Ballot Math / School districts / Phoenix Union
School board races: Phoenix Union High School District

Phoenix Union: three ward races, including a city council member coming back to the board

November 3, 2026 general election. Phoenix Union High School District's seven-member board is elected by ward, so you vote only in your own ward's race. Five ward seats were up in 2026; Wards 1 and 5 drew a single candidate each and their elections were cancelled (see the note at the bottom). Wards 2, 3, and 4 are contested, one seat each, four-year terms. Board service is unpaid.
How these races work: find your ward on your ballot. Each race below is a separate head-to-head contest for one seat. Only voters who live in that ward see that race.

Ward 2

Signa Oliver (incumbent)

On the board since 2022. A South Mountain High School graduate with a bachelor's in business administration and a law degree; she has served the State of Arizona as chief human resources officer and served in the U.S. Army as a Judge Advocate General officer.
  • Stated priorities: ending the school-to-prison pipeline, support for marginalized communities, and quality education for every student.

Joseph Dailey

South Phoenix resident who has worked as a global engineering director for a major firm.
  • Stated priorities: academics first, with a strong focus on reading, writing, and STEM, so students can enter a global workforce. He frames equity as students knowing how to read and write, and argues that teaching equitable outcomes over core principles leaves students unable to compete.

Ward 3

Deborah "Debbie" Cross (incumbent, appointed)

Appointed to the board in late 2024 and now running for a full term. After a career in banking, she taught finance and investment at Metro Tech High School for 22 years and at the junior college level for five years. She holds a bachelor's in vocational education and a master's in business administration from the University of Phoenix.
  • Stated priorities: improved enrollment, transparency, and more career and technical education in the district.

Rosalva Lagunas-Kuauhtli

A former classroom teacher who has also worked with the Arizona Department of Education.
  • Stated priorities: leadership grounded in inclusion, belonging, and respect; pathways to success for every student regardless of background; the well-being and professional growth of educators; post-secondary preparation and investment in extracurricular opportunities.

Ward 4

Laura Pastor

The best known name on this page. Pastor has represented central Phoenix and Maryvale on the Phoenix City Council since 2014, where her work has included closing the digital divide and expanding internet access for students. She earned a bachelor's in education from Arizona State University and a master's in public administration from Baruch College. Before the council she taught in the Roosevelt and Isaac elementary districts and directed the Achieving a College Education program at South Mountain Community College. She also previously served more than a decade on this same Phoenix Union governing board.
  • What her candidacy means: Ward 4 voters are choosing between a returning veteran of both this board and City Hall, whose record is long and public, and an opponent about whom almost nothing public exists (below).

Salina Pena

The Arizona Republic's candidate guide lists Pena with "No information provided," and we found no campaign site or public biography for her in the sources we checked. That absence is the finding: if you are a Ward 4 voter, the public record on one of your two choices is effectively blank, and any information will have to come from the candidate directly.

The two wards with no race

Ward 1 and Ward 5 each drew one candidate, so those elections were cancelled and the candidates are appointed as if elected: Isaac Young will represent Ward 1 and Steve Gallardo will represent Ward 5. If you live in those wards, this is why no Phoenix Union race appears on your ballot. Our page on cancelled school board races explains the mechanism.

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.
  • Phoenix Union has no bond or override question on the November 2026 ballot; the district's override elections were held in 2025.
  • Ward boundaries are the district's own; your ballot shows only your ward's race, which is the authoritative statement of which ward you are in.

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. 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
  • Arizona Republic, August 21, 2026, on cancelled school board elections: azcentral.com
  • Ballotpedia, Municipal elections in Maricopa County, Arizona (2026): ballotpedia.org
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.