Jacobs, Gretchen

Meet the Candidate

Running For:

School Board

District:

Scottsdale Unified School District

Phone:

(602) 999-4337

Age:

Occupation:

Attorney/lobbyist

Education:

BA, University of Southern California; JD, Santa Clara University School of Law

Family:

Married 24 years to Tom Jacobs. Two girls, 19 & 20 years old.

Religion:

Catholic

Biographical Info:

Born to Jay & Laurie Nady in Reno, Nevada. My father was the owner and manager of several small businesses. My mom worked as a secretary.
Graduated from Reno High School in 1990 and attended the University of Southern California.
I started USC with no college credits earned in high school and graduated from college in three years while maintaining a job on campus, an executive position in my sorority (as the philanthropy chair) and numerous professional internships, all simultaneously. Accepted into law school, I graduated again early from the Santa Clara University School of Law based in the Silicon Valley, a school known for distinguishing its graduates by instilling the highest work ethic of any bay area law school.
That work ethic served me well as I worked as a litigator in San Francisco but neither the work nor the City felt like home to me. I moved to Scottsdale and took a job as a lobbyist. From the first day at the Arizona Capitol, I had found my passion – to be involved in the process of crafting public policy. I only work on issues that I believe in, working to make a positive impact on the community. For example, last year, I worked with legislators to prevent individuals and organizations from being “debanked” based solely on evidence of an association with the gun industry. Another bill I worked on last year was to remove governmental immunity for schools who fail to follow state law to conduct background checks on applicants for employment and a child is then victimized by someone who would not have been hired if the background check had been conducted.

Statement:

In my time spent working at the Capitol for the past 26 years, I have learned a great deal about a variety of issues relevant to the governance of Arizona school districts. I have gained tremendous historical context and understanding of school finance/taxes, the role of the auditor general and the wealth of information provided by her office, CTEDs, ADM, charter schools, ESAs, public entity risk pools, property tax lawsuits requiring taxpayer reimbursement and the options available (lawsuits such as the Transwestern Pipeline and this year, Qasimyer), the School Facilities Board, and much more. With a passion for making a difference, knowledge of many of the key issues facing schools and most importantly, the understanding of how to get things done in government— I will be able to hit the ground running. Add to that the personality traits of an inclination toward diplomacy while having no fear of conflict these are the characteristics needed to turn this school district around. Our community needs a strong public school system. Most students and parents want their children to have neighborhood friends and be able to ride their bikes to their local public school. The answer is not getting rid of school choice; we need to make SUSD genuinely competitive.

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
2. Allowing parents to opt their children out of activities or lessons that offend their personal, moral, or religious beliefs.	S
3. Increasing state and local taxes to provide more funding for schools and school facility projects.	−*	While I am not opposed to the concept of bonds and overrides, I am however, opposed to a blanket pledge of support for all bonds and overrides without context. That is like saying - I am always for paying more taxes under any circumstances. A rational approach is a showing of real need and fiscal responsibility.
4. Requiring signed permission from a parent before a student may participate in any sexuality related instruction, activities, or clubs.	S
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
6. Making available books and instructional materials that include sexually explicit images and themes in school classrooms and libraries.	O
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.	S
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)	−*	I’d like to do a combination of recognizing teacher experience with merit. Definitely interested in rewarding merit over mediocrity but not comfortable with an all or nothing approach to teacher compensation.
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.	O
10. Teaching what is known as diversity, equity, inclusion (DEI); social, emotional learning (SEL); or critical race theory (CRT) in public schools.	O*	No ethnicity or race is morally superior and to teach that discrimination against groups of people today for sins of another era is to promote racism and harmful to society. With respect to social, emotional learning, there are examples of this instruction being used to promote “equity”, issues of gender identity and activism instead of conflict resolution, empathy and how to work well with others - concepts that are important.
11. Requiring each district and charter school to post online a list of all curriculum and instructional materials being used in the classroom.	S*	With exceptions for some very small rural Arizona schools in which compliance would be untenable.