Issues & Record

When I first ran for the Chesapeake School Board, I promised to stand up for conservative family values, defend parental rights, keep our classrooms focused on education, and bring careful scrutiny to the decisions affecting our schools.

Since taking office in 2022, I have approached each issue by listening to our community, examining the facts, asking hard questions, and considering the long-term impact on students, parents, teachers, and taxpayers.

Over the past four years, Chesapeake Public Schools has made meaningful progress. But significant work remains.

My priorities for the next four years are centered on four areas:

Safe Schools. Strong Teachers. Academic Excellence. Parents & Common-Sense Values.

Safe Schools

Protecting Students Must Come First

Every student, teacher, and staff member deserves a safe learning environment.

I supported launching and expanding the Sheriff's Deputy Program in Chesapeake's elementary schools, and I have pushed for the funding necessary to place a dedicated law enforcement officer in every elementary school, along with additional trained, armed security personnel across our buildings.

Our middle and high schools benefit from dedicated School Resource Officers. I believe our youngest students deserve consistent protection as well.

School safety also requires secure buildings, effective discipline, clear expectations for student behavior, and policies that allow teachers and administrators to maintain safe and orderly classrooms.

Chesapeake has made important investments in security, but the work is not finished.

My priorities include:

• Maintaining law enforcement and School Resource Officers in our schools

• Providing dedicated protection at every elementary school

• Continuing investments in secure school facilities

• Supporting effective student discipline and accountability

• Ensuring teachers and staff have the tools necessary to maintain safe, orderly classrooms

The safety of our children should never be an afterthought.

Strong Teachers

Recruit Great Teachers. Keep Great Teachers. Support Them in the Classroom.

Great schools depend on excellent teachers and staff.

During my time on the Board, I have supported multiple increases in teacher and staff compensation, including pay raises and bonuses, to help Chesapeake recruit and retain high-quality employees and remain competitive with surrounding school divisions.

I have also supported efforts to improve working conditions for educators, including increased planning time for elementary teachers.

Supporting teachers requires more than expressing appreciation. It means giving them the compensation, time, resources, classroom support, and professional respect they need to succeed.

It also means examining unnecessary administrative requirements and burdens that take teachers away from their primary responsibility: teaching students.

My priorities include:

• Maintaining competitive teacher and staff compensation

• Recruiting and retaining outstanding educators

• Protecting meaningful teacher planning time

• Reducing unnecessary administrative burdens

• Supporting teachers in maintaining orderly classrooms

• Ensuring classroom resources are directed where they have the greatest impact on students

Our teachers are one of Chesapeake Public Schools' greatest strengths. We should work just as hard to keep great teachers as we do to recruit them.

Academic Excellence

Strong Fundamentals. Great Teachers. Real Preparation for Life After Graduation.

Academic achievement must remain at the center of everything we do.

Our schools should provide students with strong foundations in reading, writing, mathematics, science, history, and critical thinking while preparing them for success after graduation.

Technology can be an important educational tool, but it should support great teaching, not replace it.

I believe we should continue examining the amount of time students spend learning through tablets, laptops, and other screens and ensure that technology is being used because it improves learning, not simply because it is available.

Teachers should remain at the center of the classroom.

Restoring Focus in the Classroom

Students learn best when classrooms are focused, orderly, and free from unnecessary distractions.

I advocated for a cell phone policy restricting student use during the school day to keep students engaged in learning, reduce distractions, and encourage more positive in-person interaction.

Chesapeake was among the school divisions addressing this issue before similar restrictions became more widespread across Virginia.

Maintaining academic excellence also means setting high expectations, measuring results, identifying areas where students are falling behind, and holding the school division accountable for improvement.

Expanding Career and Technical Education

Academic excellence also means recognizing that there is no single path to success after graduation.

Chesapeake must prepare students for college, military service, skilled trades, healthcare, technology, advanced manufacturing, and direct entry into the workforce.

I have consistently supported the Chesapeake Career Center and development of the new Chesapeake Career Academy, and I worked with local and state leaders to secure funding for the project, including a $20 million grant from the Virginia Department of Education.

The broader investment of more than $100 million in career and technical education will expand hands-on learning opportunities and help more Chesapeake students graduate with practical skills, industry credentials, and a clear path toward a successful career.

My priorities include:

• Improving reading and mathematics achievement

• Keeping great teachers at the center of instruction

• Reducing excessive and unnecessary screen time

• Maintaining high academic standards and accountability

• Expanding career and technical education

• Preparing students for college, careers, military service, and skilled trades

• Ensuring students graduate with the knowledge and skills necessary to succeed

Parents & Common-Sense Values

Parents Have a Fundamental Role in Their Children's Education

Parents are the primary decision-makers in the lives of their children.

