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No endorsement

The race

Roosevelt Elementary School District voters elect two members to four-year terms on November 3, 2026. Vote for up to two. Only one candidate is certified on the printed ballot; the other two are filed write-ins whose names must be written in.

The certified roster is: Ashley Hodge (certified; identified as an incumbent by The Arizona Republic), Patricia Valenzuela (filed write-in), and Janelle Wood (filed write-in).

The candidates

Ashley Hodge (certified, incumbent). Hodge was raised in south Phoenix and is a third-generation graduate of this district, previously served as a high school social worker in the Phoenix Union High School District, and holds a bachelor's and master's in social work and a doctorate in behavioral health from Arizona State University plus a second doctorate in educational leadership from the University of Southern California, as reported by The Arizona Republic. She says she is committed to collaborating with the community to ensure students receive the best, most equitable education possible, and prioritizes student-centered decision-making and strong student-teacher relationships.

Pros: The only on-ballot candidate, an incumbent with two doctorates and deep south Phoenix roots. Cons: Her stated frame — the most equitable education possible, student-centered decision-making — is the vocabulary of the current system; no specific board votes were sourced in this pass.

Patricia Valenzuela (write-in). Valenzuela is an enrolled member of the Gila River Indian Community and a graduate of the Isaac School District and Phoenix Union High School who has called south Phoenix home for five years, as reported by The Arizona Republic. She taught third and fourth grade at Sacaton Elementary School for five years, then served her community as assistant director of education and Head Start director, and later managed Arizona's statewide Quality First Redesign. Her stated priorities: student achievement, teacher retention, fiscal responsibility and parent partnerships.

Pros: A real education-administration record — classroom, tribal education leadership, statewide program management — and priorities that include fiscal responsibility and parent partnerships. Cons: She is a write-in, which asks more of voters, and her administrative record is in early-childhood systems rather than district governance.

Janelle Wood (write-in). Wood is a Phoenix faith leader, author and education advocate, and the founder and CEO of Black Mothers Forum, Inc., as reported by The Arizona Republic. Her organization launched School to Purpose Academies, a network of microschools, and she served as an ESA Outreach Ambassador for the Arizona Department of Education. She says she is committed to standing alongside teachers and staff through the Reinventing Roosevelt plan and supports implementation of the Future Ready Academy.

Pros: She has built schools, not just attended meetings — a microschool network founder who did outreach for the state's Empowerment Scholarship Account program. School choice is her record, not her rhetoric. Cons: A write-in candidacy, and her organization operates outside the district system she would govern — a perspective voters should weigh as either independence or distance.

OUR CALL

Our call: Vote for up to two — we endorse Janelle Wood for one seat; on the remaining seat, no endorsement. The basis is her documented record: founding an organization that opened microschools and serving as an ESA outreach ambassador for the state — parental choice built and promoted, in a district whose families are exactly the ones choice serves. For the second seat, Hodge's incumbency and Valenzuela's administration record are both real and neither comes with sourced governing specifics in front of us; we will not pick between them on biography alone. Wood is a write-in: write her name in, or the vote does not count.

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.

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