Cartwright Elementary District board elects Lydia Hernandez president, Rosa Cantu vice president; holds executive session on board organization

Lydia Hernandez was elected president of the Cartwright Elementary District governing board at a special meeting on May 24, 2025, and Rosa Cantu was elected vice president. The board also voted to go into executive session under A.R.S. § 38-431.03 for legal advice regarding board organization.

The meeting began as a special meeting called to order and included a motion to adopt the agenda with exceptions. The board voted to enter executive session “for discussion or consultation for legal advice with the attorney or attorneys of the public body regarding board organization,” citing A.R.S. § 38-431.03. The board recessed for the executive session and later resumed the public meeting to proceed with reorganizing board leadership.

During the reorganization, a nomination was made for Lydia Hernandez to serve as board president; Hernandez accepted the nomination and a roll-call vote was held. Recorded roll-call responses show Rosa Cantu voted “aye,” Jenny Romero abstained, and Lydia Hernandez voted “aye”; the motion carried and Hernandez was declared president. For the vice president position, Rosa Cantu was nominated and accepted; recorded responses show Cantu voted “aye,” Romero abstained, and Hernandez voted “aye,” and the motion carried.

The board recorded a separate roll-call vote to enter executive session. The transcript records affirmative votes from Rosa Cantu and Jenny Romero and from Lydia Hernandez during that vote; the motion to enter executive session carried. The board attorney was noted as arriving before the executive session began.

Board members present at the meeting were Lydia Hernandez, Cassandra Hernandez, Rosa Cantu, Jenny Romero and Denise Garcia. The meeting record includes an acknowledgement that the Cartwright School District sits on the ancestral lands of the Salt River Pima–Maricopa Indian Community. The board announced its next regularly scheduled governing board meeting for Thursday, Jan. 16, 2025, at 5 p.m. in the Cartwright School District boardroom.

Formal actions taken at the meeting were largely procedural: adopting the agenda with specified exceptions, approving the motion to enter executive session under state law for legal advice, electing Hernandez as board president, electing Cantu as vice president, and adjourning the special meeting.

The transcript does not record complete roll-call tallies for each individual vote (some roll-call responses are recorded explicitly while others are not specified). The article reports only votes and attributions that appear in the meeting record.