Conn, Linda

Meet the Candidate

Running For:
School Board
District:
Prescott Unified School District
Phone:
(714) 865-5525
Occupation:
retired
Education:
Bachelor's=Criminal Justice, Multiple Subjects K-12 Teaching Credential, Master's Degree=School Counseling
Biographical Info:

Education:
-Bachelor’s Degree, Criminal Law/Administration of Justice 1977
-California Teaching Credential-Multiple Subject/CBEST 1987
– Master’s Degree, School Counseling 2005
-Thesis: Escalating Aggression in School-Age Children (focused on effective anti-bullying programs/curriculum)
-Both renewable credentials current for next 5 years-

Career/Professional Experience:

1989-2013 Educator
-25 yrs public education K-12 credential/-elementary instruction
*working inner-city, underprivileged area assignments, bilingual-multicultural populations
*Master teacher/mentor for student teachers
*Grade level coach/team leader

-School counseling-middle school-age inner city

1972-1989 Law Enforcement
-Rape crisis counseling/volunteer status (public service)
-18 yrs Law Enforcement-911/police dispatch, jailer/station officer status
-CAL/PAL volunteer (California Police Athletic League) working with neighborhood teens to establish positive interactions between Police and Community.

Volunteer Service:

—Board of Directors Yorktown Homeowners Association – 17 yrs/elected official (positions: Vice President, Secretary, Member-at-Large) dealing with all things related to running the HOA. (Huntington Beach, Ca)

-Disaster Service Worker / Orange County (Ca) working in conjunction with Red Cross/FEMA/OCSD. Local disasters including wildfires, earthquake preparedness, community awareness
Prescott Civic Organization Volunteer 2019-2021 (very restricted, since moving to Prescott, due to the Covid limitations).
-Ambassador, Prescott City Hall-Volunteer until Covid virus restrictions put in place in 2020
-Ambassador, Yavapai Republican Headquarters-Volunteer

Organizations: (California – Prescott)

-Yavapai Republican Committee, Precinct Committeeman 2021
-GMRW-Granite Mountain Republican Women 2021
-RWOP-Republican Women of Prescott 2019-2020
-Mountain Artists Guild- member 2020-2021
-“Wood-Bee Carvers” – President 2021, Secretary-Treasurer 2019-2020, local woodcarving club

-Arizona Gourd Society – member/artist/certified judge
-American Gourd Society – member/certified judge
-California Woodcarver’s Guild – member/certified judge
-Various artist’s clubs and organizations
Campaign Website
https://www.lindaconnforprescottschoolboard.vote/
Facebook URL
https://www.facebook.com/linda.conn.142
Why are you running for office?
With 25 years of teaching K-12 and a master’s degree in school counseling, I will bring invaluable experience and knowledge to the Prescott School District Board. I also bring 18 years of Law Enforcement-911/Jailer/Station Officer experience as a prior career. My Bachelor’s degree in Criminal Justice guarantees my love of law and order and Constitutional conservativism which guides my professional and private life yet allows me to be unbiased to all opinions. I taught prior to Common Core Standards that ushered in Social-Emotional Learning in 2010, and brought a dumbing-down of education, groupthink and a one-size-fits-all system that is failing dismally. We need to return to the basics, insist on the AZ Parents Bill of Rights, and turn this ship around. Our Kids Deserve Better.

Statement:

With 25 years of teaching K-12 and a master’s degree in school counseling, I will bring invaluable experience and knowledge to the Prescott School District Board. I also bring 18 years of Law Enforcement-911/Jailer/Station Officer experience as a prior career. My Bachelor’s degree in Criminal Justice guarantees my love of law and order and Constitutional conservativism which guides my professional and private life yet allows me to be unbiased to all opinions. I taught prior to Common Core Standards that ushered in Social-Emotional Learning in 2010, and brought a dumbing-down of education, groupthink and a one-size-fits-all system that is failing dismally. We need to return to the basics, insist on the AZ Parents Bill of Rights, and turn this ship around. Our Kids Deserve Better.

