Is there anyone foolish enough to watch an ad from McSally supporters attacking Barber, or from Barber supporters attacking McSally, and think it’s the absolute, unvarnished truth? Is there anyone who thinks when a 1975 DUI against a House candidate in, say, Oshkosh, Wisconsin, shows up a month before the election, the timing is a coincidence?
If so, I’ve got some beautiful beachfront property on Speedway you might be interested in buying. It’s a real bargain, and I have lots of offers already.
It’s political season, right? Every statement that could affect the election should have a big Caveat Emptor (Buyer Beware) label slapped across it. There may be a kernel, or a few kernels, or lots of kernels of truth in what you hear and read, but there’s a reason you’re hearing and reading about it now and it’s wrapped up in a package carefully designed for maximum impact. Someone is trying to get your vote.
But somehow, even thinking people who pay careful, critical attention to politics don’t scrutinize information about TUSD around election time with the same jaundiced eye. Too many people react to a sudden explosion of bad news with, “What did you say? Something terrible, something catastrophic is about to happen at TUSD? Oh my God! The sky is falling!” “You say board member Jones or candidate Lopez is the only person who can avert the catastrophe? Thank God there’s someone out there who can make everything right!”
A deputy superintendent who’s leaving the district and may, or may not, have a score to settle sends out a worst-case-scenario forecast that TUSD will be $15 million in the hole by the end of the year, and he does it at the request of someone running for the board on a platform that the district is heading for disaster and needs to change direction. Is the report an objective assessment of a district that’s dug itself deep into a financial hole? It’s possible. Or is the report a politically motivated statement to cast the superintendent and his supporters on the board in the worst possible light? That’s possible too. Either way, what better time to drop a hair-on-fire disaster report than a week before the early ballots are dropped in the mail?
Before voters take the report at face value and assume it’s an objective analysis of the district’s financial state, they need to ask themselves, who will benefit if voters believe it? Then they can listen to what others say about the report, weigh the evidence on both sides and make up their minds.
A group of administrators write an anonymous letter raking the superintendent and his supporters on the board over the coals. We don’t know how many administrators participated, and we don’t know if anyone helped them write the letter, but we do know they have lots of damning things to say. Did they just happen to reach their boiling point right now, a month before the election, and fire off a letter filled with righteous indignation, or did they time the email and tailor the message so it would do the most damage to board members who support the superintendent?
There’s a hard-fought battle going on for the two open seats on the TUSD school board. Five candidates and their campaigns are working especially hard to get your vote: Democrats Adelita Grijalva, Jen Darland and Betts Putnam-Hidalgo, and Republicans Michael Hicks and Debe Campos-Fleenor. The three Democrats are spending their time putting up signs, knocking on doors, holding house parties, posting on Facebook — things like that. The two Republicans are doing some or all of those things as well, but they’re also running a scorched earth campaign to trash the superintendent and the current board majority, and they have the able and energetic assistance of board member Mark Stegeman, who has contributed a total of $2,400 to their campaigns, doubled or tripled the number of “constituent newsletters” he sends out to his email lists (always sounding professorially objective and always slanting the information in favor of his two chosen candidates) and is, unless I miss my guess, playing puppet master, pulling their strings and creating their campaign strategies.
Nothing wrong with any of the candidates’ strategies, of course. It’s political business as usual. But voters need to recognize it’s exactly that: political business as usual.
Caveat emptor, folks. Listen to all the candidates and all the information about TUSD coming out right now and form your own judgements, then vote for the two people you think will be best for the district. Don’t take what you read and hear at face value, from any candidate or any other source (present company included).
BONUS ANALOGY FEATURE: I bought a new car recently. I went to two dealerships, where the salesmen swore to me their car was the best on the market in terms of quality and value. Realizing they couldn’t both be right, this [obvious] insight occurred to me: both salesmen were more interested in their commissions than my best interests. So I listened carefully to everything they said, much of which was factual, and took it under advisement, then did my own research. I decided one of the cars was better suited to my needs than the other — not as good as the salesman said, but better than my other choice. When I sealed the deal on that vehicle, the salesman grinned enormously, shook my hand vigorously and said, “Congratulations, you just bought a great car!” I imagine he meant it. But I also imagine he chanted to himself as he skipped merrily back to his office was, “I sold a ca-ar. I got a comish-ion. I sold a ca-ar. I got a comish-ion.” (It’s a good car, by the way. No complaints.)
