The Daily Agenda: Candidates wanted for school boards
Lots of open seats, not a lot of candidates ... Bigger districts are doing better ... Hobbs loses trust in UA.
While the races for county supervisor and sheriff are getting crowded, the races for some local school boards look like ghost towns.
No candidates have signed up to run for 13 seats that’ll need to be filled on the governing boards of the Sunnyside Unified, Ajo Unified, Altar Valley Elementary, Baboquivari Unified, and Continental Elementary school districts.
In two other districts, candidates are signing up to run, just not enough to fill all the open seats. The Vail Unified School District has two candidates for three open seats and Catalina Foothills has two open seats, but just one candidate.
It’s still really early, so there is plenty of time for more candidates to gather signatures and start their campaigns. The deadline for candidates to turn in their signatures is July 8. These positions are non-partisan (for now) so candidates skip the primary elections in August and go directly to the general elections in November.
If nobody ends up running for a seat on school boards, or not enough candidates run to fill all the seats, the Pima County school superintendent appoints people to fill the vacancies. That happens quite a bit, along with vacancies from board members resigning. Right now, 10 of the roughly 80 local governing board members were appointed.
We’re ramping up our coverage of local elections. For the price of a cup of coffee or two, you can help make sure the Agenda is still around on election day.
That adds some importance to the county school superintendent race, doesn’t it? Incumbent Dustin Williams is running for a third term against Dr. Maribel Lopez, who currently is a member of the Marana Unified School District governing board. That office is partisan and they’ll face off in the August primary.
Although some districts are coming up short on candidates, several of the larger local districts are doing much better, largely due to incumbents running for re-election.
Tucson Unified School District: Three incumbents, Ravi Shah, Sadie Shaw, and Natalie Luna Rose, are running for three open seats. The only challenger is Pilar Acosta Ruiz, a member of the Teamsters Local 104 who describes herself as an “active participant in TUSD Governing Board meetings since 2011.” Stephanie Kirk, who berated the Pima County Board of Supervisors at call-to-the-public last year, filed a statement of interest but later withdrew it.
Marana Unified School District: Two incumbents, David Willard and Hunter Holt, are running for re-election. The race for three open seats includes Mikail Roberts, an advocate for parental rights who ran and lost in 2022; Cathie Raymond, a former director of career and technical education at MUSD; Keneshia Raymond and Roy Alexander. (Two current board members are running for other offices. Kathryn Mikronis is running for Pima County supervisor in District 3 and Maribel Lopez is running for school superintendent.)
Amphitheater Unified School District: Two incumbents, Deanna M. Day and Vicki Cox Golder, are running for re-election. Patsy Harris, Fabiola Bedoya, and Eric Newberry are running against them for the three open seats.
Flowing Wells Unified School District: Two incumbents, Wendy Effing and Kevin Daily, are running for re-election. The other candidate for the three open seats is Stephanie Miller.
With so many open seats and so few candidates, if you’ve ever toyed with the idea of running for a local school board, now might be the time to do it.
Sure, you sometimes have to deal with irate people at board meetings, the state Legislature will try to starve your district of money, and you won’t get paid anything, but you’ll play a key role in educating the next generation. You can find information on running at the Pima County School Superintendent website.
If you have any thoughts about local school board races, write a letter to the editor (email Curt at curt@tucsonagenda.com).
Setting it straight: University of Arizona Interim Chief Financial Officer John Arnold clarified Thursday that the school’s budget shortfall is actually closer to $140 million rather than the $240 million previously reported, the Arizona Daily Star’s Ellie Wolfe writes. Arnold, who is also executive director of the Arizona Board of Regents said during a special meeting Thursday that the athletics department is “only” responsible for about $35 million of that money and that the school will undergo sweeping changes in budget and oversight. The day after the meeting, local business leaders, donors and prominent alumni gathered in businessman Jim Click’s office to rally around UA president Robert C. Robbins and sing his praises.
Too little, too late: Gov. Katie Hobbs slammed UA officials in a Thursday post on X and sent a scathing letter to ABOR Chair Fred DuVal and UA CFO Arnold, saying she no longer trusted the process in place to address the financial crisis, the Arizona Luminaria’s John Washington writes. Hobbs demanded immediate action, including an overhaul of the plan, the removal of Arnold from his temporary position and more. DuVal told the Luminaria Friday that ABOR was going to fix the situation and will be announcing details of the new plan this week.
“The situation cannot afford any future missteps. The plan ahead must be implemented with purpose and fidelity,” Hobbs wrote in her letter. “If we do not see progress, I will work with stakeholders to identify further changes to leadership and process in order to fix ongoing problems.”
Breaking records: December set a record for the number of times Border Patrol apprehended unauthorized migrants entering the U.S., with more than 80,000 apprehensions in the Tucson Sector, Arizona Public Media's Danyelle Khmara reports. Nationwide, Border Patrol apprehended 370,000 migrants, the highest since 2000, according to new federal data. Nearly 40,000 of the people apprehended in Tucson were Mexican nationals, 70% of whom were families and unaccompanied minors.
Say ‘no’ to racing: Pima County supervisors said last week that there will be no racing at Rillito Racetrack for the first part of the year because of overdue financial audits, KGUN’s Adam Klepp reports. Rillito board member and former Tucson mayoral candidate Ed Ackerley said the track has given the paperwork to their accounting firm, but the process is complicated and is taking a long time. He said he’s hopeful that racing can take place later this year.
Cleaning up the fleets: The Tucson Unified and Flowing Wells school districts will be welcoming electric buses into their fleets, thanks in large part to a grant from the Environmental Protection Agency, the Star’s Jessica Votipka writes. TUSD will get 10 buses and Flowing Wells will get one as part of the Clean School Bus Program Grants, which is prioritizing schools that serve a significant number of students from low-income families. The $16.5 million grant awarded funds for 44 buses to 11 Arizona school districts.
Let your voice be heard: The City of Tucson is interviewing applicants for a vacant City Magistrate position in City Court and is seeking public comment. Anyone familiar with any of the six applicants or who has had direct experience with them is welcome and encouraged to send a letter or email by Thursday at 5 p.m. The names of the applicants and details on how to submit comments can be found here. Comments, which should include the basis for expressed opinions, are confidential and will only be disclosed to committee members.
28: The number of sitting members of local school boards who won uncontested elections.