Phoenix Elementary: four of five board seats are on this ballot, plus a $97.8 million bond

November 3, 2026 general election. Phoenix Elementary School District No. 1, in central Phoenix, elects its five-member board in two separate races this year: two seats for two-year terms and two seats for four-year terms. Six candidates are running. The district also asks voters for a $97.8 million bond. Board service is unpaid.

How these races work: the two-year race and the four-year race are separate items on your ballot. In each one, vote for up to two candidates; the top two in each race win. Both of the two-year incumbents are recent appointees who have never faced voters for this board.

The two-year race: two seats, three candidates

Caitlin Millat

Former elementary school teacher and administrator, now a law professor at Arizona State University who teaches and writes about education law and democracy. She has a son in the district community and is a Democrat, which the Republic noted because board races are formally nonpartisan.

Stated priorities: keeping schools open, strengthening enrollment through community outreach, safe buildings, and a board that operates transparently and in students' best interest.

Damian Sandoval Barrera (incumbent, appointed)

Appointed to the board in May 2026. He works as a customer service representative for the Motor Vehicle Division. His earlier work includes the Tea Party Patriots and the Libre Initiative, a nonprofit advocating economic freedom for Hispanic Americans, including health care access and immigration reform efforts. (The county list renders his name as "Sandoval, Damian.")

Suanne Edmiston (incumbent, appointed)

Appointed to the board in April 2025. She has more than a decade of education policy experience in the U.S. House of Representatives, where she worked for members from Iowa and Texas districts, and she is the state director of the State Freedom Caucus Network, a conservative nonprofit political organization. She is originally from western Pennsylvania.

The four-year race: two seats, three candidates

Carmen Trujillo (incumbent)

First elected in 2018 and re-elected in 2022. She has more than a decade working in education, human services, and community health; she is currently a community health worker with the Creighton Community Foundation and previously worked for Arizona's developmental disabilities division.

Allison Gullick

The daughter of two public school teachers, she works as an epidemiologist in public health. She represented central Phoenix on the SRP District 6 Council.

Stated priorities: improving educator pay and retention, preventing further school closures, and supporting access to preschool.

Adrianne Speas

An attorney who has lived in the area since 2007 and has two children. She has chaired the site council at Shaw Montessori since 2017.

Stated priorities: she says she decided to run after seeing turmoil on the board; her priorities are a balanced budget and improving test scores.

The bond: $97.8 million

In one sentence: Phoenix Elementary may borrow $97.8 million for capital needs, repaid through the secondary property tax over about 23 years.

The math for your household

About $161 a year for 23 years, on a $250,000 home

That is the Arizona Republic's figure for a homeowner whose home is valued at $250,000. It works out to roughly $0.64 per $100 of net assessed value. A home assessed at twice that value pays roughly twice as much.

A YES vote

The district may sell up to $97.8 million in bonds for building and capital projects, with the debt service added to the secondary tax.

A NO vote

No new borrowing. Building needs are handled from the regular capital budget, deferred, or the district returns with a different ask.

The strongest case for YES

Central Phoenix buildings are old. Supporters, including candidates running on keeping schools open and safe, argue the district's campuses need capital investment that the operating budget cannot produce, and bonds are the only mechanism Arizona provides at this scale.
Enrollment strategy needs credible buildings. Candidates across this ballot identify enrollment decline and closures as the district's core problem; supporters argue families will not choose campuses that look abandoned.

The strongest case for NO

A shrinking district borrowing for 23 years. Critics ask whether a district fighting enrollment loss should take on a generation of debt sized for its current footprint, before the board settles which campuses have a future.
Interest is part of the price. $97.8 million of principal comes with years of interest on top.

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.
The bond's project list detail and its estimated tax rate per $100 were not itemized in the sources we reviewed beyond the Republic's household figure; the district's informational pamphlet is the document of record for project specifics.
The Republic's guide counts two incumbents across the two races in one passage (the two appointees) plus Trujillo in the four-year race; the county certified list and the guide's own candidate sections support the incumbency labels used above.

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. The two board races and the bond are separate items; answer any, all, or none.

Sources

Certified candidates, Maricopa County School Superintendent: schoolsup.org (PDF)
Arizona Republic school board guide, October 2, 2026 (candidate profiles and the $161 bond figure): azcentral.com
Maricopa County School Superintendent, bond and override elections list: schoolsup.org