Fair questions, straight answers.

Think of it as the board of directors for the district. The committee adopts the budget, sets policy, negotiates and approves contracts, and hires and evaluates the superintendent. It does not run schools day to day — that is the superintendent’s job — and it does not invent curriculum from scratch, since much of that framework comes from the state.

The honest version: it is an oversight job. Warwick Public Schools runs on roughly $203 million a year of public money, and the committee is the room where that money is supposed to get watched.

District 2 covers Wards 4, 5, and 6 — Riverview, Conimicut, Warwick Neck, Buttonwoods, and Oakland Beach, roughly the side of the city that runs along the bay.

If you are not sure which district you are in, the Secretary of State’s voter lookup at vote.sos.ri.gov will tell you from your address, along with your polling place.

Two other candidates filed for the seat in June, and both withdrew over the summer, which leaves one name on the ballot.

I do not read anything grand into that. School committee is unglamorous work with real homework attached, and fewer people volunteer for it than the job deserves. What I will say is that an uncontested race is a reason to do more homework, not less, because voters are not getting the check an opponent would provide.

Yes. I will be on the ballot November 3 along with everything else Warwick is voting on this fall. Key dates, early voting, and the polling place lookup are all on the Get Involved page.

I run brand and content marketing for a community-banking software company, and I founded a nonprofit that does policy research and testimony at the Rhode Island State House. Both jobs come down to the same skill: take something complicated and financial and explain it so a person without a finance degree can follow it.

That is the skill I intend to bring to the district’s budget. The longer story is on the Meet Dan page.

Email me at dan@herseyforwarwick.com. I read every message and respond personally, usually within two business days.

If it is about something specific in a school — a schedule, a bus route, a special-education meeting that is going nowhere — include enough detail that I can actually look into it. Once seated, I will also hold open office hours at neighborhood libraries on a published schedule.