Rowlands, Russell

Meet the Candidate

Running For:
School Board
District:
Kyrene Elementary School District
Phone:
(480) 653 - 6075
Age:
69
Occupation:
Habilitation Coordinator for special needs
Education:
BSBA Northern Arizona Univ
Biographical Info:

Currently living in Tempe, Russ has worked in the corporate sector for 45 years with such companies as Honeywell, Motorola, and Johnson Controls.
His wife is in the banking field..

Statement:

Running for office is a high honor and commitment. As I see the deterioration of the academics within our local schools. Currently, our students do not meeting the national standards academic requirements. Only 47% of students in English and 52% in math are making the level required to move into our society. With these abhorrent test results, we need to get back to academic objectives to increase their skills. We are not producing good citizens by moving them to the next grade level with less than satisfactory skills. As a Kyrene Governing School Board member, I plan to put in place attainable objective goals for each student that is currently behind academically, and make academics a priority over all other campus activities.

Endorsements:

AZ Women of Action

Survey

Response Legend

  • SSupports
  • OOpposes
  • *Comment
  • −Declined to respond
  • †Declined to respond, Position based on citation

Question Response Comments/Notes
1. Requiring district and charter school officials, including teachers, to inform parents about their child’s social, mental, emotional, or physical health. S* Social skills are critical to the advancement of our students. Information to parents about what they NEED to do and what our teachers will be doing, is critical.
2. Allowing parents to opt their children out of activities or lessons that offend their personal, moral, or religious beliefs. S* Personal, moral and/or religious beliefs such as DEI/CRT, etc., should not be a part of campus activities. Our role is to educate and to monitor their academic skill levels objectively. Without a base and continued monitoring of the students progress, we will not succeed in making good citizens in society.
3. Increasing state and local taxes to provide more funding for schools and school facility projects. -
4. Requiring signed permission from a parent before a student may participate in any sexuality related instruction, activities, or clubs. S* Academics must become the sole goal of our teaching staff.
5. Allowing all parents to use tax credits and publicly funded empowerment scholarship accounts to enable their children to attend any private, homeschool, or online academy of their choice. S* Parents/students must have the freedom to succeed. If we in the public school system can't prepare them academically, others in our society will.
6. Making available books and instructional materials that include sexually explicit images and themes in school classrooms and libraries. O* There is no place for the above in our schools because it does not produce citizens that need the academic skills to succeed. Public schools need to focus solely on the students success in academics.
7. Acquiring parental consent for school faculty and staff to refer to students by pronouns that do not align with the student’s birth sex. O* Academics only. Let's get back to basics. Reading, wRiting, aRithmetic, and histoRy.
8. Allocating teacher pay raises based upon merit rather than providing uniform salary schedule increases based upon years of teaching or additional credentialing (e.g. master’s degrees) S* By measuring the students academics objectively, we will be able to allocate salaries based upon their success rate in the class room.
9. Implementing policies to allow students and faculty to use the restroom, locker room, and shower room based on self-identification rather than biological sex. S* DNA dictates
10. Teaching what is known as diversity, equity, inclusion (DEI); social, emotional learning (SEL); or critical race theory (CRT) in public schools. O* Public schools are for academics.
11. Requiring each district and charter school to post online a list of all curriculum and instructional materials being used in the classroom. S