Higley Unified School District voters will decide a third school board seat in November after a court rejected Maricopa County School Superintendent Shelli Boggs' effort to fill the vacancy through an appointment.
At the center of the dispute was whether a vacancy in the Gilbert-based district created on the final day write-in candidates could file for the ballot should be filled by voters or by an appointee selected after the election.
Boggs argued the "extraordinary" timing gave two prospective candidates an unfair advantage.
But a lawsuit filed by school board candidate Travis White and district parents Briana Turnbull, Sierra Tialino and Jennifer Keys contended state law required the seat to appear on the ballot. The four accused Boggs of unlawfully
refusing to put the seat on the ballot after board member Scott Glover abruptly resigned with two years left in his term.
Glover's wife told The Arizona Republic the two are moving to Portugal.
Glover submitted his resignation at around 8:30 a.m. on July 20, according to Boggs' office. White and another candidate, Kathleen Richards, filed their nomination paperwork at around 10:45 a.m. The resignation was submitted to the Secretary of State's Office at around 12:30 p.m., and the rest of the board was notified right before 5 p.m., according to Boggs' office.
Maricopa County Superior Court Judge Julie Mata ultimately ruled that the vacancy will be decided by Higley voters.
Boggs said in a statement she respects the decision and has complied.
“The court’s ruling does not rewrite the timeline. It does not change when the resignation was delivered. It does not change when individuals arrived to file,” Boggs said in the statement.
A write-in candidate is someone whose name is not on the ballot but appears on the write-in candidate list. In addition to Richards and White, a third candidate, Kurt Brooks, will also be a write-in candidate.
The candidates who will appear on the ballot — Michelle Morris and incumbents Anna Van Hoek and Amanda Wade — are running for the two seats that are up for a full four-year term.
Complaint accuses Boggs of unlawfully denying ballot placement
If a Maricopa County school board member does not complete a term, the school superintendent is responsible for filling the vacancy. The appointee serves on the board until the next election. School board elections are generally held every two years to stagger four-year terms.
If Boggs were to appoint someone to fill Glover’s seat ahead of the November election, that person would only serve until the election. But if Boggs waits until after the November election, that person would be on the board through the end of 2028.
According to the complaint, Boggs “refused to place the vacancy on the November 3, 2026 General Election ballot,” opting instead to wait until the election has passed to make the appointment. According to court documents, Boggs sent a note to White on July 24 indicating that the vacancy would not be on the ballot and that an appointment would not be made until after the election.
A letter from the Maricopa County Attorney’s Office on July 24 said there was no legal requirement for the county superintendent to make the appointment prior to the next general election, and that the process takes months to complete.
“Nowhere does the law say that the appointment must happen before the next general election after the vacancy occurs. If that is what the legislature intended to require, we would expect the legislature to have said so,” Deputy County Attorney Joseph La Rue said in the letter.
The letter went on to say that other districts with vacancies were “in line” ahead of Higley Unified.
Mata, the Maricopa County judge, ruled Glover's resignation became effective when he submitted his resignation at 8:30 a.m. on July 20, and that write-in candidate paperwork could have been filed on that day. Mata also said in her decision that, despite there being no deadline for Boggs to make an appointment, the seat had to be up for grabs during the next general election.
"Here, two candidates have filed nomination petitions for a vacant seat. By the Superintendent's own admission, the November 2026 election will occur before she can make an appointment and before a special election can occur," Mata said in her decision.
Candidates deny being part of 'conspiracy'
Both Richards and White admitted to knowing Glover, and both said he notified them of his resignation. But Richards, who was largely uninvolved with the lawsuit, said it was not part of a broader coordinated effort to have as few opponents as possible on the ballot.
Richards said it was common knowledge within the tight-knit community that Glover’s house had been on and off the market for several months ahead of his resignation. Richards previously ran for school board in 2024 but said she was the subject of harassment on social media, prompting her to not want to run again in 2026. But the opportunity to be a write-in candidate would let her run without being in the spotlight, she said.
Richards also said she wanted to avoid Boggs making an appointment to the Higley Unified board, saying Boggs makes appointments based on her "personal political beliefs." Richards cited examples of appointments made in other districts, including Phoenix Union High School District. After a vacancy in 2025, Boggs appointed Jeremiah Cota, who resigned months later when he faced criticism for attending a Christmas party hosted by a group with ties to self-proclaimed white supremacists, neo-Nazis and Holocaust deniers.
“The districts go to great lengths to vet those candidates, and she rejects those candidates consistently in favor of individuals who may or may not have actual interest in serving on a school board for the benefit of the actual schools,” Richards said.
Richards acknowledged that it might look bad for the public to see her and White apply to be write-in candidates on the same day that Glover resigned. But she said she has no knowledge of why Glover waited until July 20 to resign from his position.
Richards accused Boggs of attempting to create an “air of conspiracy” with the statement put out by the office on Aug. 21.
“I personally have no part in any sort of conspiracy,” Richards said.
White said he is familiar with the board members because he often speaks at the meetings, but he is not friends with Glover and did not anticipate the lawsuit when he submitted his nomination paperwork.
White said he didn’t initially run for school board because he thought there were already two good candidates who he supported. But when Glover told him he had resigned, he wanted to avoid Boggs making an appointment to the board. White accused Boggs of being “focused on her agenda” while making school board appointments.
“I did not want that to happen to our vacancy,” White said.
This article originally appeared on Arizona Republic: Gilbert school board vacancy to be filled by voters after legal fight
