Adam Ragan
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Adam Ragan ran for election for an at-large seat of the Tucson Unified School District in Arizona. Ragan lost in the general election on November 3, 2020.
Biography
Ragan earned a bachelor's degree from Arizona State University. His professional experience includes working as a teacher.[1]
Elections
2020
See also: Tucson Unified School District, Arizona, elections (2020)
General election
General election for Tucson Unified School District, At-large (3 seats)
The following candidates ran in the general election for Tucson Unified School District, At-large on November 3, 2020.
Candidate | % | Votes | ||
| ✔ |  | Natalie Luna Rose (Nonpartisan) | 23.8 | 108,477 |
| ✔ | Sadie Shaw (Nonpartisan) | 17.7 | 80,898 | |
| ✔ | Ravi Shah (Nonpartisan) | 16.8 | 76,566 | |
 | Adam Ragan (Nonpartisan) | 15.8 | 72,229 | |
| Cindy Winston (Nonpartisan) | 13.9 | 63,410 | ||
| Nicolas Pierson (Nonpartisan) | 10.9 | 49,912 | ||
| Cristina Mennella (Nonpartisan) (Write-in) | 0.4 | 1,959 | ||
| Other/Write-in votes | 0.6 | 2,548 | ||
| Total votes: 455,999 | |||
 = candidate completed the Ballotpedia Candidate Connection survey. | ||||
| If you are a candidate and would like to tell readers and voters more about why they should vote for you, complete the Ballotpedia Candidate Connection Survey. | ||||
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2018
General election
General election for Tucson Unified School District, At-large (2 seats)
Leila Counts and incumbent Adelita Grijalva defeated Adam Ragan, incumbent Michael Hicks, and Doug Robson in the general election for Tucson Unified School District, At-large on November 6, 2018.
Candidate | % | Votes | ||
| ✔ |  | Leila Counts (Nonpartisan) | 28.0 | 69,982 |
| ✔ |  | Adelita Grijalva (Nonpartisan) | 25.0 | 62,596 |
| Adam Ragan (Nonpartisan) | 17.5 | 43,727 | |
 | Michael Hicks (Nonpartisan) | 17.0 | 42,573 | |
| Doug Robson (Nonpartisan) | 12.2 | 30,560 | ||
| Other/Write-in votes | 0.4 | 936 | ||
| Total votes: 250,374 | |||
| = candidate completed the Ballotpedia Candidate Connection survey. | ||||
| If you are a candidate and would like to tell readers and voters more about why they should vote for you, complete the Ballotpedia Candidate Connection Survey. | ||||
Do you want a spreadsheet of this type of data? Contact our sales team. | ||||
Campaign themes
2020
Ballotpedia survey responses
See also: Ballotpedia's Candidate Connection
Adam Ragan did not complete Ballotpedia's 2020 Candidate Connection survey.
2018
Ballotpedia survey responses
See also: Ballotpedia's Candidate Connection
Adam Ragan completed Ballotpedia's Candidate Connection survey. The survey questions appear in bold and are followed by Ragan's responses.
What would be your top three priorities, if elected?
As a teacher, putting kids first is my priority by ensuring every decision made at TUSD is student focused and classroom centered. That also means I prioritize students and educators in every budget decision, including ensuring we clearly put our resources into our students. Third, ensuring TUSD communicates more effectively with the community by listening and responding to community needs.
What areas of public policy are you personally passionate about?
Building equity in education. Equity is ensuring each student and all students receive what they need to be successful in the classroom and the learning community. TUSD needs to focus on building equity in both learning environments and outcomes so that our kids can improve their futures and contribute to our community.
Is there a book, essay, film, or something else you would recommend to someone who wants to understand your political philosophy?
As an English teacher, I have many books I'd recommend. Rather than select a title for someone, I'll offer a prompt: how does the text you read connect to the idea(s) of building equity in the classroom, school, district and community? That is my philosophy.
What characteristics or principles are most important for an elected official?
Honest, dedicated work that prioritizes students and educators at every step and level.
What qualities do you possess that you believe would make you a successful officeholder?
I'm a teacher. My job is to assess, inform and work hard to ensure everyone in the room is working towards a common goal. Whether in the classroom or the board room, I put students first.
What do you believe are the core responsibilities for someone elected to this office?
To ensure that 44,000 kids get the best education and that our educators have the best work environment. That happens first with trust and second with dedication to the district and our kids.
What legacy would you like to leave?
That each child who graduates from TUSD leads a happy, healthy and productive life in their college, career and community. That TUSD as a district is financially secure for the future and operating under a strategic plan to ensure that we're creating systems of equity at every opportunity.
