Two opposing slates campaign for Catalina Foothills school board

With three seats up on the Catalina Foothills School District governing board, the six candidates have divided into two opposing slates.

One slate consists of incumbents Amy Bhola and Amy Krauss, as well as newcomer Gina Mehmert, all running under the name of Thrive4CFSD, and saying they support the work the district administration and governing board are currently doing.

The other slate, campaigning with the slogan “Getting Back to Basics,” includes candidates Grace Jasin, William Morgan and Bart Pemberton. They are campaigning against what they call changes in the CFSD curriculum based on “overreaching and political policies and practices.”

For the Getting Back to Basics candidates, the three said they share the same concerns regarding the “general direction and policy decisions” of the district.

“We decided that rather than just complain about it, we would try to do something constructive and come up with some potential solutions,” the Getting Back to Basics candidates said in an emailed statement.

The Getting Back to Basics candidates provided the emailed statement but declined an interview with the Arizona Daily Star. Instead, they pointed to information in candidate questionnaires and the group’s website for more information about their platform.

As for the Thrive4CFSD candidates, the three women also teamed up based on their common set of values for the district.

“It became very clear early on that the three of us, although very different individuals who have different interests and expertise … we share a common set of values and outlook on what school board members should do and how they should be oriented. That is very different from our opponents,” Krauss said.

Two different platforms

Under their mission statements, the Thrive4CFSD candidates listed continuing to build an innovative curriculum with the help of teachers and ensuring the continuation of the district’s strategic plan, known as Envision 21 Deep Learning.

That plan consists of efforts to reduce the student achievement gap, raise students’ engagement in school, and strengthen relationships with the community.

“We firmly believe that every student deserves an equal opportunity to thrive,” Mehmert said. “We need students with different levels of ability or disability, students of different race and ethnicity, students of different gender and gender identifications and different sexual orientations, students from different ZIP codes.”

The Thrive4CFSD candidates also highlighted attracting and retaining high-quality educators as one of their top priorities.

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“The most important factor for student success or for student achievement is the quality of the teacher in the classroom,” Bhola said.

The Getting Back to Basics candidates say the district needs improvement and change.

“Suddenly, many of us find ourselves in a school system that we do not even recognize; one in which many of our students do not feel comfortable and are not learning up to their potential,” the candidates state on the Getting Back to Basics website. They say curriculum changes were made with little to no parental/guardian input.

The CFSD governing board's process before approving changes to students' curricula consists of providing public notice of the potential changes and allowing a window of time for the community to preview the materials and provide feedback to the board.

Their list of top priorities includes increasing students’ academic performance, as well as hiring an armed officer for every campus and training all teachers and staff on physical safety.

The issues on the website also stress a focus on academic materials, as opposed to a social and emotional learning curriculum that they say asks students to declare their preferred pronouns.

“One example that has recently been implemented is gender identity, in which students are encouraged to identify themselves based on their internal sense of gender (their feelings),” their website states.

“Students and teachers should be devoting their time to reading, writing, math, civics, science and the arts, not topics that are considered by many to be political and divisive,” it says.

Working together

If elected, the Getting Back to Basics candidates said they would continue to work with each other as now, by “collaborating and brainstorming,” along with the entire board and administration.

The Thrive4CFSD candidates also said they plan to work collaboratively as a board, but emphasized they would maintain their independence as individual board members, rather than continue their work as a group.

“The only time a board has authority to act is when they are in an open session, meeting up on a topic that’s been noticed and the public is aware … and we take that responsibility very seriously,” Krauss said. “So maintaining the independence of the three of us is very important to us.”

To learn more about the two opposing slates, visit btb.school and thrive4cfsd.org.