I Didn't Wait for a Title

While others talk about fixing SFUSD, I have spent years inside the system — in classrooms, on audit committees, in the budget documents, and in the public square.

At a Glance

• SFUSD K–12 graduate (Argonne, Presidio, Lowell)
• Vice Chair, SFUSD Citizens' Bond Oversight Committee
• Former San Francisco Civil Grand Juror
• Classroom volunteer from high school to today, including weekly literacy volunteering through the SF Education Fund
• Professional experience in biotechnology and construction, leading complex projects and organizational improvement

I've Been Doing the Homework for Years

Long before I decided to run, I was already deep in the work.

I have written dozens of opinion pieces and analyses for the San Francisco Examiner, Beyond Chron, Wind Newspaper, and other outlets — digging into budgets, facilities, literacy, absenteeism, and governance. I'm a regular guy who simply has the time, the interest, and the stubbornness to read the reports, follow the money, and write clearly about what I find.

That same habit is why I stepped up as Vice Chair of the Citizens' Bond Oversight Committee (watching over more than $1 billion in school construction) and why I still spend time every week in classrooms and on district budget documents.

The deep dives, platform, and materials you see on this site are the product of that same approach: my own research and writing, accelerated by AI tools that help me move faster, and reviewed by a group of experienced educators who keep me honest and grounded in classroom reality.

I'm not outsourcing my thinking. I'm doing the work — and inviting you to judge it for yourself.

Independent Fiscal Oversight

Vice Chair, SFUSD Citizens' Bond Oversight Committee

• Currently serve as Vice Chair (previously led the Audit Committee)
• Independent citizen oversight of more than $1 billion in school facilities bond spending
• Restored meaningful public oversight and scrutinize contracts, timelines, expenditures and change orders so bond dollars reach students
• Pressed auditors and district staff to distinguish following a process from proving that an individual change order was justified
• Worked to preserve the committee's independence as changes have been proposed to reduce its meetings and increase district control over its work

What the Public Minutes Show

At the October 4, 2023 CBOC meeting, I asked whether SFUSD was absorbing costs caused by architects' errors and omissions instead of charging those costs back to the responsible firms. The independent auditor confirmed that the audit checked whether procedures were followed; it did not

The committee later made a project-level review of Thurgood Marshall High School change orders a formal priority, including comparison with industry standards. By May 1, 2024, the public record identified 22 change orders there and documented how difficult the supporting details were to find. Read the committee's 2024 project-oversight priorities.

What I can responsibly claim: the minutes document scrutiny, a clearer audit limitation and follow-up work on change-order transparency. They do not establish a specific dollar amount that I personally saved, so I will not manufacture one. The goal is to catch weak controls and unjustified costs before they become routine.

See the complete SFUSD CBOC archive: agendas, minutes, audits and meeting materials.

Why it matters: Families deserve to know that the money they voted for is spent honestly—and to see the record for themselves.

Classroom Commitment

• Weekly literacy volunteer in a Bayview kindergarten (Drew Elementary) through the San Francisco Education Fund
• Support at 12+ schools across the city plus construction site walkthroughs
• Focused on the foundational skill that changes everything: learning to read

Expanding Opportunity

• Helped award hundreds of scholarships to SFUSD students, many first-generation college-goers
• Key supporter of the ballot measure that restored 8th-grade algebra access
• Advocate for the TK–8 Mandarin Immersion school and dual-language pathways

Civil Grand Jury & Building Consensus

• Served on the San Francisco Civil Grand Jury, helping produce a 2023 report on SFUSD's shortage of credentialed teachers, with recommendations to bring more qualified teachers into our schools.
• Supported educators during the EMPower payroll crisis and teachers' strike, and stood with students organizing for safer schools.
• Helped establish the Asian American Parents Advisory Committee, giving a historically underrepresented community a formal voice in district decisions.

Why it matters: Good leadership means listening, following the facts, respecting different views, and finding common ground. That's the approach I'll bring to the Board of Education.

This same throughline runs through my whole life — read the full story on Coming Back.