This article appears in Oct 2-8, 2014.
You make a very good point David.
Nobody is saying “you got a very good education.”
Why not. They all got paid.
David, I would be much better able to form judgments about both the financial statement and the anonymous letter if I had more information. I don’t think any source has as yet published the actual letter from Awwad in its entirety. That could be very useful for those of us who know how to read such things. I have read publications of the anonymous letter, but still do not know the scope of the discomfort. In any given year, you can find a couple of angry or disillusioned principals, etc. However, if it is a substantial group that makes it much more worthy of concern. Without more facts, we are whistling in the wind as we cast our ballots.
There were reasons before this ‘catastrophic’ information drop to be disappointed with TUSD. Simply put why are they not complying with the USP?
Dr. Stegeman has shared the spreadsheet that Awwad sent along with his warnings. Anyone who studies the spreadsheets knows Awwad has not presented a worst case scenario. It is a shame that Mr. Safier either does not understand how to read a spreadsheet or is once again demonstrating his cognitive dissonance about the venality of Sanchez and Grijalva.
It is not just a matter of listening to the candidates. It is a matter of studying the available documentation and the records (when available) of each candidate. Did Ms. Grijlava oppose the hiring of an internal auditor who would have kept the Governing Board in the financial loop or not? Did Dr. Sanchez borrow money without the full knowledge and agreement of the Governing Board? Did Mr. HIcks repeatedly ask for financial information from Dr. Sanchez and was just as repeatedly blown off? Did Dr. Sanchez know that Ms. Grijalva’s mother-in-law was applying for a highly paid job at TUSD or not? These are simple yes and no questions that can easily be researched by anyone who wants to find out. They go to the heart of who has credibility and who does not. Despite the ad hominem attack being put forward by Mr. Safier that Awwad is settling scores there is absolutely no evidence to support that position. If any existed, Mr. Safier would surely have presented it. Instead, he uses innuendo to create a misleading impression. Clearly, Mr. Safier has demonstrated again and again that he is more interested in promoting his choices for the Governing Board than in seeking anything close to the truth. That puts him in the same category as all other pundits and columnists who operate best in fact-free environments.
Just as an aside, Ms. Putnam Hidalgo has expressed agreement with many of the points raised by the open letter penned by several administrators condemning the current climate in TUSD, the climate created by Grijalva and Sanchez. Does that means she is also conducting a scorched earth policy? Or, in the world of David Safier can that only be done by Republicans?
“I am personally acquainted with hundreds of journalists, and the opinion of the majority of them would not be worth tuppence in private, but when they speak in print it is the newspaper that is talking (the pygmy scribe is not visible) and then their utterances shake the community like the thunders of prophecy.”
Mark Twain – “License of the Press,” speech, 31 March 1873
I don’t think for a minute that the letter was written to influence the election. I think the administrators greatest objective is to get rid of HT, not influence a board election. As I said in an earlier comment, The Letter and now Letter Number 2, are a cry for help and a call for action.
Site administrators are frustrated. They know their schools’ needs, and they want collaborative budget and hiring processes that make use of their site knowledge. They want adequate resources. They want certified teachers in every classroom. They want positive leadership, not incessant talking from one and scolding from the other..
Dr. Sanchez, with minimal experience was the Board’s only candidate. He got a contract bigger than his predecessor’s, who had decades of experience. While Dr. Sanchez makes three times ($247,000) what the average site administrator in TUSD makes, AND gets an annual bonus for fulfilling his own objectives ($12,000 this year), AND will receive a stunning $120,000 bonus for staying three years, administrators and teachers have had one small raise in eight years. That is just plain disrespectful to the people who keep the district running every day. Some classified workers at 1010 had their job descriptions changed and their hourly rate diminished.
The Board has presided over this inequity. Sometimes people get held accountable for what occurs under their tenure and the choices that they made. If board leadership changes, it won’t be a result of the letter. It will be a result of the decisions made by this board.
More deflection from from the chief apologist for the current president of the TUSD board.
Critical of Grijalva and Sanchez? You’re simply being played for fools in an election year by nefarious naysayers. The administrators who’ve already fled the district and the deputy superintendent who had the temerity to suggest the district is facing a financial hemorrhage, were also misguided because none of this is real, it’s all about politics. And that bogeyman, Stegeman, the turncoat and traitor is behind it all pulling the strings and leading simple folk astray.
