I can’t help it. I find the AZ Board of Ed vs. AZ Dept. of Ed train wreck endlessly fascinating. Diane Douglas is so much fun to watch. If someone can show me how she’s done harm to Arizona education during her tenure, how, say, things would be better for our children, teachers and schools if John Huppenthal were still in power, maybe I’ll start taking her shenanigans more seriously. Until then, I’ll continue getting the same perverse pleasure from her antics that I get watching the Republican presidential race.
The one spasm of guilt I feel over my guilty pleasure is that I’m pretty sure Douglas is up to no good in her attempt to wrest power from the Board. Her dogged persistence makes me pretty certain that others are telling her, “If you can get the power to hire and fire more staff, then you can hire your own people and put some of our Tea Party agenda in motion, so keep fighting them at every turn.” If she wins this struggle with the Board, it could mean trouble down the road. But it’s hard for me to take the side of Doug Ducey’s Board of Education against her. Look, if the two keep fighting, if the hatred between the two sides continues to grow, maybe they’ll neutralize each other. With Ducey and his minions in power, I prefer inaction to action.
With that in mind, here’s the latest. During the most recent Board meeting, where Douglas forms a minority of one, she kept talking when Board President Greg Miller wanted her to stop. According to Douglas, Miller grabbed her arm, and when she still didn’t stop talking, he pushed away her microphone. Douglas claims Miller assaulted her, so she called the cops on him. The thing is, she was right. He was way out of line touching her, grabbing her, in anger.
I’m not a student of Roberts Rules of Order, but I’m reasonably certain it doesn’t tell the chair of a meeting to grab someone or push away her microphone when she’s out of order. I’m guessing there’s a procedure the chair is supposed to follow. Miller’s impulsive action was a small act of violence against Douglas, but an act of violence nonetheless. It was an attempt to scare and bully her into silence. He had absolutely no right to touch her, especially in such an aggressive manner. I would think every advocate for woman’s rights should feel indignant right along with her.
Should she have made this a police incident? From a political standpoint, absolutely, even if she didn’t think Miller’s action rose to that level of aggression. Douglas goaded Miller into an impulsive act, then she used political judo to turn his action against him. It was a very clever maneuver for a novice.
As a thought experiment, let’s turn the situation around. I’m guessing from pictures I’ve seen of the two that Miller has at least 4 inches and 75 pounds on Douglas. Imagine for a moment that she’s the chair and he’s the one out of order. What happens if she grabs his arm to shut him up? What happens if she tries to push away his microphone? My guess is that Miller, who has shown he’s prone to impulsive behavior, would have shook her hand off his arm—maybe pushed it off with his other hand—while glaring at her. If she tried to push away his microphone, my guess is he would have grabbed her wrist and said, “Don’t you dare!” In other words, if things were reversed, there’s a good chance he would have used his size and strength advantage to neutralize her attempts to silence him.
Actually, I doubt Douglas would have taken any physical action if she was in Miller’s shoes, especially against a large man. What he did is more of a male-on-female power play than the other way around.
Here’s why I’m enjoying what Douglas is doing to the establishment Republicans so much. It’s karma biting these folks in the ass. When powerful Republicans don’t like something, they never let go, just like Douglas won’t back down in this fight over hiring and firing privileges. Think about how angry the Republicans were when they realized they didn’t control the state and congressional redistricting process, meaning they couldn’t tweak the districts to their advantage. They tried every ridiculous maneuver they could think of to pretend they were outraged during every step of the Arizona Redistricting Commission’s work. They were so unrelenting, they took their case all the way to the U.S. Supreme Court (where they lost). Douglas is taking a page out of the playbook Republicans use against Democrats and turning it against her fellow Republicans. She’s got them sputtering in impotent rage over her actions, and they’re so frustrated that the Board President actually grabbed Douglas by the arm, which gave her the opportunity to turn her justifiable indignation into a formal assault charge and make his frustration that much worse. It couldn’t be happening to a more deserving group of people.
Yes, I admit, watching the continuing adventures of Douglas and the Board is a guilty pleasure. But oh my, it’s such a pleasure. I can hardly wait for the next episode.
This article appears in Aug 20-26, 2015.
