Armando Montero has come a long way since first winning a seat on the Tempe Union High School Governing Board at the age of 18 a year after graduating high school at Desert Vista in 2019.
A rising star, Mr. Montero, has as a board member including the last two years as its President, helped lead Tempe Union High to adopt policies to promote inclusion, mental health and social wellness, and data-driven goals for all student achievement, including marginalized communities like the LGBTQ one.
If reelected this year, Mr. Montero pledges to continue to work on the issues he campaigned on in 2020, hoping to permanently codify them for future board members.
Mr. Montero graciously took the time to discuss his candidacy for reelection to the Tempe Union High School Governing Board.
The questions and his responses are below.
- What are at least two reasons you would like to run for reelection to the Tempe Union High School District Governing Board?
“First and foremost, the reason I ran for the board in the first place in 2020 was to give voice to the students/younger people of our district. I was a product of our district. I graduated from Desert Vista High School in 2019. I was really involved in mostly mental health and social wellness. As I started to get involved with the board at the time and administration, we started to ask the questions of making sure that our students, the people that we’re making decisions for on a daily basis for, have some sort of process and input into this day-to-day decision making. So I put my hat into the ring in 2020 and since then, have been really able to make really some great progress on issues. Mental health is one of them. We’ve ended up passing one of the most comprehensive mental health school district policies in the state. We led a governance restructure of the governing board focusing on student outcomes, accountability, transparency, and alignment across our board. As a result, we’re seeing an increase in test scores and proficiency across each one of our schools in our district.”
“I can go on about a lot of the things we’ve been able to do. The main reason I’m running is to continue that work. There are a lot of good things that have been put in place and I have been very fortunate to work with some amazing board members and colleagues. I think we need to think about how structurally we work in codifying this into our policies so that we’re making sure that when all of us are off the board, when our administration changes, that these policies and procedures that are now in place, remain. This is going to be a structure of how, we in Tempe Union, as a board, operate from now on. I think it’s been able to focus our work and we’ve made tremendous progress because of that. One of my main goals in running again is to make sure we can put these structures in place and complete the good work that we’ve been able to do.”
- If elected, what are at least two education-related issues you would champion as a member of the Tempe Union High governing board?
“Beyond what I had just talked about and a lot about what I campaigned on in 2020, we were able to accomplish pretty much everything we campaigned on. I think now our focus has to turn to some of the really difficult conversations that we have to have as a district. This isn’t just specifically Tempe, but we all know that declining enrollment is a huge issue for public schools across Arizona. Tempe Union is no exception. We were projecting a one percent decline in enrollment this year. It turned out to be closer to five percent which ended up being about a $ four million hit to our budget. We really have to structurally think about how we’re strategically, long term, holding the financial health of our district. That comes with a lot of very difficult conversations and making sure that we’re transparent with the community, bringing in stakeholders from across the district, and figuring out how we’re still going to be a financially strong district. We’re in a very good place right now because of the budgets and the staff that we have had in the past that have put us in a really good position. We’re fortunate to have such a supporting community that passes our bonds and overrides. We really have to think about, financially, what is the future of our district going to look like. That process is going to continue to happen and I hope to involve as many people as possible in a transparent way to do that.”
“Second, like I mentioned earlier, this idea around our governance restructuring that is going to be specifically focused on student outcomes and putting these into policies and practices. This is the first year we have adopted this new model. What that entails is setting specific times when we monitor student outcomes data. We’re a very data-focused board. We adopted a data monitoring calendar for the entire school year that focuses on the exact topics and types of data that we want to look at which has then informed the first time we even set district-level board goals and then aligned that to our Superintendent’s and school’s goals. So, everything is aligned and transparent throughout our district. This has made a tremendous difference in how we communicate with one another and govern our district. We’ve heard nothing but good things from across the board. Continuing that work and continuing those policies and procedures to make sure that work continues when all of us are off the board is one of my main objectives if I get a second term.”
- Please describe your views on the Republican legislature’s attempts to expand Prop 123 when compared to the Governors, ban certain types of books, mandate a distorted version of history education, and discrimination against children in the LGBTQ community.
“Well, I’ll first start with 123. I’ve read over the Republican’s proposal. I’ve read over the Governor’s proposal, and I think the Republican’s proposal is a slap in the face to us in public education. In a way they want to increase the amount of funding coming from 123 but they tie our hands on how we can spend that money. They want to create a new fund that is specific to increasing teacher pay but the way they define teachers is very narrow. One of the things that sticks out to me is saying ‘Hey if you’re a teacher that has been placed in one of the bottom two categories of a performance review, you don’t get this money, sorry.’ It’s also very narrow in terms of that this doesn’t apply to a lot of support staff. It doesn’t apply to a lot of administrators. It applies to a very small segment of certified teachers. The money that we receive right now from 123. Tempe gets about $954,000. We already spend almost all of that going towards staff salaries. I think the way they (the Republicans) have proposed this narrative that is out there that our school districts and our governing boards don’t know how to spend the money properly is false. I think it’s a slap in the face of local control. It’s a slap in the face as to why we have school boards in the first place. We’re elected by our local communities because every community has varying priorities. They should have a say in how that money is spent. I think the Governor’s proposal is a little bit better in that. There are various categories that this money goes into related to capital needs, school safety, and staff salaries. While I still think there is some discussion around mandates on how this money is spent, the Governor’s proposal is going in a better direction than where the Republicans went with their proposal.”
“To the question on book bans and the attacks on the LGBTQ community, we, as a board, have been very outspoken against these types of attacks on our students. We are very focused on making sure we provide an equitable space for all of our students to make sure they feel safe and welcome at our schools. Part of the reason we did our governance restructure was for this very purpose: to get the politics out of our boardroom. These are clearly just partisan, political issues that are being raised that have no bearing on student outcomes. It’s purely for political reasons and so, we try not to have those conversations because we know that is not going to be conducive to bettering student outcomes in our district. We have passed resolutions supporting LGBTQ students and recognizing different months of awareness for our students because we want to make sure they feel safe. We want to make sure they feel recognized. Every policy that we’re passing. Every decision that we make is done within the equity lens because we recognize that specifically, with our data and our goals, we’re focused on the historically marginalized groups because we know that those are the groups that have historically not been paid attention to. When we’re looking at the data; when we’re looking at our decisions, those are the groups we’re making sure we’re focusing on keeping an eye on when we’re making our implementation decisions and working with our administrations. We know it’s just politics and we’ve been very outspoken in Tempe Union that anything that is an attack on any of our students, we will not tolerate.”
- Is there anything not covered in the first four questions that you would like the readers to know about you and your candidacy for the Tempe Union High School Board? Please explain.
“I’m just honored to be able to work with the board. I’m honored that the board that I work with has had the trust in me to lead the board as President for the past two years. We’ve been able to make really good progress on pretty much every issue we talked about in 2020 whether it be mental health, equity, inclusion, and teacher compensation, recruitment, and retention. I could go on but hopefully, we can continue that momentum that we have right now. We’ve heard nothing but good things from parents, students, and teachers. We’re in a really good spot in Tempe Union and would hopefully love to get the support of the community again to continue the work that we’re doing.”
Please click on the below social media sites to find out more information on Armando Montero and his candidate for the Tempe Union High School Board.
Website: www.monterofortempeunion.com
Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/armandomonteroaz/
X: https://twitter.com/AMonteroAZ
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/armandomonteroaz
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