As Adelita says, move on there’s nothing to see here, the district is in fine shape and you all just don’t understand the complexities of public school finances. And neither did that guy who left for Portland crying wolf. It’s all just politics in an election year. She has a much better grasp of the district’s financial position; trust her.
Here is a link to the second letter written by administrators. Just hit the link or copy and paste this into your browser: http://threesonorans.com/2014/10/03/tusd-a…
I appreciate Mark Stegeman’s guidance as to who will best serve the TUSD board. The more I hear, it sounds like Adelita and her cronies did a terrible job when they selected this inexperienced Superintendent and he like all his predecessors is eyeing his exit strategy rather than solving major problems that continue to plague the district.
The same reasoning applies so well to your column. At least some people use evidence such as using spreadsheet to support their argument. Why can’t you provide some evidences as well? (other than the unrelated car buying example or trivial counting of the number of times a pronoun is used in an interview.) I also think as a journalist, the goal should be disseminate objective information instead of neglecting the most important point in a letter that opposes your own candidate (such as Sanchez threatens to leave if Grijalva doesn’t get reelected) or completely neglect the fact that TUSD is spending more than their revenue only because this fact is bad for your candidate. What is your real objective, I wonder. I have two school age children who I have to remove from the TUSD school because it will leave them with no future. Can you take children’s welfare into account instead of your own interest?
Well said, Disappointed Mom.
No doubt Safier views the belief that voters have the right to know what elected officials of both parties are doing as hopelessly naive — but that’s how people given to cynicism have always viewed the beliefs of those who have higher standards. Sneering at the notion that “facts” and “the truth” are the same thing and raising questions about whether news that comes out immediately preceding an election can possibly be anything but politically motivated is part of their rhetorical strategy; it’s part of how they attempt to prevent voters from paying attention to reporting that reveals problems that must be of genuine concern, if these problems are properly understood.
RE the spreadsheet released by Awwad: Would someone who expects to have a career in financial management have released a spreadsheet like that without being certain that it will reflect the reality of the organization’s finances, when examined? Probably not. So voters: take a look at the spreadsheet, and ask your accountant to take a look. I looked at it and had another financially literate professional look at it: we both agreed that it looked a lot like there have been serious sustainability problems in the management of the district’s finances during the last year.
RE the quality of the current board majority’s leadership: those of us who have paid attention and know what good governance looks like have a long litany of valid objections to the way the current board majority has been running the board, and this has been the case since long before the news of the district’s financial situation broke. The tapes of previous board meetings are available on the TUSD website. If people have any questions about how the district is being run, that’s where they should turn to get answers: the evidence is all there to be examined by anyone who cares to make the effort.
RE the assertions in the administrators’ anonymous letters: my own experience on one of the sites bears out the claims that accounts are being swept, that sites have insufficient knowledge of and / or control of their budgets, and that students do not have the textbooks they need to learn the academic content they are supposed to learn. What we saw on our site also bears out the claim that grave mistakes are being made in setting district policy and in managing relationships within the district hierarchy.
Ultimately, Safier’s “spin doctor” commentary can’t have much influence on people who have direct experience of TUSD. The problem is that the electorate includes a lot of people who don’t have close contact with TUSD schools. Safier’s dismissive approach to recent news stories may induce some voters who don’t have direct links to the schools to shrug it all off without making the right kinds of inquiries.
Again Mr. Safier you’ve missed the mark. The evidence is out there showing Sanchez and Grijalva’s misguided leadership. The puppet parade that follows Grijalva should be ashamed . Saying Stegeman pulls the strings when it is so clear that Grijalva controls the majority is ridiculous . I know many administrator with TUSD and they all say they have had it with Sanchez, and lost faith in Grijalva. Mr. Awwad’s resignation is one of many professionals that have left TUSD in frustration . Once again you blow this letter off as a political move , I assure you the letter is real, and action must be taken . I have stated my own case on TUSD before , Sanchez was so arrogant he wouldn’t even look at my case , even when board members asked him to. Grijalva refused to hear my case even though one of her puppets said the whole board knew I was innocent , this angered my family so much that one by one they have left the democratic party . Grijalva is responsible for that. You Mr. Safier will be one of the people responsible for the down fall of TUSD , by misleading voters away from the facts about Grijalva and her revolting support of Sanchez.
