It's a great school, well organized, and it has good programs that I want to build on and keep going.

The question is if you really want to change the rules, you've got to give us time. Nobody is rejecting the idea that the city provides a valuable service.

My military background was in leadership roles, so it was a natural progression for me to move into administration, ... I felt I could do many of the same things I was doing, but on a schoolwide level.

There needs to be more clarity. It's my understanding this is just a settlement, so therefore it doesn't change the laws or clarify any issues.

My wife had been teaching, on and off, since the early '70s and, when we moved here in 1983, she restarted her teaching career in Fairfax County, ... I got into Northern Virginia's Cultural Arts program, doing storytelling at school assemblies.

It was great, ... Working with a group of administrators at London Towne — the principal and another assistant principal — as a team, was a fascinating experience. I enjoyed being an assistant principal because I could still be in the classroom and do activities with the kids.

Four or five years from now we'll be in the same position. The state board of accounts doesn't allow the 16 percent increase that you've budgeted in for 2010.

I enjoy managing projects and funds and manipulating and analyzing data to help students and teachers do what they do better.

The problem is you're asking the townships to come up with 20 to 30 percent more. The problem is we can't get 20 percent. We might be able to get 4 percent. When you change the rules, you price us out of the market.