What are the primary strengths and weaknesses of your district’s schools?  How can your district make public school a more attractive choice for local families?

Our strengths lie in our staff and our community. We have amazing people working in the district and we need to continue to work to retain every one of them. We have a strong community that works to help our district and we need to communicate with them to keep them involved.  Getting our facilities back on track is what we need to work towards. Our buildings need to get to a place where we are regularly maintaining them instead of trying to play catch up to major projects.

I would love to see all local families attend our schools, but everyone gets to make their own decisions. Hopefully, the partnership between our district and the local homeschool families continues to grow!

Depending on the size of their district, School Board Members decide how to spend $10s of millions of dollars, or even $100s of millions, in taxpayer money each year.  How would you seek to prioritize the funds being stewarded by your district’s School Board?

The students education needs to be the priority. This would include salaries to keep good teachers, safe and secure facilities and good, updated curriculum. Beyond that, we need to listen to the needs of the teachers, students and community for a prioritization list.

In recent years, established freedoms, including that of speech, peaceable assembly, exercise of religion, and medical autonomy, have been impacted by various mandates adopted by schools across America.  As an elected representative of the citizens of your district, how would you seek to secure the Constitutional liberties of your schools’ students and staff?

We start with teaching the basis of our constitution and we follow what it says. We include the parents and the community. We encourage all stakeholders to attend board meetings and we listen when they wish to speak.

What do you consider to be a parent’s role in a child’s education?  Do you believe that any information about a student should ever be withheld from a parent?

Parents need to involved in their child’s education. Communication between the schools, teachers and parents is imperative in a child’s academic success.

What are the primary strengths and weaknesses of your district’s schools?  How can your district make public school a more attractive choice for local families?

My wife and I feel comforted every time we drop our kids off at school because PSD (Peyton School District) cares about protecting their students. I know that there are people in the same building as my children who have the tools and ability to stop a threat wanting to hurt my child. I support the current safety measures that PSD has taken and look forward to continuing that effort by providing whatever resources are needed to ensure safety for our students and staff. My philosophy on school safety is this: the best defense in many cases is a good offense.

Depending on the size of their district, School Board Members decide how to spend $10s of millions of dollars, or even $100s of millions, in taxpayer money each year.  How would you seek to prioritize the funds being stewarded by your district’s School Board?

In the short two years I have been on the board at PSD, we have already made significant reductions in administrative costs while increasing earnings for teachers and other staff members. As far as prioritizing taxpayer dollars, I would like to focus on funding expenses that go into direct learning outcomes aimed at reading, writing and arithmetic. I believe that PSD currently holds itself to a fiscally conservative standard, but there are always improvements that can, and should be made.

In recent years, established freedoms, including that of speech, peaceable assembly, exercise of religion, and medical autonomy, have been impacted by various mandates adopted by schools across America.  As an elected representative of the citizens of your district, how would you seek to secure the Constitutional liberties of your schools’ students and staff?

Removing Constitutional liberties in the name of safety is something that I absolutely oppose. I don’t believe that students or staff at PSD, or any district for that matter, should be forced to comply with government-imposed safety recommendations/mandates. I also believe that people have the right to comply and should not be harassed for doing so.

What do you consider to be a parent’s role in a child’s education?  Do you believe that any information about a student should ever be withheld from a parent?

I believe that the most critical education that a child will receive first comes from their mother and father. Public or private education is secondary to the influence that parents have on their children. I also believe that parents need to be actively engaged in their child’s public or private education. Parents should know what their children are learning in school.

I find it very hard to find a circumstance where information about a student would need to be withheld from a parent. I expect everything about my child to be disclosed to me and will continue to support other parents who feel the same.