Kyrene: an eight-year incumbent, a parent who fought the closures, and two first-time candidates

November 3, 2026 general election. Nonpartisan, at large: vote for up to two. Kyrene Elementary School District serves parts of Tempe, Chandler, Phoenix (Ahwatukee), and Guadalupe. The district is planning around continued enrollment decline, projecting a loss of about 593 students and roughly $3.5 million of state funding for 2026/27, which it offset with about $4.9 million of permanent cost reductions. Kyrene has no bond or override question on this ballot.

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. A fifth candidate, Will Wallstrom, withdrew after a petition challenge and is not on the ballot.

Kevin Walsh (incumbent)

Eight years on the Kyrene board, including service as its president. He is a business attorney and the chairman of Jobs for Arizona's Graduates, and the parent of five current, past, and future Kyrene students.

Stated priorities: supporting educators as the way to deliver student outcomes. He stood with educators during the Red for Ed movement, has been an associate member of the Arizona Education Association throughout his board service, and has advocated for teachers at the Legislature and the Department of Education.

Catherine Peters

A former Kyrene student and current Kyrene parent. She organized with parents against the district's announced school closures and says their data helped persuade the board to keep two schools open.

Stated priorities: increasing enrollment by working with the district's marketing department, transparency and understanding of district spending, and expanding opportunities to all Kyrene students regardless of social status.

Mathew Sparkes

Parent of two Kyrene students. He helps run a project management software company and says he has worked with thousands of organizations on aligning goals with resources and funding.

Stated priorities: long-term results, disciplined execution, and sustainable growth over short-term fixes, applied to a district whose budget now depends on managing decline well.

Franklin Zyriek

A Kyrene alumnus (Norte, Waggoner, and Kyrene Middle School) who earned a master's in public policy at American University in Washington, D.C. He worked as a junior policy staffer for the U.S. Senate and as an economic policy analyst at a nonpartisan advocacy organization.

Stated priorities: policy discipline and fiscal accountability, defense of neighborhood classrooms in closure and consolidation decisions, workforce pathways in the skilled trades, and supervised AI literacy. His campaign site is linked below.

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.
Wallstrom's withdrawal after a petition challenge is per Tempe News reporting; he does not appear on the county superintendent's certified candidate list dated August 25, 2026.
The Tempe News published candidate questionnaires for this race (linked below); they are the most detailed primary record of the candidates' own answers.

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

Certified candidates, Maricopa County School Superintendent: schoolsup.org (PDF)
Arizona Republic school board guide, October 2, 2026: azcentral.com
Tempe News, Kyrene candidate questionnaires, September 28, 2026: tempenews.com
Tempe News, on the Wallstrom withdrawal and the Tempe races: tempenews.com