Chandler school board election likely to be canceled
Courtesy of candidates
Challenger Zeyna Pruzhanovsky, left, and incumbent Kurt Rohrs are the only candidates eligible to seek 4-year Chandler Unified School District Governing Board terms that start in January 2027. With two other initially listed candidates no longer on the ballot, the Maricopa County School Superintendent’s Office has placed both Pruzhanovsky and Rohrs on a “cancel and appoint” election list, as there would be only two candidates vying for two at-large seats Nov. 3.
What seemed like it might be a brutal campaign involving alliances and partisan support might now not be an election at all.
Challenger Zeyna Pruzhanovsky and incumbent Kurt Rohrs are the only candidates eligible to seek 4-year Chandler Unified School District Governing Board terms that start in January 2027.
Two other initially listed candidates — Stacey Etherington and Leanna Deking — are no longer on the ballot, the Maricopa County School Superintendent’s Office has placed both Pruzhanovsky and Rohrs on a “cancel and appoint” election list, as there would be only two candidates vying for two at-large seats Nov. 3.
Etherington is shown on the Superintendent’s list of qualified candidates as “removed” while DeKing’s petition to be on the ballot is “withdrawn.”
Both Etherington and DeKing had initially submitted more than the minimum number of 400 petition signatures to run for a Chandler Unified seat, with Etherington at 495 and DeKing at 414.
Signature challenges — especially of candidates with slightly more than the minimum — are common in recent years, as is disqualification of such candidates.
Rohrs and Pruzhanovsky each collected more than 1,100 signatures.
Pruzhanovsky collected the most signatures of any candidate in the 2024 race, though her campaign was unsuccessful. Claudia Mendoza and Ryan Heap both earned new seats on the board, while Barb Mozdzen won a fifth term on the board that year.
Rohrs is running for a second term. The other candidate who won in 2022, Board President Patti Serrano, chose to not run for re-election in 2026.
Pruzhanovsky, who teaches in a nearby district, has served on the superintendent selection committee, the CUSD Budget Committee and the Teen Violence Advisory Committee, along with other non-education volunteering.
Rohrs is a financial advisor by trade who has served on the district’s Citizens’ Budget Committee, worked as a certified substitute teacher in CUSD schools and has lived in Chandler since 1995.
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.
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