What fun Arizona is. And the opportunities to laugh at our elected representatives (and sometimes hired public administrators) fighting with one another and mismanaging their constituents’ business is, fortunately for us, not limited to Phoenix.
Did you catch Hicks walking out on Sanchez at yesterday evening’s TUSD Board meeting, David? If not, get your popcorn out and enjoy the video of the August 25 meeting that will be available soon through this web page:
http://www.tusd1.org/contents/govboard/gbvideo_archive.html
Very funny, Equal Opportunity. Thanks. After reading your comment I looked up Huicochea’s tweets on the meeting:
https://twitter.com/AlexisHuicochea?ref_src=twsrc%5Egoogle%7Ctwcamp%5Eserp%7Ctwgr%5Eauthor
Apparently Ms. Huicochea got taken to task during the board meeting for writing a story on how TUSD’s Early Learning Centers are about $800K in debt. So the fun of watching Arizona infighting extends to watching our elected representatives scold the media for reporting public institutions’ business to the public.
My favorite piece of political entertainment, though, is still this one:
http://threesonorans.com/2014/07/23/ht-sanchez-gets-caught-multiple-lies-tape-breaks-elders-hearts-video/
…and its sequel, when the TUSD governing board passed the Superintendent’s massive compensation increase and then we learned that the details of the proposal had not been communicated to members of the board minority until just before the vote.
Even “funnier,” in every sense of the word — the way the Pima Dems continue to “look the other way,” both literally and figuratively, acting as though the only clown shows going on in Arizona are taking place in the Phoenix area.
I suppose the name calling and mockery is supposed to add credibility here.
Well, Dave. I disagree. The position is too important and powerful for the the stained glass lady to make us a laughing stock and our schools a mess. I don’t know what happened in that meeting, and I’m not concerned about DD’s arm being touched or her microphone pulled away or her calling the cops. If you’ve read anything about when Douglas was on the school board in Peoria, she was annoying and divisive. At one of her first meetings she took away a microphone herself. Maybe she and Miller have a game going.
Most educators agree. She has to go. The recall will start soon, and based on what I’ve seen and heard, it has a good chance to be successful due to buyer’s remorse of many Republicans. And Dave, don’t gloat too hard. The day after the AIRC won the redistricting case, Andy Biggs’ wife and other plaintiffs were granted another swipe at the AIRC for the upcoming court season. These people never give up and neither should we.
I agree David that I have often thought that at least they are not doing anything harmful with terrible decisions while fighting with each other. On the other hand they are not doing anything for the children either and that is very sad. Why do the people of AZ continue to vote in these ineffectual, and IMHO uneducated people as superintendent of education? Some may say they are mean-spirited. It doesn’t matter, many do not like who they elect.
On the comment about the early learning centers( I have not seen the video about the board meeting so I do not know what the argument was about), I looked at the district budget when it came out. The deficit was listed for the early learning centers and also with a note that this was expected because of start-up costs. It was not a ‘secret’ or kept from the media. My word, the budget of TUSD is posted everywhere(with the note about the deficit). I am just guessing Hicks was just looking for something to scream about to make TUSD look bad ( which is awful for a board member) but I won’t say more without seeing the video.
Come on David, I seriously doubt Miller “assaulted” Douglas. I’m guessing he reached for the mike and brushed her arm. And of course, Douglas couldn’t wait to file assault charges. Absolutely not saying Miller acted professionally, but we know Douglas wants to stir up controversy. And yes, it may not be incredibly detrimental yet, but neither is it contributing to the education of our state’s students, nor is it setting a good example for them. Douglas needs to get recalled already and we need to beg Garcia to take the job!
Guardians:
It was Foster who, according to Huicochea’s tweets, criticized Huicochea’s coverage of the issue. The tweets say:
“Board member Kristel Foster says my coverage of the centers caused parents to unnecessarily fear that #TUSD would close them. My story, however, clearly says #TUSD is not giving up on the effort and explains how the centers found themselves $800,000 in the red. You can read my story on the #TUSD Infant and Early Learning Centers here: http://m.tucson.com/news/local/education/tusd-preschool-programs-nearly-in-debt/article_80215b17-f697-5149-852c-ea532f685ddf.html?mobile_touch=true …”
Foster frequently serves as a critic of the media’s treatment of Sanchez’s initiatives. From what I’ve seen of the role she plays, it is inappropriate. This board majority has repeatedly set itself up as a “shield” between the public and / or the media and their EMPLOYEE the Superintendent. They have repeatedly demonstrated that they do not believe their role is to hold him accountable — for proper management of the district’s resources, for telling the truth, for anything that constituents should be able to expect them to do vis a vis the person they hired to lead the district.
