Karen Pedersen

Karen Pedersen

Nonpartisan

Candidate, Canyons School District, District 5

Canyons School District, District 5

Tenure

2023 - Present

Term ends

2027

Years in position

3

Predecessor: Steve Wrigley (Nonpartisan)

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Report an officeholder change

Elections and appointments

Last election

November 8, 2022

Next election

June 23, 2026

Contact

Personal LinkedIn

Karen Pedersen is a member of the Canyons School District in Utah, representing District 5. She assumed office on January 2, 2023. Her current term ends on January 4, 2027.

Pedersen is running for re-election to the Canyons School District to represent District 5 in Utah. She declared candidacy for the primary scheduled on June 23, 2026.^[source]

Elections

2026

See also: Canyons School District, Utah, elections (2026)

General election

The primary will occur on June 23, 2026. The general election will occur on November 3, 2026. General election candidates will be added here following the primary.

Nonpartisan primary

Nonpartisan primary election for Canyons School District, District 5

Incumbent Karen Pedersen (Nonpartisan), Michelle Colburn (Nonpartisan), and Dennis Lagodimos (Nonpartisan) are running in the primary for Canyons School District, District 5 on June 23, 2026.

		Candidate
		Karen Pedersen (Nonpartisan)
	Submit photo	Michelle Colburn (Nonpartisan)
	Submit photo	Dennis Lagodimos (Nonpartisan)

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	Incumbents are bolded and underlined.
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Endorsements

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2022

See also: Canyons School District, Utah, elections (2022)

General election

General election for Canyons School District, District 5

Karen Pedersen defeated incumbent Steve Wrigley in the general election for Canyons School District, District 5 on November 8, 2022.

		Candidate	%	Votes
✔		Karen Pedersen (Nonpartisan)	58.3	6,469
		Steve Wrigley (Nonpartisan)	41.7	4,622

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	Incumbents are bolded and underlined. The results have been certified. Source	Total votes: 11,091
= 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.

Nonpartisan primary election

Nonpartisan primary for Canyons School District, District 5

Incumbent Steve Wrigley and Karen Pedersen defeated Jason Black in the primary for Canyons School District, District 5 on June 28, 2022.

		Candidate	%	Votes
✔		Steve Wrigley (Nonpartisan)	41.4	2,318
✔		Karen Pedersen (Nonpartisan)	40.7	2,279
	Submit photo	Jason Black (Nonpartisan)	17.9	1,005

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	Incumbents are bolded and underlined. The results have been certified. Source	Total votes: 5,602
= 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

2026

Ballotpedia survey responses

See also: Ballotpedia's Candidate Connection

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2022

Karen Pedersen completed Ballotpedia's Candidate Connection survey in 2022. The survey questions appear in bold and are followed by Pedersen's responses.

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Who are you? Tell us about yourself.

I have taught in Jordan/Canyons district for 41 years in multiple elementary grades. Taught English Language Learners classes for 3 1/2 years (3 schools daily). I was teacher of the year for Willow Canyon Elementary 2021.

I have leadership experience as Vice President of Canyons Education Association and have negotiations with the district experience. Worked closely with the District to plan for the safety of students and educators to keep schools open during Covid.

I am married with 4 adult children. I have 12 grandchildren, 5 attend Canyons schools, so I am invested in having the best possible education system available for students, parents, and schools.

Please list below 3 key messages of your campaign. What are the main points you want voters to remember about your goals for your time in office?

• Ensure educational excellence by following core guidelines of what students need to accomplish to be career and college ready. Our current curriculum is the product of years of intensive work and scrutiny. While these efforts need to continue, I believe in the need to maintain traditional values. We must ensure that any future changes are inclusive and benefit every student. They must add value to the way students develop and learn without outside political agendas..
• Wise use of tax dollars. Your tax dollars must be responsibly used. Careful management of the budget is a top priority. We need to use current available funding to support all employees to attract and retain the best. Our classroom aides, secretaries, lunch workers, bus drivers, custodians, etc are all vital to a healthy, safe working environment for our students. We also need to be working with the State to ensure that mandates placed on the district are fully funded to cover new demands.
• School safety. Canyons School District students are as safe as realistically can be implemented. The school board has worked proactively to provide improved physical safety with new seismic and air filtering improvements, entry systems, and ID badges. Our focus should now be on improving social skills, and emotional health and well-being for students and all employees.

What areas of public policy are you personally passionate about?

As a recently retired educator, I have experienced the weight of the demands placed on teachers, the expectations to have all students at or above grade level, and the constant implementation of new initiatives without the time and support to accomplish them. This is one of the main of teacher stress and burnout. I will look to see what can be streamlined or eliminated from current employee workload. Less stressed teachers are better able to meet the diverse needs of our students.

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Footnotes

Political offices
Preceded by Steve Wrigley	Canyons School District, District 5 2023-Present	Succeeded by -