A former Higley USD teacher and a critic of the district’s bond will join the HUSD Governing Board in January.
Amanda Wade and Anna Van Hoek were narrowly elected to the board after the final vote count was released Monday.
Wade and Van Hoek each received 26% of the vote with Wade topping Van Hoek by 151 votes. Trailing were Brooke Garrett and Roy Morales at 24% each with Garrett behind Van Hoek by 809 votes and Morales another 178 votes back.
The outcome does not become official until the canvass is accepted later this month.
Wade said she hoped voters chose her because of her background in the classroom. She left after the 2019-20 school year to concentrate on raising her children.
“I believe strongly that the people who make decisions about what impacts our students and teachers and community overall are people who know what it’s like to be in the classroom,” she said. “And I definitely know that because it wasn’t too long ago that I was still in the classroom.”
Wade said a priority would be, in the wake of voters rejecting the district’s $77.5 million bond question, how to accomplish the things the district needs the most.
“And just like I expressed when I was campaigning, we need to bring teachers to Higley,” she said. “We have vacancies filled by long-term subs. We have staffing positions that need to be filled. It’s hard to run a solid overall environment when you’re operating at a deficit.”
Van Hoek had opposed the bond, but she said her priority is to ensure parental rights are acknowledged.
“Knowing that school boards are nonpartisan, ensuring that politics are put aside and that laws are followed by elected officials, administration and staff,” she said. “We have parental rights enshrined in our state statutes, and we need to ensure that those are being followed.”
She said she decided to run because she believed parental rights were being ignored the past couple years.
“And because of that, academics have suffered,” Van Hoek said. “Children are suffering emotionally. Mask mandates, not being able to play with friends, quarantines, and all the nonsense has caused these children a lot of harm. And I want to get back to basics. I want to ensure these kids are getting a proper education and that they’re able to graduate high school and be able to get jobs and go on to college.”
Wade and Van Hoek take the seats of Jill Wilson and Board President Amy Kaylor, who decided not to run for reelection. They will join the board in January.
The election had 35,434 votes cast with a turnout of 68.09%.
Tom Blodgett Senior News Editor | Gilbert @sp_blodgett
Meet Tom Tom Blodgett joined Independent Newsmedia, Inc., USA, in 2022, when the company acquired Community Impact Newspaper's Phoenix-area properties. Raised in Arizona, he has spent more than 35 years in journalism in the state.
Community: He has served as an instructional professional in the Walter Cronkite School of Journalism and Mass Communication since 2005, and is editorial adviser to The State Press, the university's independent student media outlet. He also is director of operations for an 18U girls fastpitch softball team from Gilbert.
Education: Arizona State University with a BS in Journalism.
Random Fact: He lived in Belgium during his freshman year of high school.
Hobbies: Tweeting enthusiastically about ASU softball (season-ticket holder) and grumpily about other local sports (pessimistic fan).
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