There may be a lot of hyperbole in the letters from the administrators, but that doesn’t mean that the allegations aren’t true at their core.. HT and Grijalva have admitted that there are some things to be concerned about, that should tell you that there are merits to the points they and Awwad raise.
Sanchez seems to be taking a page from former Sunnyside superintendent Isquirdo. Align yourself with a majority of the board, keep tight control of the information (including keeping some board members out of the loop), destroy dissenters and critics.
Blind support for a superintendent, ANY superintendent, is not how a good governing board member should conduct him or her self. With the financial issues raised by Awwad out in the open (as they should have been from the beginning) the board MUST make the new auditor report directly to them and not the superintendent. Anything less is an abdication of their duties as a board member and maybe they shouldn’t remain.
Now, I know that many will jump behind Foster, Grijalva and Juarez simply because they are Democrats and they see this as a Stegeman-Hicks vs the majority. but they should ask themselves :If these allegations were being made against Pedicone, where would you stand?”
Writing the letter, even anonymously, was an act of courage. Anonymously outing the administrators, if in fact the list is accurate, was not.
You are despicable “Anonymous whistle blower”!! You have the temerity to identify these Administrators, presumably without their knowledge or permission, who, you say, wrote that letter in criticism of Grijalva and Sanchez. Why hide behind a pseudonym? Give your information some credibility!!! Identify yourself you coward if what you say is true.
I have no idea who posted the list of administrators supposedly behind the anonymous letters — nor do I have any idea whether the list is accurate — but I suggest that Safier take the posts (on both this article and the “Letter Against TUSD Superintendent Sanchez” article) down immediately. Anonymously posting names of people employed by the district whose careers could potentially be negatively affected by unsubstantiated allegations about their complicity in the letters is irresponsible.
My personal opinion: this district is an unmitigated, relentless nightmare for parents whose children have the misfortune to be enrolled in TUSD schools. During the last year my husband and I have witnessed a complete lack of professionalism in every sphere where parents need to place confidence in a public school district: at the governing board level, in the Superintendent, in our site’s administration, and on our school’s site council. The irresponsible governance practices, the disingenuous communication from various levels of the administration, the discord between board members and between administrators, and the disrespect shown by administrators to highly qualified faculty members is not only unseemly and irresponsible, it is disastrous in its effects on the quality of education being offered to students enrolled in these schools.
If we had a responsible governor and state legislature (which we do not) we would be writing to our state legislators to ask that the state take over the district. In other states, this has happened to urban districts like TUSD that have a history of this kind of dysfunction. In that legislative takeover is not a good option, what can parents do at the grievous spectacle the district leadership — at every level — is making of itself? Those who have the means to do so will continue to leave; those who are stuck in this quagmire are much to be pitied.
I am very concerned about the posting of the names of twelve administrators, especially as there is no way to know whether it is even close to accurate. This could be the poster’s opportunistic action against persons whom he or she wants to damage, for unknown personal reasons.
I made the last post before I had even seen the two posts just before mine. I hope this does not become the Salem witch hunts. What is interesting about the anonymous administrators’ letter is its explicit and implicit allegations of facts — not who wrote the letter. The focus should be, as the letter writers themselves said, on whether the facts are correct.
All: I’m trying to delete this and another post where names of administrators are being thrown around, or at least delete the comments with the names, but I don’t have the access to do it myself.
It looks like the comments where people try to attach names to the anonymous email have been taken down on this and the other post. Please don’t put them up again.
I am a long ago student of TUSD and have relatives who work there. It is a fact that employees from high level down to level are afraid to speak out. It is a fact there has been a lot of retaliation with this superintendent! The allegations in both letters #1 and #2 need to be investigated. That is why the the administrators are writing this. They are right in staying underground because even if they might be retired administrators, they have strong connections to those who are still working.
The intent I am sure is not to put anyone’s job in jeopardy! The intent is obvious; they want the Board and others to investigate. People have written adnausium to Adelita and Dr. Sanchez himself with NO RESPONSE. Whatever the truth, the situation needs to be investigated and one day perhaps those still working in TUSD will thank this anyonymous group for getting the ball rolling. Look back at past superintendents and you will NOT find a superintendent who has drawn this amount of criticisim and fear…so something is not right.
