Delaware Valley Regional High School District serves students from five local school districts: Alexandria Township, Holland Township, Kingwood Township, Borough of Milford , and Borough of Frenchtown. The Delaware Valley Regional School District Board of Education consists of nine members elected by the constituents of the participating municipalities: three representatives from Holland Township, two representatives each from Alexandria Township and Kingwood Township, and one representative each from the Borough of Milford and the Borough of Frenchtown.
I have two daughters in this district, and I'd rather help with the work than comment from the sidelines. Volunteering over the years has taught me how much a school depends on people simply showing up, and gave me real respect for the staff, families, and board members doing that work. In my experience watching the school board, this district has been served by people who are thinking long term, and that matters. I'm not running because something's broken. I'm running because that work doesn't finish, and it needs people willing to carry it forward.
Professionally, I've spent nearly twenty years as a leader and consultant helping organizations work through complicated, expensive decisions: reading the budget behind the proposal, asking what something costs in year three, and getting a room of people with different priorities to a decision everyone can live with.
Personally: patience, a real willingness to hear from people who see things differently, and comfort asking the plain question in a room full of experts. I'd like to leave this district a little stronger than I found it.
Given the pressures on budgets, I don't think there are many easy answers. Districts our size have been working at this for years, and the pressures keep changing.
So rather than arrive with a list, I'd bring a way of working. Look at the full range of options honestly. Ask what something costs in year three, not just next year. Start with the costs furthest from the classroom and work inward, so instruction is what we protect rather than what we reach for first. And make these decisions early enough that we're choosing our path instead of reacting to it. Savings found in March are often cuts. Savings found three years out are planning.
I'd also want that work done alongside our sending communities where it makes sense. Five towns facing the same pressures separately will always do worse than five working together.
And if we ever reach a point where the remaining options do affect instruction, I'd want us to say so plainly to our community rather than soften it.
Board meetings are the foundation, and I'm glad ours are recorded so someone who can't make a weeknight can still see how a decision got made.
But meetings alone aren't enough. The families who show up are a self-selected group. The ones who don't — working a second shift, no childcare, or just not comfortable speaking at a microphone — have exactly the same stake in this district.
So the real work is being reachable in ordinary places. At games and performances. In the parking lot. Answering an email from someone who would never speak publicly. Our communities are spread across five towns, and no one should have to drive to be heard.
Timing matters too. If people first hear about a decision when it's already made, they've lost the chance to help shape it. Bringing the community in while the options are still open is part of what makes it real.
What I'd commit to is simple: listen without needing to win the conversation, bring what I hear back to the board, and be honest about what I can do with it.
AI is already in our students' hands. Schools exist to prepare kids for the world they're entering, and that world has AI in it. Students who use these tools well will be better positioned than those who don't, and that shouldn't come down to which families can afford a subscription. They also need to graduate able to think for themselves. Those aren't in conflict, but getting both takes deliberate policy. Three things I support.
First, clarity at the assignment level — whether AI is permitted should be stated by the teacher for each task, so students aren't guessing and expectations don't shift class to class.
Second, a firm line on assessment: a human educator owns every grade and every judgment about a student. AI can help a teacher plan or draft feedback. It never decides anything about a child's progress or wellbeing.
Third, privacy — any tool we put in front of students should be reviewed and approved before their thinking or data goes into it.
On the board's role, we adopt policy; we don't write classroom practice. NJSBA has a model AI policy, and I'd want ours reviewed regularly as this keeps evolving.