RE your inaccurate remark, (“I am just guessing Hicks was looking for something to scream about to make TUSD look bad.”) What makes TUSD look bad is employees who repeatedly make excuses for the district, while demonstrating inability or unwillingness to grasp even the most basic facts about the district’s business. I know you can’t stand to see anything you deem to be”negative” said about the district — no matter how accurate it is — but if you don’t attend or watch the board meetings and can’t even be bothered to read the tweets summarizing their content — you have no grounds for commenting. Period.
Pima Mujer: Thanks for giving us an educator’s perspective on the need for Douglas’s recall. Safier’s commentary is a waste of space and increasingly seems to be far more about his ego and his “entertainments” than it is about reporting on or improving what is going on in the Arizona education system, either locally or at the state level.
I don’t see the name calling in David’s article that Harold Simpson mentions, but mocking those in charge of public education in the state of Arizona hardly demeans the credibility of any reporting in the Tucson Weekly.
That said, I will segue to another topic concerning the new TW. This morning I went online to read the new issue and saw “scumbags” used to characterize some miscreants who stole a band’s gear and “shitlist” attributed to a poll ranking Tucson as a city where women are paid less than men. A few weeks ago, when Cecil the lion was murdered, the “hunter” was referred to as an “asshole.”
What’s up? Is this a “new journalism” I missed or have the inmates taken over the asylum? The TW has been around since the late eighties, I haven’t missed an issue since we mover here 25 years ago. Doug Bigger and Jimmy Boegle did great work, never shying from controversy. Now we have a new editor with her stable of enfants terrible behaving like surly 15 year olds smacking gum and blowing smoke at the shopping mall. Not terribly attractive.
Sorry David if that goes too far astray. I do appreciate your not referring to the folks who most deserve it as assholes and scumbags. That would be unprofessional and cost you credibility. But it’s ok with me if you place them on your shitlist.
I totally disagree w/ “Supporting Public Ed”. David Safier’s commentaries on public education are very incisive and thoughtful. I look forward to reading them because they give me more insights in what is happening to public education in Arizona.
BrianClymer – But do you know enough about TUSD to know what Safier’s “commentaries on public education” leave out? If not, you’re missing an essential piece of “what is happening to public education in Arizona,” which involves mismanagement at BOTH the state AND the local level.
Rick Spanier – Parents with children enrolled in these schools don’t find any of this funny. As someone who has to deal with the results of politicians’ and administrators’ incompetence, I don’t find any of this — the TUSD Board and Superintendent, Ducey, the Board of Education, Diane Douglas — to be a laughing matter. In my opinion, people who laugh at what is going on at any level of this state’s “education” fiasco are deeply offensive and irresponsible.
The district’s data management program, TUSD Stats, is being rebuilt and is currently not delivering accurate and updated data to parents. The problems are projected to continue throughout this school year. Is that funny?
What’s the excuse for not getting what needed to be done with the district’s data management system done before the school year began?
David, here’s a way to make yourself truly useful: give Adelita a call and find out for us. Surely she knows, being as well informed about every detail of the district’s business as she has been for the past decade and more….
You are absolutely right Equal Opportunity AZ Political Entertainment. None of the actors at the state level or in TUSD should be off offhandedly dismissed as bad jokes. This is serious business, even more so because the same bad actors are re-reelected in each election cycle – by the Republicans at the state level and the Democrats locally. I appreciate your comment.
The TUSD stats site which was so informative to the public, no longer exists. Now, I hear parents can’t even access it? I’m sure that’s part of HT’s plan. FYI, the stats guru at TUSD is no longer in that position, although he still works for the district. People should take those letters from administrators seriously, because a good deal of the information in them is true.
