Occupation
I’m an engineer with 25 years of experience in the defense and communications industry.
Where do you live (hamlet) and how long have you lived in town?
I graduated Bethlehem in 1996 and returned to Delmar eight years ago to raise my two children in the district.
Why are you running for a seat on the School Board?
I’m running for school board because I feel our schools have lost their way. Political infiltration and control of our schools has negatively impacted our children and silenced parents and teachers. Parental control of our kids had been lost, COVID-19 restrictions on our kids were way over the top, vaccine status has resulted in differential treatment, critical extracurricular activities have been canceled or restricted, and curricula have devolved to a point where our kids aren’t getting the core academic time they need to be skilled and competitive, and our out-of-control spending has created an unbearable tax burden for our residents.
What type of experience or skill set will help you fulfill your role on the School Board?
As an engineer, I bring analytical, data-driven, and real-world problem-solving skills to the Board of Education. Using quantitative methods, data-driven metrics, common sense, and traditional American values, I have the ability to raise the bar instead of lowering it, as we are currently seeing in our schools. Coming from outside the system, I can clearly see the agenda of the Teachers’ Unions and the NYS Education Department and bring the only point of view that challenges the status quo with sound facts and logic.
What do you think are some challenges the school district has been facing?
Our schools have allowed our children, the least vulnerable to COVID-19, to bear the brunt of the excessive restrictions for years. Our children, either vaccinated or who have acquired natural immunity, are still being removed from the classroom simply based on suspicion of COVID-19, and healthy unvaccinated children are still banned from sports. Our academic curriculum has been inundated with victim theories and “comprehensive sexual education” that seeks to teach elementary-aged children sexual acts and gender theories. All of this is funded by YOUR tax dollars. This stuff has been going on for years. It will take work to undo.
How do you plan to address these challenges?
I seek to return to elite, merit-based academics, equal opportunity over equal outcomes, and critical thinking over an ideological education. We cannot waste time on controversial theories when that time is better spent preparing our children to compete in the global economy. I will give a voice to parents and teachers who have been marginalized. I will create an internal review board to evaluate both benefits and harm caused by COVID-19 response policies, and any future policies that may restrict parents’ or students’ rights. I will maximize our technology investments and restrict spending to programs that benefit our children’s education, not political agendas.
Anything else you’d like to add?
My platform is based on non-partisan ideas that we should all be able to agree on. If we’re trending down, which we are, we need to make the course corrections now. Our schools routinely take direction from state and federal bureaucrats who do not understand the negative outcomes of their good-intentioned policies. Operating unchecked, we will continue down this politically driven path. I am the only candidate with a clear and specific platform, not high-level platitudes. Parents rights, curriculum transparency, elite academics, the importance of extracurricular activities and responsible use of tax dollars should be non-controversial and our top priorities.
