What motivated you to run for District 5?
A lot of friends, especially parents that are involved in PTOs around the district, had asked me [to run] after I helped connect some folks to some state legislatures during the initial takeover of the district by the state.
What has been your biggest struggle with running for District 5?
I’m a campaign amateur, so I have no idea how to campaign. I’ve never done this before, so I’m really just learning as I go, but having a lot of fun doing it and talking to people around the district about what they’re concerned about and what they wish for the district and wish for our city.
What do you feel are the biggest issues district five is currently facing, and how would you plan to address it?
As a trustee, our role is always to focus on student outcomes first and foremost. So no matter what’s facing the district, we always have to be focused on the students and making sure that we’re providing the best environment for them and giving them the best chance of success.
Second to that, I think the biggest issue facing the district is retention. We have an issue with retention of teachers and principals and administration, as well as an issue of retention of students. So, we’re seeing our numbers of students drop every year, and we’re seeing our teachers and administrators turnover way too much every year, and that’s just causing disruption and chaos in the classroom. We’ve got to stop that.
What would be your main goals and objectives as a trustee?
The interesting thing about trustees is we currently don’t have anything to do as far as governance goes, so my number one goal is to be a trustee that the state will put back on to the governing board as soon as possible.
We know that Mr. Morath at the Texas Education Agency has said they are targeting two years from now to start rolling trustees back onto the board, and I think it’s critical that the voters of District 5 pick a candidate who they believe will get back on the dais first, so back on the governing board as soon as possible.
How do you feel that your professional background will influence you as a candidate and potentially a trustee?
I am a political science major that studied government. Then, working in the oil and gas business for 10 years, my job was to convince folks to do the projects that we were doing. So, I spent a lot of time with government boards and county commissions. I worked at the time for a company called Crestwood Midstream, we were a publicly traded pipeline gas, crude, gas and water gathering company. I was the Vice President of Government Relations there.
Most interestingly, I spent a lot of time on the Fort Berthold Indian Reservation in North Dakota, working with the councilmen of that tribe. I was convincing them to put infrastructure projects, pipeline projects, on their reservation, so that we could transport their crude oil and gas through pipelines underground instead of trucks overground. They had a mobile trailer that literally had a hole in the bottom of it where they had their Pre-K. And this is in North Dakota, where it gets to 60 below zero. So it was just a terrible little building that they had, and it was in bad shape. So, I convinced our company and worked with Head Start, a federally funded pre-K program, to build them a $2 million building to give them a new preschool. That was the project I’m most proud of there.
What I found [in Fort Berthold Indian Reservation] was that the tribe was split up into seven different districts, and so at any time, I needed to convince four of those councilmen to get anything I wanted done. That’s not really that different from what it means to govern as a trustee of HISD, you’ve got nine districts, and if you want to get something done for the students, you’ve got to have five of the trustees to vote for it. So I actually have a decent amount of experience working those kinds of relationships, and I really enjoy the relationships, and what I’ve learned is the best way to let someone know you care, it’s to actually care. That’s actually the first step.
I’m now a practicing attorney, so I spend my time often convincing a judge or convincing opposing counsel, or convincing my own client or 12 jurors that what I’m telling them is the right way to do something. So, I know how to advocate. I know how to advocate for our students, and I know that when I get back on that board, I’ll be able to do that for them.
How do you feel your personal connections to HISD will influence you as a candidate and potentially a trustee?
I have three [kids] in HISD schools, so that personally connects me to the day-to-day life of HISD and really makes me care about what’s happening there.
That said, when I get elected trustee, every student will be my student, whether they’re in my district, or they’re in District 9 or District 1 or District 7, it doesn’t matter. They’re going to be my students at that point. So my personal connection will be through all of them, and I look forward to advocating for them.
What experience do you have dealing with the school board, and how do you think that this will help you as a potential trustee?
I’ve obviously never been on the school board before, so I don’t have that. I’ve definitely attended meetings, and I’ve advocated at the education agency for the State House, but I’ve never held a position. What I know is as a parent sitting on the outside, so I just bring that knowledge.
What is one thing you want the community that will elect you to know about you?
That I’m not here for any partisan group, that I’m here for the students. I, as a human being, seem to be pretty center of the road on things, and my objective is to find solutions and then convince at least four other trustees that that solution is the right solution, and to get it done so that we can move this district forward and continue progress.
Where do you receive the majority of your campaign funding from and how do you feel this reflects your values?
Right now, most of my funding has come from friends. I have received no organizational money to date. I’m not saying I wouldn’t accept it, because every dollar helps, but I think it’s important that the public know that any organization who gives me money, I will very openly and honestly tell them that it buys them nothing. Again, I’m taking on a legal relationship with my beneficiary when I become a trustee, and that I will be representing their best interest above all others. So if they want to give me money, great, but it doesn’t buy them anything.
What do you think is the significance of the role of a trustee?
The significance is, it’s a democratically elected position. So you’re a representative of the people, but as a trustee, you have a very special name. You’re not called a representative, you’re called a trustee. And when we look at that word legally, that means you have a beneficiary. In this case, the beneficiaries are the students of HISD, so you have a special relationship to those students, to act in their best interest above all other interests. That’s the way I view it, and I take that responsibility very seriously.
