On the issues facing District 2.

In February 2026, Warwick voters rejected a $50 million supplemental bond for the new high schools. That was not a vote against schools so much as a vote against more debt without a clearer plan for the district that exists today. The right starting point for the next term is a set of honest questions, not a list of pre-cooked answers. Where is the structural deficit coming from, and how much of it is health-care cost growth that has been allowed to drift for years? What is the operating plan that justifies asking voters for anything more? And what is this committee willing to ask of the Rhode Island Department of Education when state mandates drive Warwick costs up without commensurate state funding? Children come first, and every dollar already inside the FY27 budget should be expected to reach a classroom, a teacher, or a building before we add to it.

The operating questions on a school committee, the ones that sit beneath the politics, deserve the same seriousness the politics get. These are the ones I plan to pay attention to: capital planning for the elementary schools, special-education programming, teacher retention, and transportation. The kids in those classrooms are not abstract, and neither are the families who pay for the system.

A lot of the trust gap between school committees and parents is, when you look at it closely, mostly a communication gap. Decisions get made and the public learns later; votes get cast and the reasoning is not explained. I want to bring the same operational habits to public service that I bring to my day job, namely clear written summaries, response times that respect the person who asked the question, and a consistent presence in the neighborhoods I represent throughout the year.