Paso Robles Joint Unified School DistrictCandidate for Board Member

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.