Filed Apr 11, 2026
Six PVUSD parents, three coaches, one principal: an endorsement reel
— Campaign staff
The lede
What was unusual about the morning was who was not there.
On Saturday morning, a folding-chair Q&A in the back of Henderson Hardware on Cave Creek Road drew the first round of formal endorsements for Maria Salgado-Whitman's bid for the Paradise Valley Unified Governing Board.
What was unusual about the morning was who was not there. There were no party chairs. No state legislators. No PAC representatives. No one from any of the dueling parent-rights or anti-parent-rights advocacy groups that have, in recent cycles, dominated school-board endorsement reels in Maricopa County.
What was there: ten people who actually do the work of educating, raising, or coaching kids in this district.
Janet Crowley, retired principal of a PVUSD elementary campus from 2008 to 2019, opened: 'I've watched four superintendents come through this district. I've watched two bond questions pass and one fail. The thing none of them did was sit down with a building plan and a class roster on the same table. Maria has done that. She brought it to my kitchen.'
Coach Aaron Begay, who runs the boys' basketball program at Pinnacle High, said the part out loud that coaches don't usually say at endorsement events: 'I don't care which party endorses her. I care that she knows the difference between a school that works and a school that's running on duct tape, and she does.'
Dr. Priya Ramaswamy, a pediatrician with a north Phoenix practice that sees about 60% PVUSD families, spoke about the downstream effect of overcrowding on parent stress and on student sleep. 'The kids in classes of 32 are not okay,' she said. 'I am their doctor. I am telling you they are not okay.'
Will Henderson, who runs the hardware store the event was held in, gave the shortest endorsement of the morning: 'I've known her ten years. She does what she says she's going to do. That's it. That's the whole speech.'
Tess Olague, a former Glendale Elementary special-education para and a current PTA officer at Desert Cove Elementary, spoke in Spanish first and then in English. The Spanish portion is preserved on the campaign's social channels in full. In English, Tess said: 'I have run a PTA. I have asked the district for things. The thing I have learned is that the district responds to people who can read a budget. Maria can read a budget.'
Sgt. Mike Doolan (Ret.), who served as a school resource officer at a PVUSD middle school for eleven years, spoke last: 'I don't endorse candidates. I'm endorsing this one. The discipline conversation in this district has gone sideways. Maria is the only candidate who asked me what the kids actually need, before she told me what she was going to do about it.'
Maria spoke for about four minutes at the end, mostly thanking the assembled. 'Not a single party chair on this list,' she said, in closing. 'By design.'
The full endorsement list will be updated on the campaign website as additional endorsements are formalized. The campaign's stated policy is to disclose every endorsement received, including those it declined. As of Saturday, two declined endorsements have been listed: one from a Maricopa County partisan committee, and one from a PAC the campaign declined to name.
From Maria's clipboard. Phoenix, AZ.
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