Last week, we reported that Yavapai County Superintendent of Schools Steve King appointed Will David, Ph.D., to the Mingus Union High School District Governing Board on April 21, to replace Dr. Misty Cox, who resigned suddenly on March 25.
Photo courtesy of Esther David
School boards make decisions that directly affect education in the community, so it’s essential that longtime residents understand a school district’s needs and care about its future as an institution and the students who are enrolled in it.
While David was ultimately chosen for the seat, seven of the other individuals who stepped up and applied to fill Cox’s vacancy were equally impressive, any of whom would have made an excellent replacement:
- John Brown is the owner and founder of Red Rock Collision, a longtime Cottonwood business, as well as running Bonecollector Wildlife Studio, a taxidermy and art studio. As we reported in June 2022, he coached the MUHS softball team for 22 years, ending his coaching career by taking the girls to the 4A Conference state championships, although they lost to the eventual champions that year.
- Molly Davies, a Cottonwood resident, is the economic development director for the Town of Camp Verde who previously worked as the economic development director in Sedona under her previous surname, Spangler.
- Jason T. Keller of Clarkdale is a Mingus Union High School graduate who runs Signs 928 LLC on Main Street.
- Corby Rice is a Cottonwood Police Department patrol officer who was named Officer of the Year in 2021.
- Ysabella Rongo of Clarkdale works for Raytheon Technologies, a multinational aerospace and defense conglomerate headquartered in Virginia.
- Julia Root is the Cottonwood Recreation Center manager working for Cottonwood’s Parks and Recreation Department.
- Brittney K. Walsh is a family law, civil litigation and real estate attorney with LaBenz Law in Cottonwood.
Given this excellent slate of potential candidates, we hope that each one sees their application for the school board not as a one-off effort but as a first step to local elected office, either on the MUHSD Governing Board or the Cottonwood City Council or Clarkdale Town Council, depending on their residency.
While the 2024 elections were most robust than many races we’ve seen in the last 20 years, typically council and board elections come down to four, maybe five people running for three seats, so the question isn’t who will be elected, but rather who won’t be — effectively an adult version of musical chairs.
The electorate need and deserves a wide selection of potential candidates running for a limited number of seats. We should love huge slates so that we’re not electing the least worst choice every election cycle but sincerely choosing the best people for the job from a wide field.
While a field of 20 candidates for a single legislative body would be a nightmare to schedule for news coverage from a logistical perspective, we’d eagerly embrace that interview challenge if it meant that the electorate had a broad swath of potential community leaders from whom to choose.
Experienced, wise, talented and respected community members have a good understanding of the challenges and needs within their community and their institutions. They know what issues families face, what resources are needed and what kinds of programs or support might be most beneficial to deal with overcrowded classrooms, extracurricular activities, student performance, teacher and staff salaries and capital improvements for facilities.
These longtime residents can make the best decisions because they are familiar with these problems firsthand and have very likely formed ideas about how to best address them.
So again, we encourage Brown, Davis, Keller, Rice, Rongo, Root and Walsh — as well as other members of the community — to look toward the future and apply to fill other vacancies on legislative bodies or run in the next election cycle. We sincerely hope these individuals appear again on our front pages.
