How quickly this year has passed! As I sit down to write my final message as your CSBA President, my heart is overflowing with gratitude. Serving in this role has been one of the greatest privileges of my life. Over the past year, I have listened, learned and witnessed firsthand the phenomenal work you are doing in your district and county boardrooms on behalf of every child in your communities. Thank you for the honor of representing this remarkable group of people and for the faith you placed in me to lift up our shared mission with one unified voice.

When I was elected as your Vice President in 2022, I devoted myself to studying the internal and external responsibilities of the CSBA Executive Committee. I wanted to understand every policy, every procedure and every expectation so that I could support our members with knowledge, efficiency and integrity. As President-elect, chairing the Legislative Committee broadened my understanding even further, opening doors to federal advocacy, other committee service and the Coast2Coast advocacy trip in support of essential funding and supports for California students. Every step along this journey prepared me for the tremendous responsibility of serving as your President, and this year, I worked every single day to embody what I promised: service in my actions.

From the very beginning, I said I would seek your viewpoints, listen with respect and represent CSBA’s vision, mission and goals with one voice. I remain steadfast in that belief today. Service is a powerful force — one capable of transforming lives, communities and even the world. It creates a ripple effect of compassion that inspires others to lift their voices, extend a helping hand and work for the greater good. Each of us, as governance leaders, has the remarkable opportunity to be that ripple.

But service is also a responsibility. I ask you, as colleagues and board members: Are you the inspirational, insightful presence your superintendent and staff can depend on? Do you listen for meaning, even in the silence between the words? Do you demonstrate the integrity and courage required to make hard decisions, the kind that test your values and your leadership? Do you walk your talk? Because that is what enables us to shape the lives of children today and for generations to come.

Throughout my visits to local educational agencies across California this year, I carried these questions in my heart. I offered not only a listening ear but also the benefit of my lifelong journey: from teacher to counselor, vice principal to principal, community college instructor, trustee and even educator behind the walls of California correctional facilities, where I worked to restore hope for youth who had lost their way. Every experience strengthened my belief in the transformative power of education and the profound impact of a caring adult. That is my “why,” and it continues to inspire me every day.

And yet, I cannot ignore the truth: we are leading in a chaotic, caustic and rapidly changing society unlike anything I’ve seen before. I am more fearful now for public education than I was during the aftermath of the Supreme Court’s landmark Brown v. Board of Education decision. My fear then was rooted not in the ruling itself, but in the resistance, the tension and the uncertainty that followed. Still, as President John F. Kennedy reminded us not long after, we must never allow fear to overcome hope.

This is a season that calls for intentional leadership. For looking beyond our struggles to remember what has carried us this far. For recommitting ourselves to the work that remains. We cannot waste time. Our students cannot afford delay. Their future, and the future of our state, depends on the choices we make right now.

People tell me often, “You’re so hopeful. You lead with your heart. You inspire me.” I smile because that hope was planted long ago, in a small town in Arkansas, by uneducated parents who believed deeply in the power of schooling, by a wise grandfather, and by a woman who sat on her porch every day reminding the neighborhood children to study hard, be good students and understand that there was important work for them to do when they grew up. That village molded me. It pushed me. It loved me through the good and the bad, and it reminded me that service is not a title, but a calling.

Inspirational leadership is strength, grounded in transparency, values and authenticity. Education is personal and that philosophy has allowed me to build lifelong relationships, empower staff and community members from every background and eliminate barriers that impede student success. And those efforts are more important now than ever before. We simply don’t have time to waste. The challenges facing our children are immense, and we must meet them with urgency.

So, let us step boldly into the next chapter of service together. Let us stand united in a divided world, rebuilding systems that ensure opportunity and success for generations to come. As Maya Angelou wrote in beautiful poem painted on the wall of a high school I visited in Region 16: