With no Democrats running for the Yavapai County superintendent's post, the winner of the Republican primary between Steve King and Carla Woods will likely become the district's next superintendent after incumbent Superintendent Tim Carter, who has held the position since 2005, retires at the end of the year.

While King is using his past experience to appeal to voters, Woods argues that King's experience only serves to maintain the status quo.

Steve King

“The first rule you take an oath of office is to obey the law and I take that very seriously. The law is the law and we will follow the law,” King said, describing himself as a constitutional conservative.

King worked in Arizona school districts for 30 years as a teacher's assistant before becoming superintendent of the Cottonwood-Oak Creek School District in 2017 and announcing her resignation from the district in 2018.

She will serve until March 2023. COCSD this year promoted Jessica Vocca, who has worked in both public and private schools and founded three different charter schools.

“I grew up in Phoenix,” King says, “and my family and I moved to Verde Valley and Yavapai County 23 years ago. We still live in the same house… I raised my family in the Verde Valley, but they all grew up and moved out. I'm married, and my wife lives here too.” [education]We have been married for 32 years. Personally, I love the Verde River. [and to] I'm going canoeing.”

King said the three biggest challenges for Yavapai County schools are recruiting and retaining quality teachers, “ensuring that our kids have every opportunity to develop into productive citizens” and keeping schools from becoming places of political indoctrination.

Both candidates have called for topics such as critical race theory to be removed from Yavapai County schools, but Verde Valley superintendents, including King, have said in previous interviews that this is not happening. Sedona Red Rock News.

King said she was proud of the initiatives she implemented during her tenure as superintendent, including phonics-based literacy instruction, expanded after-school programs and more job training.

“I think this is an important opportunity for our kids. [and] I'd like to see [afterschool Programming] It has expanded,” King said.

“The county superintendent's role is limited and it's really a support role. We don't tell school districts what to do. But it's a very important aspect and a role I believe our schools have to play.”

King pointed to COCSD’s plans to open Verde Tech High School in 2022 to train kids for future urban industrial worker jobs, and its partnership with the Valley Career and Technical Education Academy to provide classroom teacher training for high school juniors and seniors, as evidence of his support for job training.

“I am the most qualified candidate with extensive knowledge of school law, curriculum instruction, fiscal budgeting and proven leadership,” King said afterward.

Kara Woods

“I'm a conservative, registered Republican, and I believe politically that boys should be boys and girls should be girls,” Woods said, adding that he supports students in kindergarten through high school being assigned the sex they were assigned at birth.

Arizona Gov. Katie Hobbs vetoed a 2023 bill that would have required schools to call transgender students by their biological names or pronouns; a similar bill was not considered by the Legislature in 2024. There is no state law on the issue, so individual school districts currently set their own policies.

A 2018 study published in the Journal of Adolescent Health found that transgender youth who were allowed to use their chosen name at school, work, home and among friends experienced 71% fewer symptoms of severe depression and 65% fewer suicide attempts.

Woods served one term as a trustee for the Prescott Unified School District after moving to Prescott in 2013. With a degree in mathematics and physics from the University of Wisconsin-Ripon and 23 years as a STEM teacher, he has taught in public and charter schools and owned a local business.

“[I’ve] “I've been married for more years than I can count – 37 years,” Woods said. “I have two children and three grandchildren, almost all of whom live with us here in Prescott. My philosophy on education is that as a county we need to get back to basics – back to teaching math, science, reading, writing, factual history and English.”

She said improving test scores, increasing class attendance and reducing reports of student behavior problems are the three biggest challenges she sees in Yavapai County schools.

“I want our kids to do a little better,” Woods said. “If you bring in the love of America, the love of America, we're all Americans. We're not victims. We're not the oppressed and we're not the oppressors. We can achieve that.”

Her campaign website suggests hiring teachers who “have a love of country and a desire to promote the state's conservative values.”

Regarding attendance, Woods said high standards would encourage students to attend class, which would lead to better performance on standardized tests.

“If we [them] “If you teach from start to finish, and you actually teach, and you don't ask students to figure things out for themselves, you can improve test scores,” Woods said. “It's not that hard. When I was teaching, I got a 75 to 80 percent pass rate.”

Woods cited his tenure on the PUSD board and his experience with small businesses as preparing him for the budget writing job.

“I've never helped run vocational education itself. I know it's important, but I've never been directly involved with it,” Woods said.

“Vote for me because I really feel that education is heading in the wrong direction, and I'm going to change that direction,” Woods said. “And my opponent is pretty much the same as what we have now: same education, same background. So if you want the same thing as we have now, don't vote for me. If you want to get back to basics, improve grades, improve attendance, reduce classroom referrals, vote for me.”