If you’ve turned on a TV, browsed social media, or opened your mailbox in the past month, you may have been the recipient of a slanderous campaign being run by the oil company which is telling lies about my career and reputation as an educator. Let’s clear some things up:

Adolfo Camarillo High School is far from losing accreditation and I was certainly not fired from my job.

In April of 2019, Adolfo Camarillo High School was scheduled for a standard review from the Western Association of Schools and Colleges. The review concluded that the progress our school had made during my five years as principal should be continued under new leadership. The visiting committee gave the school a “probationary accreditation status”–which simply means that that the review committee, which usually visits every three years, would return in two years to ensure that the school was continuing to move in a positive direction.

It was not surprising to anyone who has worked in education that the review would have an eye on maintaining the direction and systems I had developed during the transition to new leadership. Both the Board of Education and the current principal of ACHS have stated that the school is using the plans I developed to succeed in their next review. 

What HAS been surprising is that this review, typically not newsworthy, has been politicized to create a fear-mongering campaign to scare parents and attack my career as an educator. 

Here’s the truth – Under my leadership, my school was ranked in the top 8% of high schools in the nation. We received numerous awards, including:

-Gold Ribbon Status 

-Civic Learning Awards, an unprecedented three years in a row

-Top 14% of High Schools in the State of California

-Won the United Blood Service Donation Drive Award each year

We dramatically improved and modernized ACHS’s career and technical education programs to prepare our graduates to enter the workforce. I also implemented the County’s first Student Wellness Center, which directly addressed the psychological, social, and mental health needs of our students.

Adolfo Camarillo High School has been and is an excellent school. That the oil industry is spending hundreds of thousands of dollars to smear and lie about my reputation, our school, and our community is a testament to the fact that they do not care about the people of this County. 

I am very proud of my time as a principal and my career as a public school educator. I am looking forward to bringing innovative, forward-thinking ideas to the Board of Supervisors.