Julie and I have raised five successful Bearcats in Paso Robles.  Since 1988, I have owned several businesses often employing over fifty people. I am now a business consultant and REALTOR®. As the only Paso Trustee who graduated from the California School Boards Association’s MIG/Masters In Governance program, I bring a unique understanding of effective governance, school finance, Ed-Code, bylaws, commonsense, reason, fiscal restraint and, when needed, righteous indignation at board meetings. I am not afraid to speak out, ask tough questions, represent the concerns and suggestions of parents, students, teachers, businesses or voters, especially taxpayers. I volunteer at church, schools, city, county, Main Street Association and Rotary.

During my first term, I collaborated with district employees, especially teachers, enhancing our CTE/Career Technical Education, VAPA/Visual and Performing Arts, DI/Dual Immersion, and Counseling programs while eliminating deficit spending, balancing the budget and building a 10% budget reserve. Roblans narrowly approved Measure M to completely rebuild our oldest schools, update remaining elementary sites and build an Aquatics Complex.

My second term was more challenging. While elementary athletics, CTE, Skills USA, student safety, academic rigor/A-G, GATE and VAPA were either restored or significantly enhanced, a lack of good governance and a failure to provide accurate budget projections led to over-hiring, massive deficit spending and purchasing pools we may never build. I alone tried to prevent nearly $7,000,000 of budget reserve from being erased. Recently, I succeeded in preventing an attempted raid on Measure M construction money for salaries.

California’s economy may not recover from the COVID-19 pandemic until 2024. Even with Federal assistance, ongoing budget cuts and deferred payments to schools will continue as Sacramento adjusts to smaller tax revenues. Unfortunately, we may have to consolidate schools, cut staff, salaries and programs. Temporary school closures helped close our budget gap but the cost to our students’ education remains unacceptable. While these cuts are expected to be temporary, we must act today to ensure our schools remain locally controlled by Paso Roblans, their elected board and a superintendent of their choice.

Why vote for me? To help families self-determine the best way to educate their children, catch up and keep pace. To demand that our schools reopen safely for in-person learning, tutoring, childcare, athletics, VAPA and to add a Dual Immersion program on the eastside. Vote for me to reduce expenses, stop deficit spending and eliminate the primary cause of wasteful change-orders at our construction sites. 

Thank you.

If elected I look forward to working together with the District’s guiding principles, I would be an encourager of a team that is preparing students for successful careers, to become active community members and to be ready for the challenges of advanced education. 

I am a Constitutionalist.  I believe America is the greatest and most free country to ever exist.  Since our founding we have improved on original flaws that came as a result of compromise.  Those corrections have provided full freedom for all citizens regardless of race, religion or sex.  I believe the smaller the government the greater the liberty of the individual.  I believe the government should work the hardest to control cost since the government (especially the local) has no money except what they take from hardworking citizens.

I was born in Houston, Texas, the third of nine children of Earl and Emma Washington. My father was a common laborer while my mother, between child care duties, worked as a "short order" cook.  After twelve years of education in the Houston Public School system, I enrolled in Texas Southern University, becoming the first in my family to attend and, ultimately, graduate from college.  Upon, college graduation, I entered the United States Navy where I served two years aboard the USS Shangra-La, a Pacific Coast carrier.  My duties aboard ship included editor of the ship's newspaper and contributing news articles to the Armed Forces Press news organization.

After my navy honorable discharge, I left Houston for San Francisco, bringing along a wife and a newborn daughter.  My wife Sarah had recently graduated from Texas Southern and began teaching immediately in The San Francisco Unified system.  I, on the other hand, did not have a teacher's credential and worked as a newspaper reporter until I obtained my teacher's credential.  At times I thought about returning to Texas, but California proved to be the stronger pull as I  have thrived here.  In addition to teaching, I have owned a rental listing business, a flower shop, and served ten years as a  Gavilan Joint Community  College board member, helpful experiences in understanding fiscal responsibility.  I am in my fifth year living in Paso Robles and have concluded that I have had enough of "do-nothing" retirement.

Becoming a candidate for this office has an important perk involved - its non partisan, it does not require national party affiliation. Education is non partisan; its about teachin and learning in order to create a better world, not a better political party. For the record, I am a democratic party supporter, partly because of my parents, and my personal understanding of national party differences.  But, I never found party differences an issue in teaching, either my English or my Social Science classes.  I taught the subject matter - sentence structure, paragraph development, etc. for my English classes; racial groups, ethnicity, the social process, etc. for my Social Science classes.  Indeed, a board member is not a teacher but rather a financial decision maker whose judgements are about teaching and learning, not political parties.  As a board I intend to govern in the best interest of students, teachers and the community in which I serve.