Candidate for
Trustee; San Diego Unified School District; Trustee Area B

As a math teacher, I know we need to ensure we have quality schools in every neighborhood. We must continue to ensure all our schools offer a rigorous curriculum that includes music, the arts, and systemic support programs to help students succeed and achieve at their full potential. As the only person in my family to graduate from high school and go on to college, I know firsthand that reducing our drop out rate is critical to our children's future.

I grew up in a large family and learned at an early age the value of education as the hammer to break the cycle of poverty. With many of our children in San Diego schools living in poverty, we must ensure they receive a quality education so that they too can succeed and become contributing members of our community.

I will work hard to keep class sizes low, protect art, music and career vocational education, and improve graduation rates. As a trustee on the school board, I will continue to work with parents, teachers, principals and support staff to improve education for all our children.

Before becoming a math teacher, I gained valuable experience in business management. For twelve years, I balanced budgets, worked to reduce expenses on profit and loss statements and met payroll obligations. The private sector requires fiscal discipline and effective resource allocation, which are also key in public schools to help students learn more. We must allocate more resources to the classroom and put our children first. For years, I have experienced the joy of helping students learn and grow. After teaching at Camp Barrett , a juvenile hall facility, and O'Farrell Community Charter School, I joined the team at Granger Junior High School in National City.

Granger Junior High School was one of the lowest performing schools in the Sweetwater Union High School District. We worked together to raise our Academic Performance Index (API) to 816, and were named a "National School to Watch" and an NCUST finalist+a model example of what a school can do to improve student learning. I am proud to have been a part of Granger's success over the past eight years and have held several leadership positions:

Math Department Chair Faculty Advisory Committee District Strategic Planning Committee (budget) AVID Site Team Professional Learning Community Team Leader District Curriculum, Instruction and Assessment Committee Link Crew Adviser Math Field Day Coach Football Coach Algebra Bowl Adviser