Educator Donna Lewis has had a storied career in Arizona. An Assistant Superintendent at the Arizona Department of Education. Director of Middle School Leadership at Tucson Unified. An Assistant Superintendent at Glendale Elementary. Superintendent of both Cave Creek and Creighton Elementary Districts.
At Creighton, she was chosen the 2021 School Superintendent of the Year by the School Superintendents Association for her efforts in promoting projects based and personalized learning approaches for students in the classroom setting.
Retired, Dr. Lewis is running for a seat on the Scottsdale Unified School District Governing Board.
If elected, she will bring the wealth of experience from the work she performed at her earlier positions and promote:
- Higher learning for all children.
- Greater partnering with parents.
- Good stewardship of the district’s financial and educational resources.
Dr. Lewis graciously took the time to respond to questions about her candidacy for the Scottsdale School District Governing Board.
The questions and her responses are below.
- What are the two Reasons you would like to run for election to the Scottsdale School District Governing Board?
“I want to run for Scottsdale school board for a couple of reasons. I love children and I love the education process. I love our schools and our teachers. I love the way when we talk about learning we get excited about what motivates children, what’s lighting them up, what makes them curious and how we keep them wondering. The whole engagement of learning can be so exciting and because we have so many neighbors and people who believe in our school system, I want to be a part of that circle of conversation. I’ve had a lot of years, 42 of them, in public education and so I have some experience to bring to the table that I think could help. I do know what the role of the governing board members are and what the role is not. So, I think that’s real important for the experience that I could bring is my love for the learning process.”
“I think another real reason is we can always do better. There’s always a conversation for continuous improvement, progress development and evolution of our ideas. I would like to keep those conversations as the focal point of the governing board. Let’s keep our eye on the ball and that’s the kids and the learning.”
- If elected to the governing board, what are two education related issues you would promote as a member?
“Well, I think student voice and student design and projects is a really great way to empower student learning and I think teacher craftsmanship to match personalized learning approaches with the state standards and even beyond is what’s really exciting. So, I would promote teachers to think and design way past the 900 square foot model that we call a classroom. I would urge us to think past learning environments that are limited in terms of space and time. I want to say that we’re beyond the 900 square feet classroom and that we’re creating learning environments that are really unique with 24/7 options. I would just love to see us get really creative with ways that kids could be grouped together for learning based on interests.”
“I’d also like to promote teachers as the professionals that they are with parents as partners. The teachers are on the front lines all day every day and they get fatigued in a really good way like any good colonel or soldier does with the way that kids feel challenged or get learning fatigue or come to school not motivated and how they’re going to energize them to motivate them and I want to talk about ways that we can complement our parents as partners in a kind and collaborative way. So, I would hope that I could really promote a kindness and a collaboration at the policy level.”
- Would you care to comment on both the Republican and Governor’s proposals to expand Prop 123 as well as Republican legislators attempts to ban certain books, promote a distorted view of history, and also promote policies that discriminate against members of the LGBTQ community? Please explain.
Prop 123
Proposition 123, which is the use of state land trust was originally brought to us in 2016, I think maybe. We were reluctant to go for such a short-term solution for added funding to teacher salaries. The expansion of it is the very concern originally, I had even though I supported it back in the original day of 2016. When it was proposed it barely passed. I think it was a 50.3 or 50.6% passage. I still think there’s some concern about the state land trust as the source of the funding. But with Kavanaugh, Gress and Governor Hobbs putting different parts and pieces of the plan together for its expansion. I really appreciate the fact that the Governor has elaborated to include more teachers as being fully counted. When it was originally calculated, it was calculated at about 70% of our teachers getting the added pay because it only included a certain segment of M & O budget. It didn’t include all the teachers that were we buy out of federal funds. So, we didn’t have a way of adding the funds to all teachers and so we had to skinny it down which felt like it was a cheater promise if you will. But I think Kavanaugh even proposed less funds for it and I think Gress has proposed the same funds for it and I think the Governor’s proposal increased funds. Whatever it takes to help our teachers get paid the money that they deserve I’m supportive of. I’m just a little hesitant on its source. So, we got to keep them not only at cost of living, but we really need to think about ways to offer raises to our educational professionals.
What do you think of Superintendent Horne’s recommendation that Title One budgets be reduced by 20 percent?
“It concerns me because Title One monies are for some of our neediest children who often come to our classrooms in kindergarten with a 3000-word vocabulary and some of our kids come to school with a 30,000-word vocabulary in kindergarten. When we start with that discrepancy and we treat everybody the same, the discrepancy from a vocabulary and a learning point of view it grows exponentially. The Title One funds are a way to offer additional support to children who come to our schools with less experience, less vocabulary, and give them a leg up on enrichment and remedial support. Title One is needed especially in some of our needier communities. We’ve been cut six and eight percent year after year after year over time. Twenty percent feels like a stark reduction.”
On Republican proposals to ban books and distort the teaching of History?
“Well, I’m not going to engage in culture wars. I think they are an invented issue. I think for those people who want to make choices for their own children about the books that their children are exposed to, I think parents as partners should have the right to do that. I think teachers should and will honor as they always have a book they don’t want their child exposed to but I don’t think one parent should tell another parent what they can and cannot read.
On Republican legislative attempts to discriminate against members of the LGBTQ community?
“We’ve got a lot of learning to do on the fact that we open our doors to all children, and they go through various identities related to creed race gender, and sexuality. There’re all sorts of new things showing up that are new to me and uncomfortable at my age and yet I know we open our doors to all students. So, while there’s some nuances to learn, there’s lots of ways to find a golden mean to mediate it and I’ll give you an example. When I was a superintendent, we built a new school with all individual bathrooms from floor to ceiling with a real door just like at home. We don’t have separate bathrooms at home. So why have separate bathrooms in schools? Since most of the schools have been built with gang bathrooms, is there a way to offer individualized rooms for toilets? I believe there are. I don’t know the affordability of it, and I think it’s something we should look at. But I don’t want to making laws that tell some kids what they can and can’t do or how they should or should not feel about who they are. I want all kids to be empowered to grow to be the best that they can be.”
- Is there anything not covered in the first three questions that you would like to readers to know about you and your candidacy for the Scottsdale School Governing Board? Please explain.
I mean there’s probably a hundred other topics we could go into but I will just say that, I was a school teacher and I took my second graders up to Payson to dig for fossils. Now my students are in their 40s and they still remember that experience. They still say, that was Miss Ridenour (my maiden name,) we remember the fossils. We remember brachiopods, crinoids, and dyrbia. We remember the films and the kingdoms, and they were seven and so that fun outdoor exciting way to go about learning is something that excites me the most. When I was a superintendent, we built a school. I won’t use the word open school because that’s so 70s, but I will say it had fluid movement for interest-based learning and that was for the parent who wanted to choose the school. We rebranded the school for a school of choice for constructivist learning, multi-age learning, and dual language immersion learning. If this is calling to you, this is the school for you and if it has grown from a very small intricate student-centered student leadership school to a community that is just embraced it and turned it absolutely on its head. I would also just say I was also the Superintendent of the Year in 2021 and my board was recognized by the state for its best boardsmanship and for having a family center community engagement that was recognized by the Arizona School Board Association. So, I feel a real kinship to what we’re going across in many school districts across the State of Arizona, and I really appreciate that we were recognized for our excellence. Even when we had disagreement on the board, we had ways to work through it, and I would hope I would bring that to the new board in Scottsdale.”
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