La Paz County opens 2026 school board candidate filing window
Parker Unified’s three open seats are among the board races now taking filings countywide, with papers due by July 6 at 5 p.m.
Parker Unified, the county’s largest district with 1,699 students, has three board seats open as La Paz County’s 2026 school-district filing window is underway. Quartzsite Elementary has four seats on the ballot, Bouse Elementary has two, and eight education boards across the county will take candidates through July 6 at 5 p.m.
The county elections office posted packet SLaPazCoESA26061011040, and the form spells out exactly what a candidate must file: the nomination paper, affidavit of qualification, campaign finance statement and petitions with the required minimum signatures. Filing began June 6 and closes July 6 at 5 p.m., with the challenge period running July 7-20, the special-district write-in deadline set for July 20 and the write-in candidate deadline set for Sept. 24.
The boards in play are Bicentennial Union High School District #76, Bouse Elementary #26, Parker Unified #27, Quartzsite Elementary #4, Salome Consolidated Elementary #30, Wenden Elementary #19, Arizona Western College District 1 and District 2, and W.A.V.E. District #50 JTED. La Paz County says it administers elections for the school districts and other local jurisdictions through intergovernmental agreements, and the county calendar places the primary election on July 21 and the general election on Nov. 3.
State law limits school governing-board candidates to Arizona registered voters who have lived inside the district for at least one year before election day. The races are nonpartisan, which means the filings now being gathered will determine who can compete for seats that shape school budgets, staffing, transportation, facilities and long-range planning in communities from Parker to Quartzsite to Bouse.
The seat counts show why the filing window matters now: Bicentennial has five seats, Bouse has two, Parker has three, Quartzsite has four, Salome has five, Wenden has five, Arizona Western College has two and W.A.V.E. has one. In smaller systems such as Quartzsite Elementary, with 133 students, and Bicentennial Union High, with 119, a short ballot can still decide who controls daily decisions that reach every classroom and bus route.
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