Ballot Math / School districts / Deer Valley Unified
School board race: Deer Valley Unified School District

Deer Valley: three career educators against an incumbent who is also running for the Legislature

November 3, 2026 general election. Nonpartisan, at large: vote for up to two. Deer Valley Unified School District, in north Phoenix, Glendale, and Anthem, has been through a superintendent resignation and board fights over boundary changes in 2026. It has no bond or override question on this ballot. The Valley Vibe's candidate questionnaire (linked below) is the most detailed record of the candidates' own answers.
How this race works: two of the board's five seats are up, both for four-year terms. Four candidates are on the ballot; vote for up to two and the top two win. Board service is unpaid.

Paul Carver (incumbent)

A former Deer Valley student himself, with a master's in business administration from the University of Phoenix. He serves his community through his church and his legislative district party organization. Note for voters: he is simultaneously one of two Republican candidates running for the Arizona House of Representatives in his legislative district in this same election.
  • Stated priorities: a fresh perspective from management experience, and strengthening the district as a place where people from all walks of life enrich their families and their children's minds.

David Alvarado

More than 40 years in education, as an educator, father, grandfather, husband, and business owner. The son of legal Mexican immigrants who was educated in public schools.
  • Stated priorities (his questionnaire answers): academic excellence, fiscal responsibility, strong teachers, transparency, and parents at the table. On facilities: consolidate underutilized campuses and monetize excess capacity. On budgets: zero-based budgeting, audit and trim administrative overhead, and phase out reliance on overrides. On governance: a cost-effective superintendent search with performance-based contracting.
  • His diagnosis of the district: he names leadership and governance turmoil (a superintendent resignation and board conflict), deadlocked boundary fights between overcrowded areas and Anthem-area enrollment drops, and a special education legal claim by three educators among the district's top problems.

Julie Stockwell

A 40-year educator and a 45-year Deer Valley resident.
  • Stated priorities: excellent teachers, robust support services, and resources for every student, with board leadership that understands the classroom, values community input, and plans strategically.

Kristi Cooper

The daughter of a Deer Valley administrator and teacher, and herself a district teacher for more than three decades.
  • Stated priorities: addressing declining enrollment collaboratively, student safety, crowded classrooms, and disruptive students. She says poor financial decisions in the district cannot continue because students pay the price, and she opposes increasing class sizes.

The context

In April 2026 the board voted against the superintendent's boundary change plan, sending the rezoning process back to the start, and the superintendent announced a resignation, per Valley Vibe reporting. The district's recent history includes losing both a bond and an override election. The two members elected here will hire or oversee the next superintendent and inherit the unfinished boundary fight, which pits overcrowded northwest Valley campuses against severe enrollment drops in Anthem.

Verification notes

  • School board campaigns file finance reports with Maricopa County. No raised or spent totals for these campaigns appeared in the coverage we reviewed; we print no totals rather than guess.
  • Carver's simultaneous legislative candidacy is stated in the Arizona Republic's October 2, 2026 guide. Arizona law on holding both offices if elected to both is a legal question we do not resolve here; voters should know the two candidacies exist.
  • The April 2026 boundary vote and superintendent resignation are per Valley Vibe reporting; the resignation's effective date and interim arrangements were not verified in the sources we reviewed.

How to vote without getting your ballot rejected

  • Mail it by Tuesday, October 27, 2026. After that day, do not mail it: use a drop box or a vote center instead.
  • It must be received by 7 p.m. on Election Day, Tuesday, November 3. Postmarks do not count.
  • Sign and date the affidavit envelope, and write a current phone number on it.
  • Leaving any item blank is allowed. In this race you may vote for one candidate, two, or none; it does not affect the rest of your ballot.

Sources

Ballot Math: analysis only, no endorsements. Every candidate in this race got the same template: background, stated priorities, the record that exists, and honest notes where the record is thin.