Thank you for visiting! Here is more information about me and my background.

I have two children, a first and a third grader, currently attending Bessie Rhodes, which probably sheds some light on why I am running for school board. The more I learn about the situation surrounding Bessie Rhodes, its planned closure and its relationship to the fifth ward school and the district at large, the more concerned I become. I am concerned not only about my own children but for a school district that is struggling under the weight of its own commitments, a district still reeling from high profile administrative departures. This is a district and community that is still recovering from a pandemic and is dealing with large budget shortfalls. It’s a lot.

I would be lying if I said I had the solutions to all the challenges facing District 65. What I do have is a background that puts me in a position to collaborate with my fellow board members to make the adjustments necessary to set the district on the right path.

I am an Evanston native with a masters degree in education from the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign. I have a broad set of professional experiences that have forced me to learn how to solve novel problems, learn new skills and pivot when a plan is not working. My most important job of the past decade has been stay-at-home dad to my two children. 

I have worked at Northwestern University, balancing departmental accounts at the business school. I worked as a preschool gym teacher for a year at the McGaw YMCA Children’s Center while my oldest child was a student there. I served as a long-term substitute teacher covering a maternity leave at Chiaravalle Montessori school here in Evanston. Right now I work at the McGaw YMCA as a personal trainer and small-group barbell/strength coach. (It hasn’t escaped me that this race has not one but TWO guys named Chris who work in the fitness industry as lifting coaches. I’m still not sure what the significance of that is but it’s kind of interesting)

Before attending school board meetings I would not have thought that being on a school board would have anything in common with personal training but there are some notable similarities. Both involve working with complex systems that may be under several sources of stress at any time (a human being; a community of students, educators and school buildings). Both involve working with a limited set of tools (a program of specific exercises; approving budgets, hiring superintendent). Both seek to improve outcomes (increase health and quality of life; prepare children for the future). Both fields require the utmost care in implementing any approach. People are understandably very sensitive about their bodies and health, especially if they are recovering from an injury or have had bad experiences with fitness professionals in the past. A community is very sensitive about its children, especially if, like Evanston, a subset of those children has been historically underserved and overburdened, and the community has had bad experiences with school boards and administrations in the past. The first step a fitness professional should take with a new client is establishing trust. Without trust, it will not be possible to make meaningful progress. We have seen how hard it is for a school district when a board makes decisions without the trust of the community. When the new board is sworn in after the April 1 elections, establishing trust will be the first thing we need to do.

I am writing this response while sitting in the audience at the school board meeting taking place on November 18, and the tone of public comments still shows a public lack of trust with the board. The acknowledgment of the recent tentative agreement between the teacher’s union and the district is being highlighted in the comments too, so I am hopeful. There is still a lot of work to do. I am eager to get started.