Brown, Scott

Meet the Candidate

Running For:
School Board
District:
Cave Creek Unified School District
Age:
65
Occupation:
retired ( worked 34 years in retail sales management, purchasing, marketing in grocery and drug stores )
Education:
high school, some college
Family:
Wife of 35 years is Gail and our adult children Colby and Shelby ( both children are graduates of Cactus Shadows HS in the Cave Creek school district )
Religion:
Christian
Biographical Info:

Born and raised in east central Illinois, my father was a Navy veteran and a police officer for 21 years, then was elected to the local school board for four years and elected to our city council after that.. My Mother was a Registered Nurse and a hospital floor supervisor for 11 years, then went back to school for her Masters and became an instructor of Nursing at our local college for 34 years. I was active in our church and in Boy Scouts ( yes, I am an Eagle Scout ) along with my two younger brothers we grew up in a household that worked hard and gave back to our community. I started working at the local grocery store, quickly rising up through the ranks to a management position. It was in Charleston, Illinois that I met my future wife, Gail. We both were in management and her career took us to several different states ( Texas, Illinois, Missouri, New Hampshire and finally Arizona ) with our children having the chance to live in different areas of the U.S. We moved to Arizona in the spring of 2002, locating within the Cave Creek school district, which I became a long time adult volunteer at our children’s elementary school ( room aid, lunchroom duty, helped organized the twice a year Book Fair for six years, served on the school PTO as co-President. As our children moved into the middle and high school, I shifted my work to several District committees, served on the high school Site Council for five years, was awarded the District Volunteer of the Year award in 2015, then I ran for and was elected to the Cave Creek school board in 2018 and re-elected in 2022. In this time I also volunteered with the Kiwanis Club of Carefree, serving as Chair of the Kiwanis Marketplace Committee and then five years on the Scholarship Committee ( the last three years we awarded over $500,000 in scholarships ).
Also during our time in Arizona, I have volunteered with the local youth football and cheerleading organization, as President for seven years and now Commissioner for twelve years, I’m proud to say we are celebrating our 25th season of service to our community, which I have been a part of for the entire time.

Statement:

I grew up in a household that we gave back to our community. I continue to do this as a member of the local Kiwanis Club, and my continued work with the local youth football and cheerleading organization. I feal that serving on the local school board has been a great way to continue to give back to our community. I have drawn on my experiences in my career dealing with sales estimates, payroll and budgets to help me understand our District financial plan and the daily issues that a smaller school district must manage for the students and staff.
The Cave Creek community is a lot like the small Midwest town I grew up in, great families and everyone wanting to do what they can for thew children. I believe that I can continue to serve on the school board and make good decisions that will benefit our children and provide the best education that we can.

Survey

Response Legend

  • SSupports
  • OOpposes
  • *Comment
  • −Declined to respond
  • †Declined to respond, Position based on citation
Question Response Comments/Notes
1. Requiring district and charter school officials, including teachers, to inform parents about their child’s social, mental, emotional, or physical health. S* Parents and Teachers must have frequent communication on the status of the child in the classroom. I also strongly support Parents being volunteers in the classroom so they can see first hand what is happening.
2. Allowing parents to opt their children out of activities or lessons that offend their personal, moral, or religious beliefs. S* Above all, it is the responsibility of the Parent to decide what they deem proper for the education of their children.
3. Increasing state and local taxes to provide more funding for schools and school facility projects. −* I don't know if raising taxes is the answer but having a proper public school funding model from the State would go a long way in funding. For Arizona to still be using a funding structure from 1980's is unacceptable to the Public Schools.
4. Requiring signed permission from a parent before a student may participate in any sexuality related instruction, activities, or clubs. S* As in questions #2 above, is the responsibility of the Parent to decide what they deem proper for the education of their children. School Districts must give the Parent the choice to approve or not, any unique curriculum that their child could be exposed to.
5. Allowing all parents to use tax credits and publicly funded empowerment scholarship accounts to enable their children to attend any private, homeschool, or online academy of their choice. O* This is such a topic, many confuse "school choice" with the ESA program. As it was originally constructed, the ESA was to help special needs, or low income students to help move to a larger school district to receive better education. Opening up the ESA to everybody is not what the voters approved and it will need to be addressed soon as the drain in the state budget is now starting to be a concern.
6. Making available books and instructional materials that include sexually explicit images and themes in school classrooms and libraries. O* That is not what schools need to be providing. There must be some sort of guidelines and with Parent consent for any issues with explicit themes.
7. Acquiring parental consent for school faculty and staff to refer to students by pronouns that do not align with the student’s birth sex. S* Again, the Parent and Teacher communication must be allowed to meet and discuss any issues that the child may have, including any questions about used pronouns.
8. Allocating teacher pay raises based upon merit rather than providing uniform salary schedule increases based upon years of teaching or additional credentialing (e.g. master’s degrees). S* Over the years I have served, I see where both merit and longevity should both be used in annual staff reviews that would include a possible raise in salary.I have been on the Board when the Superintendent tried to re-work the yearly teacher reviews, so I have seen a large part of this issue.
9. Implementing policies to allow students and faculty to use the restroom, locker room, and shower room based on self-identification rather than biological sex. O* NO !, Students ( and Staff members on campus ) must use the rest room / locker room of their birth sex.
10. Teaching what is known as diversity, equity, inclusion (DEI); social, emotional learning (SEL); or critical race theory (CRT) in public schools. O* NO to DEI / SEL / CRT as a basis for all curriculum in all grades from K to 12.
11. Requiring each district and charter school to post online a list of all curriculum and instructional materials being used in the classroom. S* Yes, Parents and the community should have the chance to see what their local school district is using and be able to ask questions if there are concerns.