Stephan Kingsley
From Ballotpedia
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Stephan Kingsley ran for election for an at-large seat of the Tempe Union High School District in Arizona. He lost in the general election on November 8, 2022.
Kingsley completed Ballotpedia's Candidate Connection survey in 2022. Click here to read the survey answers.
Biography
Stephan Kingsley earned a bachelor's degree from Arizona State University in 2009. He earned a graduate degree from Arkansas State University in 2014.[1]
Elections
2022
See also: Tempe Union High School District, Arizona, elections (2022)
General election
General election for Tempe Union High School District, At-large (2 seats)
Amanda Steele and incumbent Andres Barraza defeated Stephan Kingsley in the general election for Tempe Union High School District, At-large on November 8, 2022.
Candidate | % | Votes | ||
| ✔ |  | Amanda Steele (Nonpartisan)  | 40.9 | 49,750 |
| ✔ |  | Andres Barraza (Nonpartisan) | 31.5 | 38,245 |
 | Stephan Kingsley (Nonpartisan) | 26.8 | 32,620 | |
| Other/Write-in votes | 0.8 | 918 | ||
| Total votes: 121,533 | |||
| = candidate completed the Ballotpedia Candidate Connection survey. | ||||
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Withdrawn or disqualified candidates
- Margaret Pratt (Nonpartisan)
Endorsements
To view Kingsley's endorsements in the 2022 election, please click here.
Campaign themes
2022
Ballotpedia survey responses
See also: Ballotpedia's Candidate Connection
Stephan Kingsley completed Ballotpedia's Candidate Connection survey in 2022. The survey questions appear in bold and are followed by Kingsley's responses. Candidates are asked three required questions for this survey, but they may answer additional optional questions as well.
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Stephan Kingsley was born in Phoenix and grew up in Mesa. His mother immigrated from the Netherlands and his father was the son of a Navy Chaplain. Stephan is one of eight children and has an affinity for learning. Growing up he would always ask a million questions about things he was interested in because learning made him happy. Stephan was raised in a Christian home that valued education, working hard, and was always taught to respect others. His dad has been a teacher for over forty-one years and an example of an educator that deeply cares about his students.
Stephan credits education for making him who he is today. Education was never easy for him, and it wasn’t until later in life that he was diagnosed with Autism. Had it not been for a few exceptional teachers, Stephan may not have even continued college. Alongside his dad, these teachers were the ones who inspired him to become a teacher. Stephan graduated with a degree in Elementary Education from Arizona State University. He earned his Masters of Science in Educational Leadership and is now a current candidate for his PhD in industrial and organizational psychology at Grand Canyon University.
- Ensure that the community and marginalized voices are heard. Stephan Kingsley is committed to providing voice and visibility to represent the community as a whole. He wants to ensure that Tempe Union is a safe and inclusive environment for all students, teachers, staff, families, and community members.
- Fighting for our quality teachers. Stephan will fight for better staff and teacher salaries, smaller class sizes, and effective ways to increase academic achievement. Retention of good teachers is also a priority.
- Academic achievement includes specialized programs, vocational training, and Launch Support. A Launch Support program focuses on supporting students that need specialized resources to thrive on their own. This includes trained counselors that can help with student retention and the college admission process.
Stephan is personally passionate about public policy that addresses diversity and inclusion in education. This includes policy surrounding race, ethnicity, gender, gender identity, disabilities, and mental health. Stephan also cares about public policy that works to micromanage teacher behavior and teaching relevant curriculum that interferes with student and teacher rights that works to change the way history or curriculum is being taught, and accessibility to different perspectives for the learning process.
Stephan believes that the core responsibilities of a board member are policy, budget, and hiring and firing the Superintendent. As a Tempe Union Board member Stephan pledges to take the responsibility seriously, lead with courage, integrity, and authenticity. He wants to represent the voice of students, teachers, and the community when making decisions in the best interest of students to increase academic achievement. Stephan believes students, families, and community members have dreams and aspirations, and their choice and perspectives should guide the district's direction.
Stephan believes that governing board member's job is to be a voice that represents students, their communities, families, and community members. A board member has the opportunity to work with the school Superintendent to ensure school policy and budget priorities reflect the input given by students, families, their communities, and community members.
Working mainly with English Language Learners (ELL), Stephan recognized that every student brings their own knowledge, culture, values, strengths, unique learning style, and personal experiences to the classroom. Every one of his ELL students were motivated and had to work particularly hard in every subject while learning English. They didn’t give up. They wanted a better life. Stephan worked to create a classroom that gave them a safe place to learn and where they were supported in their growth. Stephan is a firm believer that every student deserves respect, dignity, compassion, a voice, and given a choice, when navigating their own learning. Every student works at their own pace.
Faculty and staff also need individualized support, particularly in their professional development, as each teacher, school, and student population is different.
Faculty and staff also need individualized support, particularly in their professional development, as each teacher, school, and student population is different.
Stephan is committed to having different procedures in place for community members to give input. Some examples would be surveys and recruitment of students, families, and community members to be included in committee's that give input and gather data to inform policy. Stephan champions working with community organizations that assist in providing services such as mental health, vocational training, student retention, and the supports needed for completing high school and going to a university. Relationships with local business organizations that are culturally responsive can also work increase community involvement.
Stephan is a huge advocate for diversity to be visible and represented among staff and faculty as well as curriculum. Stephan also believes that policies and procedures can be inclusive in a way that ensures that diverse faculty, staff, and administration feels safe to fully express who they are without concern that it will be a barrier to further career advancement or pay.
Stephan's short answer would be legislation and budget. When it comes to public schools, Stephan understands that some legislators want to ban books, micromanage how history is being taught, openly and aggressively discriminate against students and teachers in the LGBTQ community, and take away school funding. All of which are not necessary and is a direct denial of humanity and democracy. In public schools’ parents already have the right to know what books are included in the library and curriculum, as well as a process to obtain or object to any material. They already have the choice to opt their child out of sex education or any class that they feel is detrimental for their student. They already have the choice to withdraw their child to send them to a school that aligns with their specific worldview. Stephan sees how the attempts to ban books, micromanage how history is taught, and discriminate against LGBTQ students and teachers in public schools, while excluding private and charter schools can be harmful to students. Stephan believes that every student deserves the opportunity to learn in a safe environment where they can read books from multiple perspectives, accurately learn about history, and not be discriminated against.
Stephan prides himself in modeling good teaching by working to facilitate student learning. Stephan learned early on that students are more engaged when they are personally invested and take ownership of their learning. Stephan worked to teach students how to critically think, listen to each other, hold their own opinion but be able to respect another's opinion through healthy dialogue.
Stephan believes in a more tiered approach to measuring academic progress that does not only rely on standardized testing to determine student or teacher performance. Different aspects of teaching need to be incorporated into the evaluation rubric, and data needs to be collected from multiple sources.
Stephan believes in a more tiered approach to measuring academic progress that does not only rely on standardized testing to determine student or teacher performance. Different aspects of teaching need to be incorporated into the evaluation rubric, and data needs to be collected from multiple sources.
Stephan is committed to rebuilding the trust between the district and parents by encouraging an authentic and transparent level of communication. He will put policy and procedure in place to ensure that parents have many different ways for parents to be included in the conversations when it comes to making decisions for the district.
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.
See also
2022 Elections
External links
Footnotes
- ↑ Information submitted to Ballotpedia through the Candidate Connection survey on October 14, 2022
