David Johnson
Westminster School District school board Area 1
Tenure
Term ends
Years in position
Elections and appointments
Personal
Contact
David Johnson is a member of the Westminster School District school board in California, representing Area 1. He assumed office in 2020. His current term ends in 2028.
Johnson ran for election to the Orange County Board of Education to represent District 4 in California. He lost in the primary on March 5, 2024.
Johnson completed Ballotpedia's Candidate Connection survey in 2024. Click here to read the survey answers.
Biography
David Johnson was born in Pomona, California. He earned a bachelor's degree from Seaver College at Pepperdine University in 1992 and a graduate degree from Pepperdine University in 1994. His career experience includes working as a management consultant.[1]
Johnson has been affiliated with the following organizations:[1]
- Boy Scouts of America
- Westminster City Community Services and Recreation
- Westminster School District
- Westminster Homeless Task Force
Elections
2024
See also: Municipal elections in Orange County, California (2024)
Nonpartisan primary election
Endorsements
Ballotpedia did not identify endorsements for Johnson in this election.
2024
Ballotpedia survey responses
See also: Ballotpedia's Candidate Connection
David Johnson completed Ballotpedia's Candidate Connection survey in 2024. The survey questions appear in bold and are followed by Johnson's responses. Candidates are asked three required questions for this survey, but they may answer additional optional questions as well.
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David Johnson is a dedicated School Board President, former University Vice Chancellor, and concerned father running for Orange County Board of Education to prioritize students and schools. David wants to stop the over $10,000,000 in frivolous political lawsuits that have de-funded our students’ public and charter schools. He would like to end the culture wars brought by incumbents into the schools. As School Board President at Westminster School District, his Board led the creation of a 6-year strategic plan for improving student academics & mental health; improved school site safety; hired one of the best Superintendents in the state; and is focused on students first. David has ensured that all students excel by implementing low-class sizes, early interventions, and support for our teachers. David is a Management Consultant, a former university Vice Chancellor, and married to a veteran teacher with two children in OC public schools. He will ensure that every parent has a voice and choice in their child’s education.
- Bring taxpayer funding back to the classrooms but stopping the over $10,000,000 in frivolous political lawsuits brought by incumbents for selfish interests.
- Focus the Board every month on the needs of all students with academic and vocational preparedness, low class sizes, and school site safety.
- Provide all parents with a voice and choice to ensure that their children receive unique opportunities for personalized success.
- Oversight of school boards to ensure effective taxpayer funding of classrooms so that all students will thrive.
- Supporting teachers and staff so that they have the resources and talent to ensure high performing classrooms.
- Communicating and collaborating with parents, staff, teachers and the community to ensure Orange County's education system is the best in the state. Mr. Rogers said, "As different as we are from one another, as unique as each one of us is, we are much more the same then we are different. That may be the most essential message of all, as we help our children grow toward being caring, compassionate, and charitable adults." I am running for the Orange County Board of Education to reestablish students as our central focus and to stop the endless culture wars that the incumbents are brining to our schools every month. The county's Access and Special Education schools are intended to serve our most vulnerable children; those with significant special education needs and those who are dropouts or incarcerated. Mr. Rogers would care for all of our children with their unique needs, demonstrating how each has an important place in our community; each can succeed in their own way. He would give them guidance, positive vision, and opportunities to excel.
Anyone in this office must be a critical thinker and take responsibility for communicating and collaborating with any and all parents. Selfish political bias must stop. Board members must be ethical, conscientious, compassionate while also business minded, and focus on the needs of all students.
I reference Mr. Rogers as an idol who left the world a better place by helping children grow up with character, confidence, and a love for learning. That is what my wife (a public school teacher) and I strive to do to leave a legacy for our children and our community's next generation.
There are lots of fun science fiction books that I have read, but in conversations I often reference "Who Moved My Cheese". It is a very short easy read about anticipating and adapting to change in life. It serves me well as I help my school district navigate continuous improvement opportunities to ensure that all of our students thrive.
There are three primary functions of the Orange County Board of Education.
1. Trustee with oversight of the county's Special Education and Access schools for the most vulnerable children, which include significant special education needs, dropouts, incarcerated, and adult GED.
2. Appeals Board for Charter Schools that applied and were denied by local school districts.
3. Oversight and approval of the Orange County Department of Education's budget for county schools. Everyone in Orange County are community stakeholders in the success of our county schools. I need to represent the diverse needs of all stakeholders. District 4 has over 100,000 registered voters with about 1/3rd Hispanic, 1/3rd Asian, and 1/3rd non-Hispanic (mostly White), and 2% Black.