What is the primary job of a school board member in your view?
Putting our kids first. It seems simple, but at TUSD, for far too long we haven't put our kids first. That's my priority and guiding force.
Who are your constituents?
Our students, our parents/families, our educators, and our community.
How would you support the diverse needs of your district’s students, faculty, staff, and community?
Open, honest communication. As a classroom teacher, my job is to ensure that everyone is working towards the same goal. For TUSD as a district, our goal must be that every child will graduate TUSD ready for their college or career lives and focused on the community.
How will you build relationships with members of the broader community? Which groups, organizations, stakeholders will you specifically target?
As an active member of the greater Tucson community, I work with many groups. I tend to always ask the same question, but it's one I feel is vital: how does this policy/action impact our kids and make their education better? I work with many groups to achieve that.
What will you do to build a better relationship with parents in the district? What plans do you have to be inclusive of parental involvement?
Parents in TUSD need open/honest communication. As a teacher, it's my job to be on the student-parent-teacher team. I want to bring that to the board. TUSD as a district needs to bring parents in as equal partners in our kids' education.
Do you believe it is important to intentionally recruit with the aim of diversifying the district’s faculty, staff, and administration? If so, what would be your policy to achieve this?
Yes, it is important that we recruit teachers & staff that understand our community. You can't be what you can't see. The best way TUSD can attract diversity in teachers/staff is to make sure teachers/staff want to choose our district by ensuring we become an employer people choose each year to work in. Part of that is ensuring we have diversity in our leadership team so that our staff sees themselves reflected; our students need to see themselves reflected in the staff.
What issues get in the way of quality education? How would you address these obstacles?
As a classroom teacher, I know parent involvement and early-childhood literacy are the two biggest indicators of lifelong success. Getting parents involved by openly communicating and working as a team ensures our kids get the best out of their classroom time. Early-childhood literacy sets kids up for being lifelong learners. I support investing in early-childhood/pre-k opportunities for all our kids.
What type of skills should students be learning for success in the 21st century?
Project-based learning & STEM-A (Science-Technology-Engineering-Math-Arts, sometimes called STEAM). Literacy at all levels, from pre-k to college.
How might you improve the value of a high school diploma? What should a 21st century diploma reflect?
High literacy and critical thinking skills. A TUSD diploma should tell the community and an employer that the student contributes to solving problems and understands math, science and the arts.
In what areas would you like to expand curriculum? For example, do you see a need for advanced technical training or apprenticeships? What sort of innovative programming would you advance if given the opportunity?
We should continue to expand CTE (Career & Technical Education) opportunities as well as PBL (Project-Based Learning).
What strategies or plans would you advance to ensure the schools are properly funded?
Working with our legislators to ensure that we advocate for increased funding. I am fully RedForEd and will continue to work to ensure we restore funding to pre-recession levels.
What principles drive your policies for safety in schools?
As a classroom teacher, I am keenly aware of the issues of classroom and school safety. It is my job to be prepared for these situations and to prevent them. I am 100% opposed to arming teachers. Guns have ZERO place in schools.
How might you support the mental health needs of students/faculty/staff?
Making sure we have counselors and psychologists at schools. And then reducing their ratios so they can work with their students. As a classroom teacher, I do check-ins with my students and so many of our TUSD teachers do the same. I support that.
What role do you imagine technology playing in (and outside) the classroom in the future? How would you prepare the district for this?
I believe we should work to make TUSD a 1-to-1 district at the high school level. Our kids need to have laptops to access their work and to prepare them for the world outside of high school. I will work to find the funding for this.
Note: Ballotpedia reserves the right to edit Candidate Connection survey responses. Any edits made by Ballotpedia will be clearly marked with [brackets] for the public. If the candidate disagrees with an edit, he or she may request the full removal of the survey response from Ballotpedia.org. Ballotpedia does not edit or correct typographical errors unless the candidate's campaign requests it.
Ballotpedia biographical submission form
The candidate completed Ballotpedia's biographical information submission form:
| “ | What is your political philosophy?
Building equity in all systems at TUSD. Our kids need an actual classroom teacher's voice advocating for them on the governing board. Our educators need somebody like them to make sure they are taken care of. Our community needs an advocate that is unafraid to bring the positive change to TUSD.[2] |
” |
| —Adam Ragan[1] | ||
See also
2020 Elections
External links
Footnotes
| Tucson Unified School District elections in 2018 | |
| Pima County, Arizona | |
| Election date: | November 6, 2018 |
| Important information: | What was at stake? |
