Peoria Mayor Bob Barrett,  "The failure of the (2009) PUSD override is a staggering blow
not only to the school district, but also to the City of Peoria and its residents."

Answer: I would really like to see an override pass. But other than that, I want the board to continue working together in a congenial, cooperative fashion.

I also want the vision of the board to be student-centered and focused on learning and achievement. I know we're going to face some huge budget decisions, but I hope we can do that in a way that protects our students and our teachers so we can maintain the high quality programming that we've always enjoyed in PUSD.

 Q: What challenges do you foresee?

A: The lack of funding from the state is a huge challenge for our school district and public schools across the state. We need to be able to maintain what makes us such an amazing organization that's able to offer students so much in areas of academics, athletics, arts, and extracurricular activities. If the state makes a decision to cut funding, we may lose that edge.

 Q: What can taxpayers expect from you as the new board president?

A: What they can expect from me is that we're going to do a very good job of highlighting what we do so well in the Peoria school district and how our students and community benefits from the hard work that we do every day.

 Q: How do you balance the needs of the taxpayers and the needs of students?

A: The money that we as a school district put into the education of our kids isn't necessarily an expense. I feel that it's an investment instead of an expense.

I think you get out of education what you put into it. So, absolutely, we as board members are charged with making sure that the expenditures are valid, useful and efficient.

But to say that we shouldn't be spending money on the future of our kids is not right and something that we wouldn't say as parents to our kids. I believe their education is worth the investment.

 Q: What do you want the district to do more of?

A: I want the district to do more to help the community understand us better. We need to toot our horn more frequently and louder. We need to help the community understand some of the district complexities so that when we do ask them to support us in an override, it's very clear to them what we're asking and what it's for.

 Q: How would you describe your last four years on the board?

A: It's been an evolution. There's so much to learn, because education in Arizona, especially funding, is extremely and unnecessarily complex.

But it's been a pleasure to represent the school district, because the people work so hard that it's just been a pleasure to see that level of commitment. I'm very proud of the work we do with so few resources. It is amazing and a credit to our teachers.

 Q: What message do you want to send to the Peoria community?

A: Support your community public school district, because the impact of doing so is incredible. The future of our kids is Number One, but our neighborhoods rely on it, our property values rely on it, and almost every aspect of the quality of our community depends on our neighborhood public schools.