Chino Valley’s school board president will stay in her role another year after the board voted to change the way the president is chosen.
Sonja Shaw is a conservative Christian and has served as board president for a year.
Shaw’s drawn attention for pushing controversial policies to out transgender students to their parents and to ban books the board deems sexually explicit.
In January, the board implemented a rotation system so that each member would serve one year as president.
Last night, they voted to get rid of that system.
Critics, like Kristi Hirst, who’s with Our Schools USA, says Shaw proposed the policy so she could maintain power.
“They are the person who decides what rules to enforce during the meeting, who gets kicked out who they ignore behavior from. And you know, over the past year, I have seen that power being abused heavily by Sonja Shaw," said Hirst.
Meanwhile, members Andrew Cruz and James Na say the board benefits from Shaw’s leadership.