Endorsements:

Arizona Free Enterprise Club

Survey

Response Legend

  • SSupports
  • OOpposes
  • *Comment
  • −Declined to respond
  • †Declined to respond, Position based on citation

Question Response Comments/Notes
1. Requiring school officials, including teachers, to inform parents about their child’s social, mental, emotional, or physical health S* According to AZ Parents Bill of Rights, it's the law. School Districts must adhere to the letter of the law.
2. Allowing parents to opt their children out of activities or lessons they find offensive to their personal, moral, or religious beliefs S* Parents are the ultimate authority when it comes to their children. No one can supersede that right unless it is ordered by a court of law.
3. Increasing state and local taxes to provide more funding for schools and school facility projects O* About 56% of the budget of the State of Arizona goes to Education. What is needed is for Governing Boards to learn how to effectively handle the money they receive and be fiscally conservative to funnel those funds properly.
4. Requiring signed permission from a parent before a student may participate in any sexuality related instruction, activities, or clubs. S* This too is mandated by the AZ Parents Bill of Rights. Schools may not violate. On our website, The AZ School Board Watchdogs (azschoolboardwatchdogs.com) you will find a fill-in-the-blank form letter to personalize or print and deliver to your child's school to keep on file and make sure they are aware and abide by the law.
5. Allowing all parents to use tax credits, vouchers, or education savings accounts to enable children to attend any public, charter, private, homeschool, or online academy S* In order to keep Public School's feet to the fire, they need to be competitive. The only way is for the backpack funding where the money follows the child and not taken from the parent and given to the schools. It's only right.
6. Requiring full-day kindergarten for all students S* I taught Kindergarten (as well as all the other grades from 1-8) and the children are very capable of staying in school for the entire day. They NEED the education and socialization that Kindergarten supplies. You can't do that in a half-day session. It's necessary.
7. Mandating sex education classes for 5th-12th grade students O* Not sex education. It must be Fact-based biology. That should not be confused. Sex/intercourse education has no place in schools. Liberal education confuses so many words to make them very "global" so they can throw as many things into 1 as possible. They need to stop redefining words to suit their agenda.
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. masters degrees) O* This is hard to completely support or oppose. I believe that some things (like higher education/incentive pay) should be offered. To just promote a teacher to tenure and not require anything else for good, documented teaching results is not good to do. Incentivizing good teaching practice helps to better the teacher. I've worked with teachers who would actually fall asleep at their desks during school after giving kids "busy" work to do. Or teachers who bully the students and are not held accountable for bad teaching are unacceptable.
9. Implementing policies to allow students and faculty to use the restroom, locker room, and shower room that aligns with their gender identity O* Absolutely NOT. Gender-confusion feelings do not belong in school. Fact-based biology teaches you there are only 2 genders. Male or Female. That determines the rest.
10. Teaching what is known as diversity, equity, inclusion (DEI); social, emotional learning (SEL); or critical race theory (CRT) in public schools. O* This is part of Social Emotional Learning that morphed from Critical Race THEORY and was ushered in by Common Core. All of it needs to be weeded out of our education system.We need back to basics, classical education, and civics with humanities thrown in for well-rounded excellent education. Teaching the pillars of good character is something that teachers have always included in their instruction and that needs to be singled out and taught. The rest belongs in the home. I am in favor of standards adopted by the Florida Dept of Education, B.E.S.T (Benchmarks for Excellent Student Thinking).
11. Increasing academic (curriculum) transparency by requiring each public school to post online for parents and the public a list of all instructional materials being used in the classroom. S* This is a given. I'm also in favor of adding something similar to teachers required to create a daily "zoom-like" meeting in the classroom so parents of those children and administrators (on a private school server) can tune in at any time during the day to hear and see what is being taught, how the students are behaving and learning and what is always going on. Like on school buses, or even as bodycams the police wear, this makes everyone accountable. And, anyway, what do they have to hide?