The Mingus Union High School District Governing Board voted 3-1 to reappoint Taylor Bell as the board president and appoint Rev. Frank Nevarez as vice president during its monthly meeting on Thursday, Jan. 8.
Ashley Koepnick, who Nevarez will replace as vice president, was absent.
Will David was the dissenting voice in both votes. He said his reasoning wasn’t that he didn’t support the nominations, but that the board needed more time to discuss the role and what members could bring to it.
“My only concern this evening is that we have the unexpected presentation of a board member which kind of has a [poor] effect of how we contemplate who’s who on the board,” David said.
Superintendent Melody Herne, Ph.D., said the board has to make a decision, there isn’t a legal time limit on when it needs to be done, but it might be closing on too late around March.
A vice president position is also allowed, but not required by state law.
Herne said it’s tradition for the board to have a vice president. Both positions are one-year terms.
The Cottonwood-Oak Creek School District also voted on its president and vice president during its meeting on Wednesday, Jan. 7. The COCSD board voted unanimously to keep Mary Valenzuela as its president in 2026 for Janice Rollins to be its vice president. Valenzuela has been on the COCSD board since late 2010, and began as board president last January.
The Clarkdale-Jerome and Camp Verde Unified School districts are set to decide their Governing Board leadership at meetings on Tuesday, Jan. 13, both at 6 p.m.
K-9 Searches
The MUHSD board, as part of its consent agenda, also approved an agreement with Paragon Service Group for monthly K-9 inspections of the school.
The agreement stated the K-9s will be used “for the detection of narcotics — including marijuana and nicotine vapes — firearms, ammunition, electronic storage devices — if applicable — and any other prohibited items that fall within the documented detection capabilities of Paragon Service Group LLC’s K9 teams.”
“I think that this board has been really consistent in saying that we want to see that progress, we want to see that action, and so there’s a lot of things in here — the vaping and the drug thing is a big deal I think to everybody — but for me that’s one thing like how do we solve that problem,” Bell said. “It is different than somebody having marijuana on them, or whatever, that’s a lot easier to keep track of at all times than whatever is in these vape pens.”
he inspections will be unannounced and conducted in communal areas like lockers, classrooms, vehicles, buses, gym areas, parking lots, grounds and any other space the district requests to be inspected.
Each visit will be about two hours long and cost the district $297.50.
The school provided a calendar to Paragon with dates “not appropriate for service,” which include testing and staff development days, early releases, holidays and special events.
“I’ve had parents tell me ‘I buy vapes for my kids because I don’t want them buying it off the street and I want to know what’s in it and they’re addicted,’ and that’s a horrible conversation to have,” Mingus Union High School Principal David Beery said to the board. “What we’re really looking at is resources to give families on how do you get help.”
