I care about our kids. Like many of you, we chose this community because of its schools - and strong schools are what make a strong community, not the other way around. Right now, this district is moving the wrong way: advanced classes eliminated, lawsuits and settlements, votes that ignore the community's clear feedback, and tax dollars going to rising administrative costs and cleaning up mistakes instead of educating our kids. I'm running to change that.
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 actually challenge each kid in whatever area they're ready to be challenged in, 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, maximizing the unique potential of every student.
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.
Every student deserves the challenge that fits them, not a one-size-fits-all pace.
I've seen what happens when a public school stops stretching kids: 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. Keeping every student challenged 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 spends close to $259.6 million a year to educate our kids Redwood City Pulse. Yet the district is running a $6.1 million structural deficit while directing only 51 cents of every dollar into direct classroom instruction Ballotpedia. It is unacceptable that direct classroom spending has fallen this far. The rest goes to administrative and operating costs rather than direct instruction.
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.
Together, we can bring common sense, excellence, transparency, and a forward-looking vision to SUHSD.