Thompson, Chad

Meet the Candidate

Running For:
School Board
District:
Gilbert Unified School District
Phone:
(480) 433-0269
Age:
43
Occupation:
Real Estate Investment
Education:
B.A. Business, Arizona State University
Biographical Info:

I was raised in Yuma, AZ. As one of four boys, I learned that sometimes a little rough and tumble is necessary to get what you want. My father’s career was in commercial finance and my mother was an x-Ray tech at the local hospital. I was involved in 4-H, Cub Scouts and Boy Scouts, and weekends boating at the river or at the sand dunes riding our three wheelers. My parents worked hard and taught us that good things come to those that work hard. I remember my grandfather had a wooden box on top of his desk. On the outside it read “The secret to success”, on the inside in large bold print the word, “WORK”. This applied to school as well where I was expected to earn good grades and not misbehave. I sometimes had a hard time with the latter. Growing up we were always playing sports, baseball and soccer mostly. In Jr. High and High School, I was expected to be playing sports after school until I was old enough to get a job. I enjoyed working and as soon as I could, I worked and began learning about personal finances. These lessons have served me and my family well ever since.
I have been married for 20 years and my wife and I have 4 children. We’ve lived in Gilbert for over 10 years and love this town. I’m a small business owner and am involved in my local elementary schools’ site council. I serve in our church and teach a group of young men age 14 and 15. My goal is to teach these young men the value of integrity and the importance of putting God first in their lives. We provide service for less fortunate individuals and families in our community and we have some fun along the way.
Throughout my life I have learned that life is not easy and unfortunately, at some point everything lovely will be attacked and put in jeopardy. If anything we consider lovely and want to pass on to our kids, we must fight for it and be willing to sacrifice so our children can have a bright future.

Statement:

If the me of today went back to tell the me of four years ago what school and education was like in 2022, the me of four years ago would not believe it. They have locked our kids out of school, mandated masks and vaccines, isolated our children from their teachers and classmates, and they teach things like boys can be girls and girls can be boys. Our school board has approved curricula that focus on social justice rather than academic achievement and our schools and children are sitting ducks on unprotected campuses for any mentally ill person to come and target.

I’m running for school board because parents have been asleep and let this happen and I don’t want the me from four year from now coming to me today and asking why I didn’t do anything. We are awake and we are going to fight for our kids.

Parents and families have been let down and abused by school boards that don’t care about them, don’t listen to them and don’t want anyone but themselves to have any choices when it comes to their child’s education. This ends now. I will fight to support parents’ rights. I will fight to get politically and socially charged curricula and programs out of our schools. I will fight for parents to have transparency and know exactly what their kids are learning and if they don’t like it, parents can choose to seek better education alternatives elsewhere. I will encourage and make available opportunities for trade learning. Not everyone can be a YouTube star and we need to enable those that don’t want to continue to a university to learn skills that will help them have careers in the technical fields. I will oppose federal funding and the gross and slippery strings that come attached. I will fight to close the education gap of the last two years and focus our teachers and students on academic achievement. I will fight to reel in district spending by eliminating programs focused on diversity, equity and inclusion, social emotional learning, comprehensive sex education, whole-child development, and others that seek to undermine family values taught at home. I will make sure our teachers have the resources they need and ensure teacher pay reflects the type of excellent teachers we want to attract and retain.

It’s an uphill battle, but our kids are worth it. They deserve a school board that will protect them from political and social influence and give them the best opportunity to learn and develop into strong women and men, mothers and fathers, and the future leaders of Gilbert and our world.

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* School Staff should have the resources to identify only. Parents are the only ones qualified to make health decisions for their children.
2. Allowing parents to opt their children out of activities or lessons they find offensive to their personal, moral, or religious beliefs S* No student should be forced to sit through lessons that undermine values and beliefs taught at home.
3. Increasing state and local taxes to provide more funding for schools and school facility projects O* You would have to thoroughly convince me the benefits far outweigh the burden on taxpayers, before I would even consider asking taxpayers for more money.
4. Requiring signed permission from a parent before a student may participate in any sexuality related instruction, activities, or clubs. S
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
6. Requiring full-day kindergarten for all students O
7. Mandating sex education classes for 5th-12th grade students O
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) S
9. Implementing policies to allow students and faculty to use the restroom, locker room, and shower room that aligns with their gender identity O
10. Teaching what is known as diversity, equity, inclusion (DEI); social, emotional learning (SEL); or critical race theory (CRT) in public schools. O* These programs seek social justice and have no place in our education system.
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* Teachers should require approval before using anything not disclosed to parents and opting out should be easy for parents.