Schools should respect that role, communicate openly with families, and maintain appropriate boundaries between the school division and matters that properly belong to parents.

I supported Board Policy 8-02, which establishes clear expectations regarding professional conduct and how employees identify themselves in our schools. Among other provisions, the policy provides that no employee may compel a colleague, or compel a student, to address them in a manner that violates that person's constitutionally protected rights, and employees must refrain from presenting students with a preferred personal title or pronoun that does not correspond to the employee's own sex.

I also supported Chesapeake's adoption of policies protecting parental rights and student privacy, including provisions addressing sex-separated activities, locker rooms, and athletics based on biological sex.

I believe girls deserve the opportunity to compete fairly in girls' sports, students deserve appropriate privacy in bathrooms and locker rooms, and parents deserve transparency about the policies affecting their children.

Our schools should be focused on educating children, not advancing political or ideological agendas that interfere with learning.

My priorities include:

• Respecting parents as the primary decision-makers for their children

• Increasing transparency and communication with families

• Keeping classrooms focused on education rather than political agendas

• Protecting opportunities for girls in athletics

• Maintaining common-sense privacy standards for bathrooms and locker rooms

• Ensuring parents have a meaningful voice before major decisions are made

Strong public schools require a strong partnership between educators and families.

Responsible Growth, Facilities & Transportation

Planning for Chesapeake's Future

Chesapeake continues to grow, creating significant challenges involving school capacity, attendance boundaries, transportation, infrastructure, and taxpayer resources.

During my time on the Board, Chesapeake has taken steps to address overcrowding through rezoning, new construction, and long-term facility planning.

I supported opening a new elementary school to provide additional capacity, and I have remained focused on reducing the division's reliance on portable classrooms. With current construction and capacity plans moving forward, Chesapeake is on track to eliminate dozens of portables and move more students into permanent instructional space.

I have also brought my legal and land-use experience to these discussions by asking questions about enrollment projections, development patterns, attendance boundaries, facility capacity, transportation impacts, and the assumptions underlying long-term plans.

As Chesapeake continues to grow, we must address overcrowding in our highest-growth areas while also confronting the needs of aging school buildings across the city.

Families deserve reliable data, thoughtful long-term planning, transparency, and a meaningful opportunity to be heard before major decisions are made.

Improving Transportation

Reliable transportation is essential to the daily operation of our schools.

Like many school divisions, Chesapeake faced a significant shortage of school bus drivers. Through increased recruiting, compensation initiatives, and other efforts, the division has reduced its bus-driver shortage by approximately 67 percent.

That represents meaningful progress, but transportation reliability, driver recruitment, and retention must continue to receive attention.

Accountability to Taxpayers

Asking Questions Before Spending Public Dollars

School Board members have a responsibility to carefully evaluate budgets, policies, contracts, facility plans, and administrative recommendations.

As an attorney and small business owner, I bring experience reviewing complex legal, financial, and organizational issues.

My approach has been straightforward:

Ask questions. Examine the information. Consider alternatives. Understand the long-term consequences.

That responsibility is especially important when overseeing a school division responsible for thousands of students and employees and hundreds of millions of dollars in public resources.

Being a responsible steward of taxpayer dollars does not mean simply spending less. It means directing resources toward the priorities that matter most: safe schools, excellent teachers, strong academics, quality facilities, and opportunities for students.

The Work Continues

Over the past four years, Chesapeake has made meaningful progress:

• Increased teacher and staff compensation through raises and bonuses

• Increased planning time for elementary teachers

• Expanded investment in school safety

• Strengthened the partnership between schools and families

• Expanded career and technical education opportunities

• Secured a $20 million state grant for the Chesapeake Career Academy

• Reduced the bus-driver shortage by approximately 67 percent

• Taken steps to reduce reliance on portable classrooms and address overcrowding

• Implemented stronger restrictions on cell phone use during the school day

• Advanced policies protecting parental rights and student privacy

But there is more work to do. Over the next four years, I will remain focused on:

SAFE SCHOOLS
Trained and armed law enforcement at every school, secure buildings, effective discipline, and protecting students.

STRONG TEACHERS
Competitive pay, teacher retention and recruitment, protected planning time, and fewer unnecessary burdens.

ACADEMIC EXCELLENCE
Strong reading and math achievement, teachers over excessive screen time, career preparation, high standards, and accountability.

PARENTS & COMMON-SENSE VALUES
Parental involvement, transparency, keeping political agendas from interfering with learning, protecting girls' sports, and maintaining common-sense privacy standards in bathrooms and locker rooms.

Our future leaders are being educated in Chesapeake's public schools today. The decisions made by the School Board will affect our community for decades. Those decisions deserve careful analysis, transparency, accountability, and a willingness to ask tough questions.

That is the approach I have brought to the School Board, and that is the work I am committed to continuing.