I am humbled to have earned your confidence and trust
I am honored and humbled by your support and look forward to serving you, the Buckeye Union School District, and its community for the next 4 years.
My view has always been that our public schools are a reflection of our community and its values. When our schools thrive, our community thrives. Great schools mean the community cares about our children and their education and we are all the better for it.
I look forward to doing my part to ensure our schools continue to deliver the best possible outcomes for all students and that they support the values of our community.
Thank you again. Please know that you can always reach out to me to discuss anything related to our Buckeye district and its schools and I am happy to be of assistance or point you to the person(s) who will.
I am asking for your vote to continue my work to ensure the best possible educational outcomes for all students in the Buckeye Union School District.
With your vote, I vow support for parental involvement, local control, and to always keep the focus of our Buckeye schools on what is best for students.
The Buckeye Union School District is a very high performing district. We have a strong administrative team, outstanding teachers, and highly skilled and caring staff members. Our fiscal position is very strong and our budget is focused to deliver the best educational outcomes for our Buckeye students.
As a result, our test scores and educational outcomes are among the top among districts our size anywhere in the state. Not only do our students benefit, but so does our entire community. Statistically, top quality schools support higher property values, result in lower crime rates, and are a general benefit to all community members.
I look forward to being your voice on the Buckeye Union School District Governing Board for the next four years as a champion for our students and for continuous improvement across the district.
Thank you in advance for your vote and your support!
If you would like a deeper dive into the district, my background with the district, and my first term, please read on.
For the past fourteen years I have been deeply involved with our Buckeye district school.
In 2008, in the depths of the Great Recession, my wife Shannon and I were among the co-founders of the volunteer, non-profit Buckeye Education Foundation that to date has raised almost $1 million dollars to fund PE, Library, Music, Professional Development, and Technology Infrastructure that helps differentiate our Buckeye schools from so many others. None of this would have been affordable if we had to rely solely on the funding provided by the state.
For the past 4 years, I have served as your elected representative on the Buckeye Union School District Governing Board.
With Covid, PG&E power outages, fires, and more it has been a crazy time to serve on a school board! Through it all, the Buckeye district has set an exemplary standard for school districts across the state by listening to parents, teachers, and staff, and by keeping all efforts successfully focused on delivering the best possible educational outcomes for students.
Unquestionably, the Buckeye district navigated the challenges of state Covid directives to public schools as well or better than any other district in California.
When state directives forced closures of in-person learning, our teacher training and technology infrastructure allowed our teachers and students to reconnect within a matter of days through virtual classrooms. While far from an ideal learning environment, our success in keeping students connected with their teachers and classes stood in stark contrast with the many districts that failed in this area and where studies show there has been substantial learning loss.
When the state gave the OK to allow half the students back into the classroom at a time, our Buckeye students were again among the first in the state back in their seats getting quality in person instruction.
Later, when the state released rules that would allow full classrooms of students if there was 6′ of space between students, our Board and administration were on the front line showing the powers that be the physical impossibility of that 6′ rule. We successfully pushed to have the distance requirement changed. Once the requirement was changed, ALL of our students were back in the classroom within 2 weeks. Another task the Buckeye district completed more quickly than almost any other district in California.
The state of California gave school districts very little room for local control and decision making around Covid protocols. Many of our families voiced their concerns to the board on both sides of every argument. I empathize with every parent of a student during this time. My own students were dealing with similar issues at the university level and I often felt as helpless as you might have. Given the circumstances, I am very proud of how our Buckeye community worked through the Covid issues together. We are now busy working to ensure that any learning loss, as small as it might be, or any developmental gaps our students might have, are closed as quickly as possible.
While much of our district staff was focused on the educational side of the house, there were other important tasks our district tackled during Covid that might not have been as visible to many in the community.
Our food services team worked tirelessly providing approximately 14,000 meals each week, breakfast and lunch for 7-days each week, to children under the age of 18 who rely on school-supplied meals to eat each day. These meals were provided at no charge throughout the community regardless of school district affiliation.
We also distributed 225 wireless hotspots to families and multifamily housing environments so students had the necessary internet access to participate in their virtual classrooms.
Meanwhile, our facilities team upgraded the HVAC systems on each campus to meet the highest filtration standards in preparation for students’ eventual return the classroom.
The Buckeye district did not sit still on improving our educational programs during the pandemic, either. Amidst all of the distractions, Camerado Springs Middle School and Valley View Charter Montessori Middle School worked through the stringent requirements to qualify for and convert to International Baccalaureate programs, further expanding the school choice options for families in the Buckeye district.
I was deeply involved in the negotiated end date for the schools portion of the Serrano Mello-Roos tax. Prior to joining the board I worked with other homeowners to meet with the school districts and help them to understand the desire of homeowners to establish an end date for the tax that had previously been left open-ended. Later, I served as a volunteer on the Serrano Owners Association Mello-Roos Committee that met with the districts to build a framework for a final agreement. When I was elected to the Buckeye board, I was then able to work with the district administration to finalize the agreement that is in place today with the Serrano HOA.
I am happy to report that as of earlier this year, the Buckeye Union School District has pre-paid the financing that was funded through the Mello-Roos and the district no longer accepts any funds from the Serrano Schools Mello-Roos Tax. Per the negotiated agreement, funds earmarked for Buckeye now get dispersed to the Rescue Union School District to accelerate the payoff of their obligations. Once that is completed, all Mello-Roos funds will be directed the High School District to accomplish the same.
Buckeye schools now offer students 4 different educational choices: Traditional, Montessori, International Baccalaureate, and Mandarin Immersion programs. When you combine these with the 4 independent charter schools the district manages, California Montessori Project, Cottonwood Charter, Rising Sun Montessori, and Clarksville Charter, the Buckeye district overseas a greater variety of educational options and charter schools than any district its size that I am aware of.
The things I’m focused on as we move forward include school safety, the ongoing teacher and labor shortage, the always fluctuating California state budgets that can change our school funding practically overnight, the Buckeye district’s new Math curriculum rollout, the new Reading Intervention program, and the expansion of our Positive Behavioral Interventions and Supports (PBIS) plan that uses positive approaches to help students learn school appropriate behaviors to improve overall student outcomes.
As a district we know that success happens because of fantastic teachers, great staff, outstanding administrators, engaged students, and involved families.
We should all be thankful that Buckeye has all of the above.
I look forward to continuing the work to continuously improve outcomes for every student in the Buckeye Union School District.
Thank you in advance for your vote and your support!
