Top Issues

It is time our school board got into the business of legislating effective solutions that support our Students, Families, Staff, and Communities to pave the way for a bright future for Chesapeake! On school board, I will fight tooth and nail to make sure our agenda of solutions is put into action to ensure our students are getting the best education our money can buy!

From worse academics to social skills the impacts of Pandemic-Era learning are still being felt by our students. We need immediate, targeted efforts to start combating those effects and ensure our students can succeed and stand on their own after graduation. In addition to investments in mental healthcare, school discipline reform, and enhanced teacher recruitment programs some of the initiatives I will champion on our school board are:

  • Investing in personalized in-person, after school tutoring programs;
  • Creating an online tutoring service with an extended scope of service outside ordinary school operating hours;
  • Expanding our existing summer school programs with an emphasis on schools with the worst learning gaps;
  • Placing more emphasis on social interactions in the day-to-day learning environment, including during summer schooling; and
  • Fostering parent-teacher collaboration inside and outside the classroom for a comprehensive plan to help students catch back up.

The COVID-19 Pandemic only accelerated a growing problem: an exodus of experienced, quality teachers out of the education sector. From under-appreciation by school and city administration to the ever increasing responsibilities mandated onto our educators, school districts across the nation have been burning out our best and brightest educators. As we continue to reel from this exodus, we must create financial investments and institutional reform to retain and attract educators to face this crisis head on. Some policies I will push for on school board to achieve this include:

  • Inviting our educators to the table when crafting employee contracts;
  • Raising the starting teacher salary to a competitive $60,000;
  • Investing in competitive employment benefits including regular bonuses to reward retention, loan repayment programs, classroom supply subsidies;
  • Restoring funding for continuing education opportunities;
  • Increasing supplemental pay for educators who receive graduate degrees and additional certifications;
  • Creating pathways and funding opportunities for school employees with experience in the classroom to receive a teaching license; and
  • Establishing a teacher residency program to support current professionals switch careers into teaching for Chesapeake.

Mental illness was a growing epidemic across our country, especially among young people, prior to lock downs during the Pandemic. Now one of the greatest health crises facing our youngest generations, it threatens their abilities to succeed in school and life. We must take direct action to curb this growing health problem and ensure our young people have the resources and support needed to thrive. Some of the policies I’m proposing to accomplish this include:

  • Providing annual mental illness screenings for all students starting at age 12 (as recommended by the AAP);
  • Updating our current health curriculum to provide age appropriate education about mental health and wellness techniques;
  • Investing in additional guidance counselors, school psychologists, and social workers; and
  • Promoting peer support groups for students to work with others their age to develop and share strategies to succeed in critical life skills.

The longest standing issue that continues to face our schools is overcrowding. Rampant over development erodes our green space and replaces it with overpriced suburban homes. When I am on the school board, I will fight overdevelopment which leads to overcrowded schools by:

  • Creating a plan to get all schools under 100% capacity by 2035 through new school constructions & expanding existing schools;
  • Lobbying City Council to prohibit new developments that would project pushing any school capacity over 100%; and
  • Taking out local bonds for capitol improvement projects where interest is likely to out-compete increases from inflation.

We don’t have enough bus drivers. Drop-off & pick-up lines for students at our schools are way too long. Our school board needs to pioneer a solution that is safe and efficient for both our students and parents. When elected, some of the policies I will trial include:

  • Offering full-time status for bus drivers including proper pay and benefits that entice new, quality bus drivers to seek employment;
  • Ensuring an effective, efficient staggered start and end times for classes to be able to have the same bus drivers work up to three routes each day;
  • Outfitting every district school bus with air conditioning by 2030; and
  • Collaborating with city, state, and federal officials to invest in safe, effective pathways to school (i.e. walking, biking).

Columbine, Sandy Hook, Parkland. Those school shootings and more over the years have underlined just one aspect of the failures of our society to protect our children while they’re at school. On school board, I will advocate for policies that will create a comprehensive plan to prevent those tragedies and more from occurring while ensuring we are prepared for the worse without harming the mental health of our students by:

  • Creating proactive support systems to intervene and work with parents to support struggling students (i.e. academics, peer relations, attendance);
  • Upgrading all school buildings to include a focus on Crime Prevention Through Environmental Design (CPTED) techniques to promote campus community;
  • Expanding existing community programming with City Officials and non-profits to keep youths off the streets;
  • Working with local law enforcement agencies on comprehensive plans to train officers on how to deal with active shooter situations tailored to each school;
  • Phasing out traumatizing active shooter drills that occur while students are present on-campus; and
  • Providing information & resources to parents on safe gun storage at home, such as free gun locks.

