OPINION — Heather Rooks appears to have lost her Republican primary bid for the Arizona House of Representatives in Legislative District 28, finishing behind the two incumbents.

The good news for Peoria Unified families is that she won’t be heading to the state Capitol. The bad news is she’s still on the school board.

Rooks has served on the PUSD governing board since 2023 and was its president before being removed by her colleagues in May. By the district’s own board biography, all four of her children attend Peoria Unified schools. Public education has been good to the Rooks family.

Yet her tenure has been defined by something other than support for the institution she governs. In July, Rooks publicly called for the board to consider placing Interim Superintendent Tahlya Visintainer and Chief Communications Officer Danielle Airey on paid administrative leave; putting district leadership in the crosshairs during an active crisis. She and fellow board member Janelle Bowles have voted together as a reliable 3-2 dissenting bloc on multiple contentious decisions. Bowles is the sister of former state senator Anthony Kern, a 2020 fake elector who was at the U.S. Capitol on Jan. 6, 2021.

A graphic shared in a Peoria Action Group chat recently captured a pointed criticism circulating among Rooks’ critics: “Heather Rooks, Remove Your Kids From Public School. Practice What You Preach.” The graphic isn’t Rooks’ own words, but it reflects a question worth asking: How can a board member who benefits from PUSD for her own children spend so much of her public role working against confidence in the district?

The local board dysfunction also unfolds against Arizona’s broader fight over public education and the state’s billion-dollar ESA voucher program. When elected public-school leaders deepen distrust in their own districts, voucher advocates benefit.

A public school board member has one fundamental job: strengthen the schools she was elected to serve. Voters rejected Rooks’ bid for higher office. Now they need to ask whether she belongs on the Peoria Unified board at all. I think not!

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