Superintendent of Public Instruction Diane Douglas allowed two ADE employees, Executive Director of the State Board of Education Christine Thompson and her Deputy Director Sabrina Vasquez, to return to work on Tuesday morning after she had terminated their employment last week. Douglas had been pressured by Governor Doug Ducey to continue the employment of the two pro-Common Core Board of Education support staff members.
Thompson and Vasquez made as much of a splash as they could as they walked into the building at 8:30 a.m. They were accompanied by Board of Ed attorney Mary O’Grady.
“They’re back at work, and we’re hoping that everyone can re-dedicate themselves to their jobs and let everyone do the jobs they were hired to do,” O’Grady told the cackle of reporters waiting for the duo.
In a letter to O’Grady, Douglas’ attorney, Steve Tully, stated that Superintendent Douglas would meet the Governor’s deadline, but asserted again Douglas believes that she had the authority to fire the duo.
Tully wrote, “The Superintendent believes it is not in the best interest of the state that the current circus be extended.”
Douglas said she will work through legislative and judicial channels to confirm the proper oversight of individuals working for the Arizona State Board of Education.
After being threatened with Department of Public Service personnel intervention by Ducey, who in his short time in office has become known as “El Duce,” the superintendent issued a statement in which she said she sees no reason to escalate the current situation by excluding people from access to the Department of Education building even though the action of the Board of Education was clearly outside of its authority.
“My focus is on Arizona’s children and providing them with the highest quality education available,” she said. “Our resources are best spent supporting our children, teachers and classroom instruction.”
The Superintendent said she would like to resolve this issue as quickly as possible so it is no longer a distraction.
Douglas has created much of the distractions with serious public relations missteps due in part to her inexperience with the press. The ill-advised Douglas has appeared temperamental, however Ducey through his surrogate, Lisa Graham Keegan, has attacked Douglas since before the two were elected in November.
As the popular website, Seeingredaz.com notes, “This past November, grassroots candidate Diane Douglas ran and was elected on an unambiguous anti-Common Core platform. Keegan not only supports the federal overreach into local education, but derides Douglas as “erratic,” even as she tap dances around the issue of fewer dollars for public schools while Ducey slices $13 million from the state education budget.”
Arizona Republic columnist Robert Robb noted, “she is intensively disliked by all the right people.”
Education advocates have reached out to legislators asking that they consider running a bill that would move the State Board of Education out from under the control of Ducey and under Douglas and the Arizona Department of Education.
Earlier in the day Ducey visited with Department of Children Services staff, and ABC15 caught up with him Tuesday night at a fundraiser in Flagstaff. The diminutive Ducey told and ABC15 reporter, “We’re going to work together with Superintendent Douglas. We had a conversation this weekend, and we’re confident that’s behind us and we want to focus on things and improve outcomes for all our kids in all the public schools. And both myself and the superintendent are committed to that.”
Ducey is proposing to slash the State’s funding to schools and increase funding for private prisons.
As Brad McQueen, an Arizona teacher and author of Cult of Common Core noted last week, “The firing of Executive Director Christine Thompson and her Deputy Director Sabrina Vasquez are long overdue… Christine Thompson has been the executive director of the State Board of Education since November 2014 and has overseen the disastrous, and often times shady, adoption and implementation of the new Common Core test, AZMerit, only months before our kids are due to take it.”
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