I have been following the chaos in all the media sources and take special interest in the comments people make. It is one comment today that made me realize that I can not sit back and say nothing. I am appalled at the person who wrote and gave a long list of principals that he/she claims is behind these letters!! If the group who wrote the letters is staying underground, trust me they know how to keep their cover. This is a list of current principals and given the current unsafe condtions of this district right now, there is no way this list of prinicipals would speak out at this point in time. Leave them out of this and let them do their jobs! To post a list of names when there is no proof isunconscionable.
What good does it do for the current situation in TUSD or for the students to start guessing who is behind the letters! Who cares who it is ?? What matters is there is a problem and playing guessing games on lists of names, will just put TUSD employees on even more edge. Remember, TUSD is about the students and what it takes to give them the education and services they need. The current leadership appears to be about the “adults”…so I recommend butting out and let the BOARD and hopefully the media find out the truth! Let the students come out the winners on this. If there are untruths being told and cover-ups, time our community knows about it and we can then move on to right the wrongs!
The 1st amendment gives anyone the right to say, misinform or lie about anyone else, so ads need to be disregarded. I do know that the Tea Party candidates support the ALEC bills and the Koch brothers, so ads that run about them is most likely the truth. Both of these huge funds are NOT for the people, but to create more profits. The Koch brothers and ALEC are trying to pass bills across the nation to stop clean air or renewal energy, cause this takes away Koch brother coal and oil profits. They would prefer to destroy the earth, land, air and water over the profits they make. McSally supports both 100%. And she says she would make a different in Congress, Really, Boehner and the House has done nothing but block Obama in is efforts to help the nation and people. McSally would just add to that effort. McSally doesn’t care about the people, only the big organization that can get her elected and collect a big wage while on vacation or in recess of the House. Voters need to select candidates smart and vote for those that really support the people and nation with action. Thus far, the Tea Party and Republicans have not shown that. It about a living wage for the Tea Party and Republicans while doing nothing
Mr. Safier, both of those salesmen spent their time and knowledge to help you select your car. The one that you did not purchase from essentially worked for free. Please do not denigrate the work of people whose compensation structure differs from your own.
Safier, your TUSD $15million deficit Stegeman cherry picking “uninformation” piece, is beyond irresponsible. To use the media as a soap box for your personal unbalanced bias is rather shallow and revels the measure of you, and lack of credibility.
First – a $15million deficit is a “deficit” or is it not? When two Chief Financial Officers confirm that it is, one must accept it as true. Superintends are paid big dollars to insure that does not happen.
Second – Sanchez was warned months in advance of the impending deficit, and ignored it.
Third – Budget planning is just that – planning to stay within budget.
Fourth – The impending deficit alarmed TUSD staff who watched as it approached like an unstoppable freight train and alerted Hicks and Stegeman to take action.
SHOULD THEY NOT HAVE BLOWN THE WHISTLE? WHATS YOU’RE POINT?
Beware! I write from outside TUSD, my closest current connection being a grandniece who is a senior in a district high school, doing very well and to the best of my knowledge getting a good education. I barely know the cast of characters: the father of one board member mentioned frequently in the comments above, one second term member who seems to be right in the middle of just about everything, one current first term member, one candidate who is, as best I can judge, eminently well qualified. I make a suggestion, knowing that it won’t solve TUSD’s problems but just might begin to clear the air: pick out the two non-incumbents you think best qualified to sit and reason as board members, and vote for them, i.e. retire the incumbents. Be prepared for more turbulence before a real turn around can begin. If it’s true that Dr. Sanchez has threatened to leave if any particular board member is retired, then he doesn’t belong in the position. And all of you, please let’s begin to take partisan politics out of school board elections. Anyone who votes on the basis of partisan labels rather than the personal competence of the candidate deserves the kind of situation that appears to prevail in TUSD, BUT your kids don’t. It is or at least should be all about the kids. And for them, EDUCATION MATTERS!
Sam Smith, you misguided EPA lovers are so off topic. You are the problem. You will be responsible for the ruination of my country.
ciro you are right all Sanchez has done is prove is untrustworthy and can not do the job. It is time for us to demand his removal , before more schools are closed , we lose more teachers and students.