board member’s role and responsibility? How does that role differ from the role of the superintendent or administration?
The members of the board are to execute the roles of the board as described above, through their lens of what is best for the students of the county.
3. How can the board be accessible to the community? To specific community groups?
The most critical part of any governing body in the United States is to be “by the People, and for the People.” Without being accessible, one cannot know what people at large are wanting from their elected members. Board Members must be available to their voters through phone, email, office hours, as well as holding public meetings at reasonable times, so working parents can take part.
4. How can a board of education best communicate with its constituent groups?
As with all communication, multiple mediums are required. Governing bodies need to be making decisions at the lowest possible level, as close to “the people” as can be feasibly accomplished. A robust public comment (to include feedback) should be part of the regular rhythm of meetings. Meeting schedules and agendas need to be easily accessible, rather than difficult to find and shrouded in obscurity through use of acronyms and executive sessions.
5. How will you engage specifically with students to ensure their interests are being included?
I plan to make visits to schools a regular part of the rhythm of my tenure on the board. Those visits will include opportunities to hear feedback from students, administrators, and teachers in a confidential manner, about anything on their mind.
Recent CCSD Issues
1. How would you address school safety?
I support ongoing efforts to ensure an armed police officer in every school in the county. No parent should send their child to school and wonder if they’re going to see them again. The heartbreaking uptick in violence we’ve seen across America recently is painful to even contemplate. We need to have all external doors locked with a single-entry point. The only entry point should be locked at times that entering & exiting the building are not common (i.e. pickup & drop-off). When the door is unlocked, it needs to be manned by staff. At the discretion of the principal, that can be a teacher, School Resource Officer, or some combination of both or someone else. Schools must be safe, and we need to accomplish safety without looking like Fort Knox.
2. How would you consider parent/student/community views in changing curriculum? What could you do to provide more transparency to the board?
I have answered this question above, but to reiterate: school board meetings need to happen at times that working parents can attend and meaningfully engage with the process. Agendas and meeting times need to be well publicized. When there is nothing to hide, there is no reason to be coy. As stated above, I want a transparency committee with the sole focus of community engagement and Q&A.
3. What are your thoughts on the hiring timeline for a new superintendent?
It is unwise to commit to a timeline, as that necessarily limits the options. When the proper candidate has been discovered, that is the right time to make a hire.
4. Do you support the Reimagine proposal?
Spending money on contractors with zero experience in school administration seems a foolish idea. The money spent paying consultant bills should be put into the schools and classrooms, rather than paying a company to “figure out” how to do school administration, using our children and tax dollars as a test.