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Karen Pedersen

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Karen Pedersen
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)

Elections and appointments
Last election
November 8, 2022
Next election
June 23, 2026
Contact

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
Image of Karen Pedersen
Karen Pedersen (Nonpartisan)
Michelle Colburn (Nonpartisan)
Dennis Lagodimos (Nonpartisan)

Candidate Connection = candidate completed the Ballotpedia Candidate Connection survey.
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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
Image of Karen Pedersen
Karen Pedersen (Nonpartisan) Candidate Connection
 
58.3
 
6,469
Image of Steve Wrigley
Steve Wrigley (Nonpartisan) Candidate Connection
 
41.7
 
4,622

Total votes: 11,091
Candidate Connection = 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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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
Image of Steve Wrigley
Steve Wrigley (Nonpartisan) Candidate Connection
 
41.4
 
2,318
Image of Karen Pedersen
Karen Pedersen (Nonpartisan) Candidate Connection
 
40.7
 
2,279
Jason Black (Nonpartisan)
 
17.9
 
1,005

Total votes: 5,602
Candidate Connection = 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

Candidate Connection

Karen Pedersen has not yet completed Ballotpedia's 2026 Candidate Connection survey. If you are Karen Pedersen, click here to fill out Ballotpedia's 2026 Candidate Connection survey.

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2022

Candidate Connection

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

Expand all | Collapse all

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.
  • 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.
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.

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


External links

Footnotes

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