Why I'm Running

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 help each kid go as far as they are ready to go, in whatever area that is, 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, so every student can fulfill their own potential.

Instead, this district let it slide for years. Advanced Standing and honors courses were allowed to quietly disappear school by school long before this became a public fight. When the community pushed the board to reverse course in the fall of 2023, it refused to even take a position - declining to hold a vote and passing a vague motion instead, leaving the cuts in place M-A Chronicle, November 2023. In April 2026, the board reviewed the policy again and, in a 3-2 vote, chose not to restore consistent honors access across all four district high schools The Almanac, April 2026.

The district cut Advanced Standing science courses at Carlmont too - physics and chemistry among them. Advanced English for incoming freshmen is one of the few courses Carlmont still has, while the district removed it entirely at the other three campuses. That vote last April was specifically about a proposal to add the honors English option back at those schools, without touching Carlmont's. The board member I'm challenging voted against that expansion, and at the same meeting said the district should look into why Carlmont still offers English while the other schools had it removed SUHSD Board Meeting, April 2026. This board has only ever equalized access by cutting it, never by adding it.

We are not the first district to try this, and we already know how it ends. San Francisco pulled Algebra 1 out of 8th grade in 2014, for the same stated reason: closing achievement gaps. Stanford researchers who studied a decade of that district's own data found the gaps did not close, while AP math participation fell and AP Calculus enrollment dropped from 30% to 24% EdWeek, March 2023. San Francisco reversed it. Its board restored the course in March 2026 Mission Local, March 2026. I would rather learn from their ten lost years than spend ten of our own.

Every student deserves a path that helps them fulfill their potential, not a one-size-fits-all pace.

I've seen what happens when a public school stops helping kids go as far as they can: the families who can afford it start looking elsewhere, private school, private tutoring, whatever fills the gap the school won't. Every family that leaves is one less voice pushing for better, and the public school and community left behind are weaker for it, a cycle that feeds on itself the longer it continues. Helping every student fulfill their potential is what keeps this a public school system families choose, not one they feel forced to abandon.

02 - Fiscal Discipline and Transparency

Fiscal discipline isn't about cutting - it's about being able to invest where it counts. To recruit and keep world-class teachers in one of the highest-cost regions in the country, we have to be relentless about how every tax dollar is spent. Money lost to avoidable overhead, outside consultants, and costly legal settlements is money we can't put toward competitive teacher pay and real classroom support.

SUHSD's adopted 2026-27 budget spends $266 million to educate our kids, yet still plans a $7.4 million deficit, pushing its reserves down to 6.11%, below the board's own 8% minimum SUHSD 2026-27 Budget Summary, while only 51 cents of every dollar goes into direct classroom instruction Ballotpedia. Since 2020-21, spending on everything other than classroom instruction grew 47%, while instruction itself grew just 28% Ed-Data. More of every new dollar should reach the classroom.

Especially in years when federal education funding is being cut, we need to make sure our property tax dollars reach the right place - our teachers and our classrooms first. Sound management matters, and I'll bring the same budget accountability I use running a product organization to how this district spends your tax dollars, so more of every dollar reaches students and teachers, where it can have a real impact.

03 - Prepare Students with a Future-Ready Curriculum

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 executive, I'll bring that technical literacy and entrepreneurial mindset directly to board decisions.

Technology should sharpen our kids' minds, not replace them. I've seen this firsthand in my own work building strategies and decks to communicate ideas - it's easy to let AI do the thinking for you instead of using it to sharpen your own. I'll push for guardrails that keep AI a tool for learning, not a substitute for critical thinking, so students build the ability to reason and problem-solve on their own, not just prompt their way to an answer.

A future-ready curriculum also means giving students real exposure to the paths ahead of them, not just a diploma. College is the right path for many students, and others are ready to head straight into a career, a trade, or their own business - our schools should prepare kids well for whichever path is theirs, not just one of them. I want SUHSD to expand and strengthen Career Technical Education, with real industry internships alongside it, so every student gets hands-on exposure to paths in healthcare, business, skilled trades, technology, and beyond - not just what they need for a college application, but what they need to make an informed choice about their own future.

