My Pillars

1. Reestablish Strong Mentoring Programs

Bring back formal mentoring programs with trained, experienced educators. Provide protected weekly meeting time and build support that reduces burnout and strengthens classroom management.

2. Give Teachers a Voice in Leadership

Establish teacher advisory councils, involve teachers in decisions on curriculum and discipline, and ensure direct communication with administration.

3. Respect and Appreciate Teachers Consistently

Celebrate teachers year-round, reduce unnecessary paperwork, provide duty-free lunches, and maintain regular leadership check-ins.

4. Support Teachers With Less Than Two Years of Experience

Place new teachers in classrooms with fewer extreme behavior gaps, offer co-teaching or assistants, and provide targeted professional development tied to real needs.

1. Strong fundamentals drive student success.

When students can read, write, and do math confidently in structured classrooms, learning accelerates, behavior improves, and long-term success becomes possible at every grade level.

2. Experience in the classroom shapes this vision.

As a former educator, I’ve seen that when fundamentals slip, learning gaps widen and challenges grow. Rebuilding strong academic and behavioral foundations must be a priority across all schools.

3. You can’t replace fundamentals with programs or technology.

Innovation has a place, but it cannot substitute for consistency, structure, and mastery of core skills. Strong teaching—not expensive initiatives—is what truly moves students forward.

4. Focus resources where learning actually happens.

Learning gaps don’t close through district-level distractions or one-size-fits-all solutions. They close in classrooms, through effective instruction, daily reinforcement, and smart, responsible use of resources.

1. Place Students in the Right Learning Environment

Every student learns differently. Matching them to the right setting increases success and restores calm to classrooms.

• Expand alternative learning environments for students who need smaller groups, additional structure, or therapeutic support.

• Use clear, data-driven criteria for when a student should transition to a different setting.

• Make sure teachers have a real voice in placement decisions.

2. Give Administrators Real, Usable Consequences

Principals can’t enforce expectations with consequences that don't mean anything.

• Reinstate practical, effective interventions: loss of privileges, structured restitution, meaningful in-school consequences, and mandatory parent conferences.

• Provide a district-approved tiered consequence system that principals are empowered to use consistently.

• Suggest documentation so behavior patterns follow the student, ensuring continuity.

3. Bring District-Level Support Into the Schools

Leadership should help solve behavior problems, not just write policies from far away.

• Suggest district personnel to spend time on campuses weekly supporting administrators with behavior challenges.

• Use these visits to model expectations, mentor newer administrators, and intervene when chronic issues escalate.

• Maintain a direct communication loop between teachers, principals, and district leaders.

4. Replace the Ineffective Discipline Matrix

The current one-size-fits-all discipline matrix has failed students, teachers, and administrators.

• Develop age-appropriate discipline models for elementary, middle, and high school.

• Allow administrators the flexibility to apply consequences based on context, not a rigid chart.

• Establish campus Behavior Escalation Teams to ensure repeated infractions receive a stronger, more effective response.