Tom or Thomas LaValley served on The Classical Academy board from approximately
August 2014 through August 2017, including chair service, and on the Academy
District 20 Board of Education from December 7, 2017, through November 29,
2023. D20 elected him president on November 19, 2021; he remained
president until his resignation.
The inspected record does not substantiate a 2013-2015 book challenge
by LaValley. The documented public-library campaign begins in 2022-2023,
when he urged parents to inspect D20 libraries, publicly supported an
administrator's removal of three books outside the established challenge
process, and argued that certain sexually explicit material should not be in
school libraries. A private earlier complaint remains unresolved because the
reconsideration logs and school-level files were not located.
An archived copy of his former D20 biography describes him as a Michigan
native, U.S. Air Force Academy engineering-mechanics graduate, New Mexico State
mechanical-engineering master's graduate, former USAFA mathematics instructor
and Air Force pilot, and United Airlines Boeing 787 pilot. It names his wife,
Nona, four adult children, a Tri-Lakes YMCA advisory role, and an El Paso County
Republican Party executive-committee role. These remain historical
self-description unless independently corroborated. A 2015 municipal
campaign-finance record independently identifies him as a United pilot.
| Date | Role or action | Evidence treatment |
|---|---|---|
Feb. 10, 2014 |
TCA board candidate, not yet director | official minutes; direct |
Aug. 11, 2014 |
seated on TCA board; selected vice-chair | official minutes; direct |
Aug. 10, 2015 |
elected TCA chair | official minutes; direct |
Aug. 8, 2016 |
reelected TCA chair | official minutes; direct |
2017 election / Dec. 7, 2017 |
elected and sworn to D20 board | official minutes and election record; direct |
Dec. 2, 2019 |
elected D20 treasurer | official minutes; direct |
Nov. 19, 2021 |
sworn after reelection and elected president | official minutes; direct |
Nov. 29, 2023, 6 p.m. |
resignation effective | official minutes; direct |
A bounded search of local reporting and all available official 2014 TCA
agendas and minutes found no named title, complaint, challenge, removal
proposal, removal vote, or implementation tied to LaValley. Three 2014
minutes files are absent from TCA's live index, so this is not a universal
absence claim.
The preserved 2015-2017 record instead shows LaValley repeatedly voting for
routine curriculum and text approvals. In April 2017, that included a
unanimous approval after discussion of suicide and adultery in classic works.
This does not disprove a private complaint about another book; it does reject a
categorical portrayal of his TCA record as opposition to all difficult themes.
2022 video for Church For All Nations, LaValley urged parents to6 D20 public-comment record document the resulting controversy.8, 2022, he joined a unanimous vote retaining Steal This2023, Superintendent Tom Gregory removed three books outside the1, official minutes record LaValleyThe May removals were administrative, not a recorded board vote. LaValley's
support is direct in the minutes; authorship, unilateral removal authority, and
causation are not established.
Financial Foundations course2022 library video was associated with Church For All Nations. It is not20152011 federal public comment under his name opposed a federal2026 Arizona public-notice reproduction names Thomas Lavalley as aOfficial TRACER records identify the Committee to Elect Tom LaValley and his
2017 and 2021 nonpartisan D20 candidacies. The bounded 2021-2022
transaction slice contains 70 rows. Amendment-aware accounting totals are
$14,962.55 in contributions, $15,062.55 in expenditures, $15,892.43 in
loan originations, and $5,892.43 in loan payments.
The records show campaign payments or reimbursements involving Cortney Salt,
Elect Aaron Salt, MSI, Update Printing, and other vendors. These are direct
transaction relationships, not evidence of coordination, control, or a shared
political enterprise beyond what each transaction says.
| Source | Target | Mechanism | Flow | Evidence strength | Source basis |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| TCA / D20 | LaValley | elected governance offices | formal decision authority | direct evidence | official minutes and election records |
| LaValley | D20 library policy conflict | public remarks, vote, stated support | attention and governance support | direct for minutes; reported for news quotations | official minutes and contemporary reporting |
| Radiant Church | LaValley | connection group and course | lay teaching/community role | reported historical relationship | mirrored church publications; originals undated |
| LPR | LaValley | class participation and advisory listing | training/network affiliation | direct organizational listing | LPR and contemporary reporting |
| Campaign committee | named payees/vendors | disclosed expenditures | campaign money | direct evidence | official TRACER records |
| Barefoot Missions | LaValley | corporate directorship | governance authority | reported filing relationship | public-notice reproduction; original filing pending |
2013-2015 source supports the remembered book-complaintAtlas Trace retains research captures and provenance records locally. Public originals, when available, appear in the Original links section below; internal archive paths and restricted materials are not public links. See Sources, access, and local retention.