Candidate Questionnaire
Surround Sound
Surround Sound News sent candidates in the Conroe ISD Board of Trustees Position 1 race (General Election, November 3, 2026) a questionnaire and publishes the answers as submitted, without editing. Each answer was limited to 150 words. Outlets covering this race include The Woodlands Record.
Why are you seeking elective office?
My wife Denise taught in Conroe ISD for 12 years before leaving the classroom. I wanted to understand why experienced educators like her were walking away and why so many families were losing confidence in our schools. So I started attending board meetings, reading budgets, serving on district committees, and listening to parents, teachers, and taxpayers.
What I found is a board that too often makes major decisions in executive session or on the consent agenda, rarely reviews student outcome data in public, and spends too much energy on political and ideological fights that do not belong in a school district.
I am running to bring steady, transparent governance back to the board: real oversight, honest budgets, a genuine voice for teachers, and a consistent focus on student outcomes and wellbeing.
Your occupation and work history:
I have worked in information technology for about 20 years, primarily in the energy sector. I am currently a Cloud Security Architect, focused on systems architecture & cybersecurity, including data security areas such as Data Loss Prevention, Insider Risk, and Threat Intelligence. That work has taught me to read the details, follow the data, and make sure decisions hold up under scrutiny, which is exactly what a school board trustee should do.
Outside my day job, I build tools for the community. I created Board Monitor (cisd.boardmonitor.app), a free public site that tracks Conroe ISD board agendas, meeting summaries, and policy changes, and I write about district governance at We Have Quorum (wehavequorum.net).
Previous and current elected or appointed office(s):
Elected: President, Board of Directors, Montgomery County MUD #88. During my tenure, our board has reduced the district's tax rate by roughly 30%.
Volunteer board: President, Bristol Lakes Homeowners Association; President, Legends Trace Homeowners Association (previous home).
District advisory roles: Parent Co-Chair of the Conroe ISD School Health Advisory Council (SHAC), leading a 72-member council that advises the Board of Trustees on student health, safety, and wellbeing. Member of the Conroe ISD Community Collaborative Cohort.
In total, about 10 years of board service.
Party affiliation?
None. Conroe ISD election candidates do not appear on the ballot with a party label, and Texas does not have party registration for school boards. I am running as a pro-public education candidate that supports Texas public schools.
A school board serves every child in the district, regardless of how their parents vote. Over the last several years, partisan politics has done real damage to trust in Conroe ISD, and I think the district is better served by trustees who decide each issue on what it does for students, teachers, and taxpayers rather than on a party platform. Kids over politics, every time.
Your education:
Texas A&M University, College Station: Bachelor of Science in Biology and Master of Engineering in Technical Management
Your family:
My wife Denise and I have been together 20 years and have lived in Montgomery County for 19 years. We have three children, all attending Conroe ISD schools.
Denise taught in Conroe ISD for 12 years and was twice named Teacher of the Year at her campus before leaving the classroom. Our family sees this district from both sides, the classroom and the kitchen table, and that is a big part of why I am running.
When I am not at work or a board meeting, I am usually at a school event or spending a day in my kids' classrooms as a Watch DOGS volunteer.
Does anyone in your family work in politics or government?
No. For full transparency, my wife Denise was a Conroe ISD teacher for 12 years; she is no longer employed by the district. I also currently serve as an elected director and board president of my Municipal Utility District. If elected to Conroe ISD's board, I will resign my current positions with our MUD and HOA to prioritize my time for our public schools.
What are the critical differences between you and other candidates seeking this post?
The clearest differences are experience and approach. My opponent was appointed by a 4-2 board vote in January 2026, having no prior board experience. I have about 10 years of board leadership, including as elected president of my MUD, where our board reduced the tax rate by roughly 30%. I also bring 20 years in systems architecture and cybersecurity, which matters for a district managing a large budget, complex technology, and sensitive student data.
I have spent years tracking our school district, volunteering for district committees, co-chairing the district's health advisory council, and building tools like Board Monitor so families can see what the board actually does. I take transparency seriously by surfacing and presenting data publicly, making it easy for everyone to consume and understand.
I am also running without a party endorsement, unlike my opponent, and my votes will be decided issue by issue rather than political direction.
What accomplishments in your past would you cite as evidence you can handle this job?
As president of my Municipal Utility District, I have helped lead a board that reduced our tax rate by roughly 30%, with a focus on fiduciary responsibility, transparency, and long-term planning.
As Parent Co-Chair of Conroe ISD's 72-member School Health Advisory Council, I helped lead a cohort that produced more reports and recommendations for the Board of Trustees than any previous SHAC, covering student mental health, suicide prevention, physical safety, and teacher retention.
I built Board Monitor, a free public tool that tracks board agendas, meeting summaries, and policy changes, and I have written about district governance and budgets at We Have Quorum since 2023.
Professionally, I have spent 20 years designing secure systems in the energy sector, where mistakes are expensive and accountability is not optional.
Each is the same job at a different scale: read the details, ask hard questions, and decide in public.
The best advice ever shared with me was:
It was not advice so much as a question: "Are you a serious person?"
A professor asked me that when I was nearly failing his class. I was working multiple part-time jobs to pay my own way through college, and somewhere along the way I had lost focus. I did not have an answer for him at the time, but the question stuck with me.
Over time I learned to ask it of myself before taking on anything new. If you are truly serious about something, you prioritize it, put in the effort, make the changes in your life to support it, and see it through to the finish.
Being serious is not about talent or intelligence. It is about follow-through. Caring about an outcome is easy; doing the unglamorous work to reach it is what matters, especially when no one is watching.