04 - A Board That Actually Listens and Is Accountable for Results

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.

When this board doesn't listen, families and taxpayers pay for it - literally. Honors courses were cut over the objections of over 1,200 petitioners The Almanac, April 2026. TIDE Academy, a $50 million campus built with voter-approved funds, was closed with no public accounting of the savings and no real engagement with the alternatives its own families proposed The Almanac, February 2026. And ignoring years of antisemitism complaints from Jewish students led to a $325,000 settlement that could have gone to classrooms instead The Almanac, June 2026.

I believe a school board should run on a real feedback loop with the people it serves. As a product leader, I know you can't build great solutions without constantly talking to the people who rely on them - and in our schools, that's our families, students, and teachers. That's why I'm committing to monthly office hours dedicated to parent input: a standing, predictable way to reach me directly, instead of three minutes at a podium after a decision is already on the agenda.

I'll push for parents, teachers, and students to be brought into decisions before votes happen, not after the fact.

05 - Student Wellbeing and Belonging, Without Lowering the Bar

When I talk with families, right after wanting their kids challenged and supported, they want their kids to be okay. The district's own survey shows why: 29% of our juniors reported feeling chronically sad or hopeless in the past year, only about six in ten students feel strongly connected to their school, and nearly four in ten juniors go to bed at midnight or later California Healthy Kids Survey, SUHSD 2022-23. Just 24% of students feel connected to adults at school SUHSD Strategic Plan 2024-2027. I want our schools to be places kids are glad to show up to: a class that fits them, a team or club where they belong, an adult who knows their name, and friends they actually talk to at lunch.

When students are asked what drives the stress, the answers are consistent: grades, tests, and workload, and behind them the pressure to get into college, from families and from peers. Pew found 68% of teens feel real pressure to get good grades, and 41% to fit in socially Pew Research Center, March 2025. At ten high-performing California high schools, students averaged 3.1 hours of homework a night, and 56% named homework as a primary source of stress Stanford Graduate School of Education, 2014. A Carlmont vice principal told the student paper that students are "taking more coursework outside of school to differentiate themselves to prove their worth to colleges" Scot Scoop, April 2026. None of that pressure comes from a school offering a class at the right level.

The district has added counselors, wellness centers, and peer support, and I support that. But the survey it relies on never asks students what is causing their stress, nobody has shown families whether the new spending is working, and the district's own 2026-27 plan reports declines in student-reported belonging SUHSD 2026-27 LCAP. Some argue the fix is removing advanced classes. But if the pressure comes from college admissions, families, and peers, did any of it change when the district took options away from families? I haven't seen evidence that it did, and the district never measured it. What I have seen is the pressure moving to private tutors, for the families who can pay. A class pitched at the wrong level is its own source of stress, for the bored student as much as the lost one.

Other schools have reduced stress without lowering the bar. Concord-Carlisle High School in Massachusetts, working with Stanford-affiliated Challenge Success, coordinated homework across subjects, limited major tests on the same day, added a monthly no-homework weekend, and paired disconnected students with an adult, all while keeping every course. Students reporting physical symptoms of stress fell from 85% to 73%, and nightly homework fell from 2.8 to 2.1 hours Challenge Success. Palo Alto set homework limits and opened wellness centers while keeping its advanced courses Stanford Daily, May 2016. Right here, Sequoia High's IB program is open to any student who wants to try, with no entrance exam Sequoia High School. Manage the load and add support. Don't take away the challenge.

• Coordinate the load. Test calendars and homework coordinated across subjects, so no student faces three major tests in one day, plus real guidance on choosing a schedule that fits.
• More ways to belong. Clubs, teams, and arts with a place for every student, and more project-based and group work in class, where kids build something real together and get to know each other along the way. Friendships form around shared work, not around a lecture.
• Ask students why, and publish it. Add questions on causes of stress, sleep, and workload to the district survey, and report results school by school.
• Protect what is on borrowed money. Several new counselor positions sit on grants expiring in the next two years. Plan for them now.

Keep the options. Manage the load. Make sure every student has a reason to want to be there.