Current Board President Natalie Luna Rose leads the race for the Tucson Unified School District Governing Board with 26.7% of the votes counted so far, while her fellow incumbents Sadie Shaw and Ravi Shah are running in second and third with 22.6% and 20.5% respectively, according to early results on the Pima County election website.
Voters are choosing three to serve on the board out of the five candidates.
Rose has 61,450 votes so far, Shaw 52,126 and Shah 47,111.
Pilar Acosta Ruiz is running fourth with about 16.30% and Esteban Flores fifth with 13.9%.
Rose is a native Tucsonan who attended TUSD schools and graduated from the University of Arizona. She listed her priorities for a second term as dealing with declining enrollment in public schools, partly due to the state giving vouchers of taxpayer money, known as empowerment scholarships, to parents to send their children to private and religious schools.
Rose said she would also work on the district’s accountability and transparency and that she supports TUSD Superintendent Gabriel Trujillo. She also wants to monitor the use of the $480 million school bond program passed by voters in November 2023.
Shaw, also a native Tucsonan who serves on the city of Tucson’s Public Art Committee, said she's concerned about “the chronic underfunding of public education” and not enough students reading at grade level or being proficient in math and English. She also wants to make career and technical education mandatory and secure permanent funding for arts and music education.
A holder of a UA degree of fine arts in art and visual culture education, Shaw wishes to expand efforts to assist students in need of specialized support, have every TUSD school offer “comprehensive physical education classes,” and change the TUSD dress code to make it more appropriate for the classroom.
Shah, a community family physician, said budget and finances are a priority for him as well as dealing with the declining enrollment. Shah’s other priorities include a “focus on student achievement and academic outcomes,” “supporting our teachers and staff,” having “fiscal responsibility for our district,” and working to “end inequities.”
Ruiz, also a native Tucsonan who studied in TUSD schools, said the most glaring issues facing TUSD are simply “safety, proficiency rates and transparency.” She also stated her intent to “cut top-level administration cost and redirect funds to the classrooms” as well as to “hold the administration accountable for efficiency and transparency, implement audit recommendations, review school enrollment capacities, set performance goals and improve adherence to district policies.”
Ruiz also stated she wanted to “restore the dress code policy to mandate covering of the “torso, chest and buttocks."
Flores, a former medical professional, said he would focus on disciplinary issues, decline in academic proficiency, safety, lack of accountability and need for more transparency on how resources are distributed.
Also part of a youth ministry, Flores listed parental authority, “stopping the sexualization of children,” transparency of the curriculum and teaching materials, and academic achievement as the areas he would focus on.
Tucson Unified School District candidates: from left to right: Natalie Luna Rose (incumbent), Ravi Shah (incumbent), Pilar Acosta Ruiz, Esteban Flores and Sadie Shaw (incumbent).
