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Endorses Carney

The race

Scottsdale Unified School District voters elect two members to four-year terms on November 3, 2026. Vote for up to two. Three candidates are running, including one incumbent, in a district that has lost some 6,000 students over the last decade, dipped below 19,000 enrolled, and is closing schools — Pima and Echo Canyon closed at the end of the last school year, and the board voted 3-2 on October 6, 2026, to close Copper Ridge and Laguna Prep next, as reported by the Scottsdale Progress.

The certified roster is: Amy Carney (incumbent), Jennifer Johnson, and Jeanne Beasley. The district also asks voters to approve a $375 million bond and the sale or lease of the Cholla, Apache and Oak Learning Academy campuses, covered in our measure coverage.

The candidates

Amy Carney (incumbent). Carney has lived in Paradise Valley since 1998; all six of her children have attended district schools, as reported by The Arizona Republic. A former journalist, she wrote a parenting book, "Parent on Purpose." On the board, she has publicly opposed the proposed school closures and has advocated for parental rights in education, per the Republic. At the October 6, 2026 meeting she voted against closing Copper Ridge and Laguna Prep, saying the administration had not exhausted reasonable alternatives to closing another neighborhood school, as reported by the Scottsdale Progress. She is campaigning with Jeanne Beasley.

Pros: A documented board record on the district's defining fight — she voted against both rounds of closures and said so on the record — and a parental-rights platform pursued in office, not just in campaign copy. Cons: She has often been on the losing end of 3-2 votes; a second term asks voters to change the board's majority, not just return its minority.

Jeanne Beasley. Beasley volunteered in the district when her three children attended, serves on the district's audit committee, works as a litigation paralegal and recently obtained her substitute teaching certificate, as reported by The Arizona Republic. Her stated priorities include addressing academic challenges and preventing school closures, and she is campaigning with Carney. On the closure options, she told the Scottsdale Progress she favors none of the three, and that before closing another school the district should explore creative alternatives — partnerships with charter schools, programs serving homeschool families and specialized campuses that attract new students.

Pros: The audit committee is fiduciary ground-level work, and her closure position comes with named alternatives — charter partnerships, homeschool-serving programs, specialized campuses — rather than a bare no. Cons: Unproven in elected office; her alternatives are proposals no board has yet priced.

Jennifer Johnson. Johnson is a lifelong Arizonan who worked as a teacher and principal in Glendale Union High School District, as a vice president at Grand Canyon University, and as a deputy superintendent at the Arizona Department of Education under former Superintendent John Huppenthal, as reported by The Arizona Republic. She holds a doctorate in educational leadership and public policy from Arizona State University. Her stated priorities: preparing students for life after graduation and collaborating with the community on issues like school closures — on which she told the Scottsdale Progress that no one wants to close a school but the fiscal realities make it unavoidable at this time.

Pros: The deepest professional education résumé in the race — classroom, principal's office, state department, university. Cons: That résumé is the system the district's voters are arguing with, and her sourced position accepts the administration's closure path as unavoidable — the opposite of the direction Carney and Beasley are running on.

OUR CALL

Our call: Vote for up to two — we endorse Amy Carney and Jeanne Beasley. The basis for Carney is voted, not promised: she opposed the closures on the record, twice, and has carried parental rights as a board member. The basis for Beasley is her audit-committee service and a closure position with named alternatives that treat enrollment decline as a competition to win — charter partnerships and homeschool-serving programs — instead of a shrinkage to manage. Johnson is the most credentialed candidate in the race; her credentials and her position both belong to the administration's side of the district's central argument, and we say so plainly.

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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