David Price, a current member of the Sedona-Oak Creek School District Governing Board and the chairman of the city of Sedona’s Tourism Advisory Board, filed with the Yavapai County Department of Elections on Friday, Aug. 23, to withdraw from the race to retain his seat on the school board this November. 

Price said on Aug. 23 that he also planned to resign from the TAB on Monday, Aug. 26. 

“There’s some health things, and I don’t want it to sound dramatic, because it’s just typical life things when you get a little older,” Price said. “I’ll share that the first thing we’re going to do here in a couple of weeks is go back to the east coast and see our kids and grandkids. And then we’ll go from there. It’s just we’ve had to reprioritize. Sometimes it’s fair to have to reprioritize and put family first … but I really love the school board.” 

Price confirmed that he would be present at the Tuesday, Sept. 10, board meeting, but was undecided whether he would serve out the remainder of his term. 

“We don’t know for sure, but probably not,” Price said when asked if he and his wife Susan will remain in Sedona. “If we actually relocate before the end of September, then I have to resign from the board in addition to withdrawing. If the city wants me to do the September [TAB] meeting, which I’m assuming they would, I’ll certainly do that, too.” 

Price said that he considered what he perceives as increased fiscal responsibility by the district and the board’s decision to hire Tom Swaninger as superintendent as his chief accomplishments. 

“I was a college educator before I got to be on the school board years ago,” Price said. “It just reinforced how important primary education is and public education to the future of this country. 

Because the kids’ future, that’s our future.” Price added that his future will still involve working under the hoods of old cars and that he was just about to uncover his vintage Corvette to take Susan to meet some friends for dinner to break the news to them. 

“Nobody’s going to care that I’m leaving, but they’ll really miss my wife,” Price joked. The couple have been together since 1976. 

The Sedona Red Rock News confirmed that Price is inaccurate in his self-assessment. 

“Dave is a tremendous board member, a true servant leader, and really just a good human being,” Swaninger said. “I learned much from him during our time together. He will be deeply missed. I wish him all the best in his future endeavors.”

No Contested Election 

The school board race was formerly set to have been a contested election, with incumbents Price, April Payne and current board president Randy Hawley and newcomer Sam Blom seeking three seats among them. 

“Our office right now is working with the elections [department] to determine if we can take that to the board of supervisors and cancel that election,” outgoing Yavapai County Superintendent of Schools Tim Carter said. “There’s no reason to busy the ballot any more than it’s going to be, and then it also reduces the cost to the district … My intent would be to cancel the election, have the [Yavapai County] Board of Supervisors cancel the election and appoint those people for the full term.” 

Carter noted that in nearly 20 years of leading school board elections in the county, Price’s withdrawal was the latest that he has seen a candidate withdraw from a race. The Yavapai County Education Service Agency is currently having an attorney review the matter and decide on the next legal step. 

“I’m looking forward to being on the board and maybe coming up with some new initiatives to help the school district,” Blom said, adding that he wants to increase SOCSD marketing to increase enrollment. 

“We got three other wonderful candidates,” Price said. “I think Sam Blom is a great guy. He’s real reasonable, he’s not got some crazy agenda or ax to grind or anything. I told Swaninger this morning how fortunate are we that it wouldn’t have mattered which three of us won the election. [SOCSD] is going to have a great school board … I’ve been saying almost two years we’re the ‘no drama llama’ of school boards. We see some crazy behavior and antics by individuals on school boards in this county.” 

“This was going to be my first time elected to anything, which is also a bummer, because I needed my ego to know that I could win something,” Price joked.