An efficient, effective budget is the most important thing for any governmental body. A high quality public education system is reliant on a budget that puts students first over special interests. I will prioritize this while on our school board by creating transparency and increasing funding by:

  • Working with our state delegation to finally restore k12 funding to pre-recession levels when adjusted for inflation (spending down over 5% pre-pandemic);
  • Collaborating with our City Council to find alternative sources of revenue to invest in our school system without raising property taxes;
  • Establishing public-private partnerships with businesses and non-profits to expand the resources available to our schools;
  • Creating an open, transparent input process when creating each fiscal year’s budget; and
  • Breaking down recent budgets by line item to keep the school board accountable.

Not every student has the skills to go to college, nor should they be pressured to go. Hampton Roads is filled with good paying, union jobs for in-demand fields that can serve to lift students out of poverty and into economic security. Chesapeake must greatly expand our current offerings to support students interested in taking these routes to receive in-demand certifications by the time they graduate high school. To accomplish this, I am pushing for:

  • Providing new in-demand certification programs that position Hampton Roads as a future, global industrial leader (i.e. Wind Turbine Technicians);
  • Expanding existing in-demand programs to our individual high schools making it easier for students to participate;
  • Creating certification programs for Information Technology & Cybersecurity fields; and
  • Partnering with regional employers to connect graduating students with job, internship, and apprenticeship opportunities.

Community engagement and involvement in our schools is an essential part of every child’s education. Teaching community involvement from a young age sets students up to be future stewards of their community. On our school board, I will advance policies that expand the involvement of students, parents, teachers, and community leaders to be involved both in the decision making process and in our schools, including:

  • Fostering Parent-Teacher communication and collaboration inside and outside the classroom;
  • Empowering PTAs & SCAs to serve as advocates for each school;
  • Expanding access to participate in school board meetings with virtual options;
  • Appointing Non-Voting Student Representatives to School Board;
  • Hosting Town Halls across the City for School Board Members to meet and have personal discussions with constituents; and
  • Training School Admin on creating collaborative frameworks with the community.

Every student deserves access to a high quality, equitable education. Chesapeake Public Schools must do everything in its power to go above and beyond the bare minimum requirements set out by the ADA. Once elected, I will stand up for our students facing barriers in schools by:

  • Ensuring all bathrooms are accessible with features such as handles on both sides of toilets, wheelchair height sinks, and 360 degree rotation accessibility within the stall to ensure wheelchair users can get out easily;
  • Hiring staff to assist parents through the IEP process to ensure time efficiency;Hiring staff to assist parents through the IEP process to ensure time efficiency;
  • Placing standards on the vocabulary of IEPs that will be implemented by all school professionals;
  • Making 504 plan paperwork easily accessible to all parents;
  • Ensuring that in all new and old school buildings, all classrooms be carpeted to maintain accessibility for hearing impaired students and teachers; and
  • Expanding offerings so that any student who is interested is able to take ASL as a foreign language course.

Our current discipline system is not just ineffective, it’s flat out broken. Instead of teaching our children critical skills on conflict resolution and deescalation, we focus on removing students from the classroom, causing learning loss.  Then students often revert back to their poor behavior upon return to school. On school board, I will support a comprehensive reform of our curriculum and discipline system by:

  • Adopting an approach to proactive discipline as has been proven to be effective elsewhere, such as the Oakland Unified School District; and
  • Enacting an age appropriate Conflict-Resolution & Deescalation Curriculum that can be incorporated into all grade levels education.

The arts have been shown time and again to improve academic performance, student mental health, attendance, and civic participation among many other positive factors. To ensure that our students receive the best possible education, I am committed to providing the following opportunities for our students:

  • Searching out new funding sources to expand our existing school arts programs;
  • Investing in a fund for students suffering financial difficulty to still be able to participate in school extracurriculars;
  • Highlighting student artworks in our schools and in the community through murals, chalkings, and other art displays;
  • Increasing field trips to the community and exhibits in our schools by local artists; and
  • Enacting before- & after-school age appropriate enrichment activities in partnership with local artists and non-profits to provide accessible arts education.

Our environment continues to be destroyed without any consideration for our future. At this rate, the natural world will be a fraction of what it was for our future generations to enjoy. Our schools must play their part in fighting the destruction of our environment while setting up our students to be stewards of the environment. As such, I will push for:

  • Enhancing our curriculum to feature sustainability where applicable, especially in science classes;
  • Transitioning our existing fleet of school vehicles to 100% electric by 2035 to combat air pollution;
  • Saving money by updating all school building to Leed Gold certification & powered by renewable energy by 2035;
  • Preserving green space and planting native plantlife featuring foragables the preserve the local ecosystem, teaching students about it in the process, while cutting maintenance costs.