Why I'm running: 32 in my son's third grade, 18 eight miles south

The first parent-teacher conference of the year, my son's third-grade teacher told me she had 32 kids that period. She said it the way somebody tells you they've been driving with a check-engine light on for six months — apologetic, but resigned.

Eight miles south, at a campus I won't name, there is a third grade with 18 students. Same district. Same curriculum. Same statewide reading test in April. Same bus routes pass both schools.

I run operations for a 180-person commercial HVAC contractor. The thing I do for a living is figure out which buildings have spare capacity and which run 110% on a 105-degree day. You don't fix the second problem by adding more buildings. You fix it by routing differently.

PVUSD's routing has not been redone since 2014, and the neighborhoods have changed. The map we are using is a map of a district that no longer exists.

I am running to do three things, in order: audit the buildings, redraw the lines, hold the bond. There are no other planks and no culture-war fights I'm picking.