Chandler school board sticks with ASBA for another year

By Jason W. Brooks
Mail | X: @JasonWBrooks2

One of the seven action items the Chandler Unified School District Governing Board approved at its June 25 meeting was the district’s annual Arizona School Boards Association dues.

The conversation about it took the board nearly as long as it did in 2024.
Board member Kurt Rohrs asked, at the June 25 meeting, why the district is still paying for services from both the ASBA and a separate organization called Board Trust Policy.

“I asked the same thing last year, and I don’t think I understood the answer,” Rohrs said.

Rohrs ended up voting no on the 2025-26 membership, though it passed, 3-1, with board member Ryan Heap abstaining.

Heap and Rohrs both voted in favor of Rohrs’ motion to table the contract vote in order to get more “a la carte” event and other pricing information, but that motion was defeated, 3-2.

Board President Patti Serrano reminded Rohrs that the board voted to use Board Trust Policy for a streamlined, five-chapter method of storing, organizing and maintaining district policies, ceasing to pay ASBA for that service.

But the board has also chosen to continue to be a regular district member of ASBA, which offers development, training and other services for board members that Board Trust Policy doesn’t offer.

Last July, Rohrs began a similar dialogue about whether the district is still paying for board policy services, as opposed to other more widely known ASBA services. The board ended up approving its 2024-25 membership by a 4-0 vote, with Rohrs abstaining.

CUSD transitioned to using a separate organization, called Board Trust Policy, to maintain its board policies.

Other board members extolled the benefits of a regular ASBA membership at that meeting, and members did so again June 25 when Rohrs raised the question again.

The ASBA invoice for $14,930 is about the same as last year’s. It uses 0.025% of the district’s annual budget to calculate dues; CUSD’s 2021-22 ASBA membership dues were $10,336.

Some of the larger Arizona districts have decided to cease longstanding ASBA memberships.

Board Vice President Barb Mozdzen said she has really appreciated being from a member district, especially in terms of the member rate CUSD pays for conferences and other board member events, compared to non-member rates.

Mozdzen also pointed out that a student who was recognized at the start of the June 25 meeting, who won an ASBA scholarship, couldn’t have applied for that competitive honor if CUSD wasn’t an association member.

Mozdzen, Serrano and Superintendent Frank Narducci all surmised that trying to obtain a la carte prices will be for non-members, and calculating which board members will be able to go to certain events, is a near-impossible set of tasks to complete a year in advance.

ASBA was apparently billing districts separately for its policy services, which Narducci said is considerably less through Board Trust Policy.

Serrano suggested all board members take advantage of more of what ASBA offers board members in the year ahead and track carefully which events they actually attend, in order to be better informed of costs when making a 2026-27 ASBA membership decision next summer.

The board is only set to meet once this month, on Wednesday, July 9. Students go back to school Wednesday, July 16.

We invite our readers to submit their civil comments on this topic. Email AZOpinions@iniusa.org.   Email Jason W. Brooks at jbrooks@iniusa.org.

Jason W. Brooks
News Editor | Chandler Independent

Jason W. Brooks joined Independent Newsmedia, Inc., USA, in July 2021 as an associate editor. After a year covering Buckeye, he has covered Chandler since the fall of 2022, in addition to assisting the Daily Independent throughout his time at INI.

Education: University of New Mexico, bachelor of arts in journalism and mass communication, print emphasis, English minor.

Random Fact: He and his siblings witnessed a Space Shuttle launch and landing in the same year in person, on opposite coasts.

Hobbies: Karaoke, bicycling and American Sign Language.

Community: He supports animal shelters.