This is a very important question. Right now the incumbents are focused almost exclusively on the charter schools' applications and the political rhetoric of ultra conservatives. I would go out of my way to represent the needs of all stakeholders and the needs of all OCBE schools (charter schools, Access schools, and Special Education schools). From the OCBE meetings we hear terms such as "delusional" and "mentally ill" when characterizing some students. This partisanship bias must stop. When I successfully ran for the Westminster School Board, my campaign signs were in the front yards of homes with Trump and Biden signs. I have brought together a once contentious board of Republicans and Democrats that now work very well together, respecting each other, and refocused on the students; all students. The current OCBE have intimidated the OCDE staff, hired their own special interest lawyers, created their own website, removed themselves from the California School Boards Association, and have even taunted the staff during a Board meeting (ex: asking how they know that the OC Superintendent is not dead). We need to support our staff and teachers who provide critical support for our most vulnerable students and create a support system for our community.
I will host regularly scheduled town hall meetings inviting all parents and guardians in Orange County. I will host regularly scheduled discussions with Orange County superintendents. I will participate in California School Boards Association including local meetings and statewide conferences. I will also create a website with blog to communicate monthly with free public viewership.
Yes, I see a need for advanced technical training and apprenticeships. These opportunities are equal with college preparedness. These opportunities often go hand-in-hand providing college credits. I plan to focus to ensure a wide range of vocational training opportunities.
The incumbent claims to be a champion for charter schools choice, but the incumbents have wasted over $10,000,000 in taxpayers money for frivolous political lawsuits and high prices lawyers. That defunded all county schools resources, including the charter schools. We need to stop this fiscal recklessness. The best way to ensure that our charter schools are successful is to provide them with the proper resources to be successful! The first month that I joined the Westminster School District, I asked to be the Trustee representative on the Budget Committee. I went to work immediately and found that general accounting principles were slack, identifying suspicious accounting. The CFO was investigated and left quickly. Within a few months we rebid projects, rebalanced the budget, and freed up millions in funding for effective classroom learning. I'm a management consultant with 30+ years of fiscal management experience.
When I joined the Westminster School Board, I asked the Chief of Police to meet with the Board to provide his policy response time to each school site and to give us a commitment to go in when anyone is at risk. His commitment was gold level. Nonetheless, we freed up funding to hire fulltime security to ensure site safety and police collaboration. We installed visitor background checks, new camera systems, new quick slide locks for all classrooms, buzz-in with camera door lock for the front office, and much more including collaboration meetings with the police, community services, and even the Secret Service. I ensured that safety is the prerequisite to an effective learning environment.
I've been supporting our site teachers and staff with more health and counseling staff. Post COVID pandemic mental health issues are on the rise, and so is depression and suicide across the nation. Students entering college and much less resilient then one and two decades ago. I am an advocate for using community school funding grants for providing mental health and social services for families that request support.
- California Teachers Association (CTA)
(all 32 Orange County local teachers associations)
- California School Employees Association (CSEA)
- California State Superintendent of Public Instruction, Tony Thurmond
- US Congresswoman, Katie Porter
- California State Senator, Education Committee Chairperson, Josh Newman
- California State Senator, Dave Min
- Women for American Values and Ethics, WAVE
- Vietnamese American Voters Foundation
- Orange County Labor Federation
- Teamsters Union
- Carpenters Union
- Planned Parenthood
- Democratic Party of Orange County (DPOC)
- Orange County Young Democrats (OCYD) Safety and anti-bullying are a prerequisite to an effective learning environment. Each student has unique needs, therefore teachers must be skill practitioners with an ability to scaffold techniques for reaching students with academic, neurological and emotional diversity. We must provide successful modern curriculums to prepare for entry level, skill-based level, and professional level careers with college and vocational preparedness. Parents must have a voice and choice to ensure that their children's needs are being met. There is no place in education for bullying and prejudice. Classrooms must be modern, curriculums must be developed by credentialed professionals, and students must be supported to maximize their learning so that all students can thrive.
I will host regularly scheduled townhall meetings inviting all parents and guardians in Orange County. I will also create a website with blog to communicate monthly with free public viewership.
Note: Ballotpedia reserves the right to edit Candidate Connection survey responses. Any edits made by Ballotpedia will be clearly marked with [brackets] for the public. If the candidate disagrees with an edit, he or she may request the full removal of the survey response from Ballotpedia.org. Ballotpedia does not edit or correct typographical errors unless the candidate's campaign requests it.
See also
External links
- ↑ 1.0 1.1 Information submitted to Ballotpedia through the Candidate Connection survey on January 13, 2024
