← Election Series · Down-ballot coverage · Arizona

No endorsement

The race

Paradise Valley Unified School District voters elect two members to four-year terms on November 3, 2026. Vote for up to two. Three candidates are running and no incumbent is among them — both seats will change hands.

The certified roster is: Kea Carota, Richard "Rick" Ross, and Catherine Barrett. The district also asks voters to renew maintenance and operations and District Additional Assistance overrides, covered in our measure coverage.

The candidates

Kea Carota. Carota is a district parent who has volunteered in the district for 14 years, as reported by The Arizona Republic. She says she wants schools to be well-supported environments where students can learn and grow, that all students deserve opportunities to explore and a rigorous education that prepares them for the future, and that she will advocate for students and contribute to the district's stability.

Pros: Fourteen years of volunteering is a long, unpaid apprenticeship in how this district actually works. Cons: No professional education or fiduciary record was sourced; her platform is the most general in the race.

Richard "Rick" Ross. Ross spent 34 years as an educator in this district, including creating the choral program at Greenway Middle School, and later served as Dean of Students at Shadow Mountain High School, as reported by The Arizona Republic. He was involved in 19 contract negotiations that he says improved teaching conditions and learning outcomes. He says he looks forward to maximizing resources, providing positive and safe learning paths and growing communication and collaboration with community stakeholders.

Pros: Thirty-four years in this district's classrooms and a dean's discipline chair; nineteen contract negotiations is real experience on the labor side of the board's hardest recurring decision. Cons: A career negotiating for teaching conditions is the staff side of the table; the board sits on the taxpayer side, and no statement in this pass locates him there.

Catherine Barrett. Barrett has 25 years in education, including classroom experience and state-level leadership at the Arizona Department of Education, as reported by The Arizona Republic. She says she understands how education funding works, how state dollars reach districts and how financial decisions impact classrooms and families, and that her state-level experience in funding, accountability and academic achievement will keep students at the center of decisions.

Pros: The only candidate whose sourced experience is the money itself — state-level work on funding and accountability is the board's core technical job. Cons: State-level leadership is administration experience, not elected oversight; no published district-specific platform was sourced in this pass.

OUR CALL

Our call: insufficient record — no endorsement. What would earn one here: a published platform with district specifics from any candidate — on the overrides, on enrollment, on curriculum — or a named organizational endorsement to weigh. Barrett's funding expertise and Ross's 34 years are strong raw material; raw material is not yet a basis to endorse.

For the complete Election 2026 breakdown — every race, claim by claim — see the full coverage on our website.

Vote early. Research your candidates. Choose the best moderates, whatever their party — no extremism from either side. And encourage your friends and family to do the same.

Sources

Election result — November 4, 2026

Result pending. No verified call (Associated Press or official) as of November 4, 2026. This page will be updated when the race is called or certified. The original article above is unchanged.

AI-assisted article — but the sources are human, and the facts are very real.

← Full down-ballot enumeration