The ‘CUSD Three’ are campaigning together to signal shared values in this nonpartisan AZ race

By campaigning together, the CUSD Three hope voters will remember what they stand for when they see their names on the ballot.

If you drive 30 minutes southeast of Phoenix, you’ll start to notice campaign signs for the local school district’s upcoming election. Par for the course, right?

But on some of those signs, you’ll see something a little different. Stacked alongside check marks are not one, not two, but three names: Barb, Claudia, and Zeyna. They call themselves the “CUSD Three,” and the trio is running against three other candidates for the three open seats on the school board.

“Zeyna was the center of everything for us. She’s been really kind of our nucleus,” said Claudia Mendoza, principal at Sousa Elementary in Mesa.

Zeyna Pruzhanovsky has been a teacher at Blackwater Community School in the Gila River Indian Community for seven years.

“As a teacher, I feel to serve where the need is greatest…and I feel that I can be an asset to the Chandler Unified School District governing board,” Pruzhanovsky said.

Barb Mozdzen knows how valuable experience around education can be. She’s the only incumbent on the ballot this year, having served the board for 16 years already. One of her priorities is to help settle in the two new board members elected in 2022, and the new board members who will be elected this year. She said serving on the board has been about ensuring that each generation in the community has access to a high-quality education.

“I saw the great education that my oldest and second-oldest received within the Chandler Unified School District…and I wanted to make sure that all kids could receive that kind of education,” Mozdzen said.

The three women call themselves the “CUSD Three,” and are campaigning together for a reason beyond their many years of experience in education.

“I feel that school is about our children, about educating our children, and ensuring our teachers have what they need,” Mendoza said.

The other two candidates agreed. That sets them apart from the three other candidates running for the all-volunteer board—Leanna DeKing, Ryan Heap, and Eloyce Gillespie. Running as individuals and not campaigning together, DeKing, Heap, and Gillespie have indicated that they lean more into the “parental rights” movement that’s known for a socially conservative, religion-heavy perspective, and for its efforts to ban books and restrict teachers’ ability to teach facts about race and gender. There is currently at least one other member of the board who supports “parental rights” ideology, and five seats total on the board.

School board races in Arizona are nonpartisan. Voters won’t see Democrats or Republicans on their ballots. By campaigning together, the CUSD Three hope voters will remember what they stand for when they see their names on the ballot.

That’s because each name will be listed individually—voters won’t be able to choose a group, or intuit priorities based on a political party. Even though it could lead to voters choosing more haphazardly among a long list of names, the CUSD Three think school boards need to stay nonpartisan.

“As an educator, I never talk politics. I never talk religion as a school leader,” Mendoza said. “And guess what? We’ve been okay because the center of our attention has always been our students…and I think that’s the way it needs to stay.”

Pruzhanovsky noted that in partisan races, issues like LGBTQ+ rights and diversity are used as a negative cudgel to attack opponents, and the school board needs to look out for everyone.

“As I teach, as we teach, we teach nonpartisan,” she said. “We need to be with the child and cultivate their minds without any bias.”

RELATED: Scottsdale school board candidates form alliances in nonpartisan race

In addition to the board election, voters in the Chandler Unified School District will also be voting on a bond issue.

Bond elections are a mechanism through which school boards ask voters for permission to sell bonds to raise money for projects within the district. The current governing board is asking voters to approve a $487 million bond issue this year. Voters will vote YES or NO on their ballots, and if approved, the money will be put toward maintenance, facility upgrades, and transportation needs.

Mozdzen, Mendoza, and Pruzhanovsky all signaled they support the bond. And that’s not where their agreements on issues end. They all also have no interest in regulating what books are or aren’t in school libraries. That’s a topic bound to come up in the 2024-2025 school year, after “parental rights” groups got more than 10,000 books banned throughout the country last school year, according to PEN America.

“I’m not a qualified librarian,” Mozdzen said. “And I think that we need to leave that to the professionals.”

“I have no personal interest in regulation,” Pruzhanovsky said.

“That’s the job of the educators,” said Mendoza.

Meanwhile, DeKing, Heap, and Gillespie, each told chandlernews.com they believe some books currently on shelves do not belong in school.

The “CUSD Three” also agreed that school resource officers are critical in schools. School resource officers, or SROs, are sworn law enforcement officers on school campuses with arrest powers.

The Center for Public Integrity, an American nonprofit investigative journalism organization, reported that Black students and students with disabilities were referred to law enforcement at a higher rate.

“SROs are necessary,” Pruzhanovsky said.

Mendoza echoed support, noting that it should be a “collaboration” between schools and law enforcement.

The CUSD governing board election will be held during the Nov. 5 general election. Find a copy of your ballot and check your voter registration here. To vote early or by mail, learn more here.