The Issues

Student Access and Success

MPC serves a diverse student body that includes both full-time and part-time students. I believe that the MPC Board should support its new Superintendent in striving to better the education services for full-time and part-time students, as well as K-12 students taking dual enrollment courses and courses provided for working adults and members of the Monterey Peninsula Community.

Faculty and Staff – Pay and Benefits

In order to provide high quality education to all students, MPC needs to work together with its faculty and staff and ensure that they are receiving adequate pay and benefits. MPC should continue to work with the Teachers Association and the Classified Employee Union to provide salaries that are competitive with other regional schools. Recruiting and retaining highly qualified faculty and staff should be a top priority of the MPC Board.

Bond Oversight

In 2020, voters approved a $230 million bond for MPC to use on facility improvements across all three MPC campus locations: Monterey, Seaside, and Marina. I believe that the MPC Board plays a pivotal role to ensure that this money is spent wisely and effectively. My background in both education oversight and federal fraud investigations allows me to ask the tough questions that are necessary. I understand that MPC needs to finance critical campus facility and technology projects in order to appropriately provide for its students and I believe that proper Board oversight will allow MPC to get the best of every cent of the bond.

Governance

I believe in good governance, especially when it comes to our education institutions. If elected, I plan to bring my experience in higher education governance to the MPC Board, a body that has failed to follow its own policy of “work[ing] together in a spirit of harmony and cooperation, treating other board members with respect and courtesy” (source: Accrediting Commission for Community and Junior Colleges in 2023).

If elected, I will respect everyone that I interact with – to include the Student Trustee, who is elected annually as a part of the Associated Students of Monterey Peninsula College elections. MPC is for our entire community, and I believe firmly that our entire community deserves equal respect.

Affordable Housing

The MPC Board has been approached in the past about the possibility of building affordable housing, but the topic was quickly dismissed. I recognize the hurdles that exist to creating more affordable housing in the Monterey Peninsula, but the MPC Board owes it to the community to continue engaging in the conversations that affect MPC students, staff, and faculty. When elected, I promise to bring housing issues to the front, paying attention to all opportunities that arise to lessen the housing cost and burden that currently impacts the MPC community.

Public Safety

MPC oversees the Public Safety Training Center (PSTC), a backbone of the public safety community on the Monterey Peninsula. First responders and public safety professionals rely on the training and certifications of the PSTC to help keep our community safe. As a former federal law enforcement officer that trained in wildland/wildfire investigations, I will be a voice for our entire public safety community and ensure that MPC works to make the PSTC the premier institution in the region.