I must comment in the interest of fairness that the few issues I have taken directly to Dr. Sanchez have been addressed. Not always to my satisfaction but attempts have been made to resolve the issues and some have been successful. Where the Dept. of Ed is concerned, they have been a circus on various occasions stretching back many decades. Right now, they are approaching a peak because of the split and civil war being waged in the Republican Party. As observers, we can laugh or we can cry. Laughing is better for our mental health. Douglas had a record of public behavior on the Peoria School Board. Who was expecting something different? Is she better than Huppenthal? At least she isn’t spending her days (yet) beating up on TUSD and Mexican-American students. I view this as a plus. Very glad I voted for the other guy. Pity more people didn’t.
Georgia Cole Brousseau: “In all fairness”:
Why should we pay an inexperienced and dishonest (it’s documented) young administrator an unbelievably high salary to address problems in a very complicated, very troubled, extremely underfunded district in an unsatisfactory fashion?
Whether or not laughter is better or worse for your mental health and that of others who do not have children enrolled in Arizona schools, it is an inappropriate response to a situation in which irresponsible elected officials at the state level continue to degrade the quality of education being offered to the state’s young people.
If you consider yourself a supporter of “public education,” you should keep in mind that the willingness of people who have a vote but no children in the schools to accept sub-standard administrative competence locally for other people’s children and their readiness to laugh off state-level malfeasance looks an awful lot to some of us like a circumstance that feeds the arguments that many “reformers” are making that public school governance and administration don’t work. In other words: why should I, as a parent, enroll my children in a system where people like you, who are willing to sign off on (and laugh at) all kinds of BS going on in my children’s school system, have a vote and a right to comment? Perhaps I should enroll my kids in a private or charter where the opinion of non-parents (and local political parties) carries no weight.
Just blame it on white privilege, where no one is responsible for their own actions, ever, for infinity.
I am just adding a couple of points. First of all I did watch the whole TUSD board meeting on August 25. I am impressed with the programs and progress TUSD has made. I cannot possibly recount the number of issues that were addressed satisfactorily. I encourage all to watch it. I felt encouraged and positive about TUSD.
If you only have time and interest in the state of the early learning centers, that is the last 10 minutes. A question was raised about the bad press and Dr. Sanchez, who I don’t have to tell you how much good he has done if you watch the board meeting, addressed the issues and it is really clear there is no lack of transparency. They need 2-3 years to turn this around as with any new endeavor. It is much easier to watch the video. It says so much.
I was wrong when I said that Hicks caused trouble. There was a small issue at the end about staying later, which he refused to do and so the meeting was adjorned. His past actions support my belief that he has an apparent inability to really support public education. I encourage all to watch his behavior throughout the video. He appears to be bored.
I am appalled at the amount of criticism that supposedly is substantiated about Dr. Sanchez. It never is backed up with facts. I continue to say this and the most I am every told is, “You don’t know what is really going on”. That tells me nothing. Just because someone says something doesn’t make it true. I investigate all accusations.
Guardians, you write, “Just because someone says something doesn’t make it true. I investigate all accusations.” So investigate this:
http://threesonorans.com/2014/07/23/ht-sanchez-gets-caught-multiple-lies-tape-breaks-elders-hearts-video/
What’s up here, Guardians, with the mother-in-law episode and the discrepancy between what was said about salaries and bonuses and what a public records request revealed? This has been brought to your attention before, in the comment stream on this piece:
http://www.tucsonweekly.com/TheRange/archives/2015/03/30/sen-steve-farley-this-is-not-your-fathers-tusd
You did not “investigate” it or respond.
Staging dog and pony shows doesn’t heal the wounds in the district, which have been made as not just one, but multiple lies have been told. There are many, many people throughout the district watching presentations like the one that took place on Tuesday knowing that every single claim made cannot be believed until it has been investigated because there are multiple examples of claims made in the past which, when investigated, turned out not to be true. And the board majority — even when they KNOW the claims are not true — will not hold him accountable. They have demonstrated it, many times. Not only will they not ask for follow-through and honesty, but Foster will actively try to put pressure on people like Huicochea to not print “negative” information.
What a travesty this district has become — and the credibility and reputation of many people and many groups that associate themselves with this and excuse it are being taking down together with this board majority and their boss / idol.
Authoritarianism does not encourage inquiry, but has ready answers when asked. But go ahead and ask HT why TUSD stats is no longer available to the public?