Candidate for
Trustee; Fresno Unified School District; Trustee Area 5

I was born in Athens, Greece, and adopted when I was four months old on Christmas Eve by a young American couple, Jean and Quentin Wright. My parents were teachers for the Department of Defense and we lived in Spain, Morocco and Oregon before moving to the Central Valley in 1963. Mom taught Special Education at the elementary school level and Pop was a teacher, a principal and retired as a Superintendent of Schools. I am the oldest of five children, with a sister and three brothers.

I have since returned to Greece, located and met my biological mother and family. She told me she had left her island home and moved to Athens at 13 where she worked as housekeeper, became a victim of rape, and gave birth to me at 15. Her decision to give me up for adoption was a selfless, loving act, insuring I would have the opportunity to live a full life, one she could not provide as a young, single mother, with a 7th grade education. She ended up marrying in 1979, the same year my wife and I were married, and has two children, all living in Athens. The fact I became a teacher, living in California, made her extremely proud and content she had made the right decision.

This is my motivation for becoming a teacher devoted to the field of education. I want to do everything possible to prevent young people from a lifetime of suffering and being taken advantage of due to their lack of education; to prevent our kids from becoming second class citizens who live their life having others make choices for them instead of for themselves. Education alone provides options and choices in life that give full benefit of the opportunites this country provides.

My wife Doreen and I have been married 25 years and we have two wonderful daughters, aged 13 and 11, both doing extremely well in the Fresno Unified School District (FUSD). The girls look forward to attending Fresno High and entering the International Baccalaureate Program.

I grew up in the valley and attended Reedley High, Reedley JC and Fresno State, earning a degreee in Anthropology and a Social Science teaching credential. My wife has lived in Fresno her entire life and I have lived here since 1978. She owns and operates her own business, a bridal shop.

I have been a board member for FUSD eight years, and have established a reputation of integrity and capability, trusted by the community and my fellow trustees. My fellow trustees have elected me an officer of the board four times, once as the president of the board and threes times as the clerk of the board.

Currently, I teach World History, Geography and Culture at Selma High School,where I have worked since 1989. I have fourteen seasons of coaching experience, three years as Athletic Director, and three years running our tutorial program. Not only do I vote as a board member on policies affecting instruction in the classroom, I am in the classroom myself each and every day implementing similar if not the same policies and classroom strategies on a day to day basis.

I am a Highly Qualified Teacher as defined by No Child Left Behind (NCLB). My classroom students are successful learners as indicated by their test results in the California High School Exit Exam (CAHSEE), Academic Performance Index (API), and Adequate Yearly Progress (AYP) test results. I know first hand what it takes to be a successful teacher in the classroom.