All of their machinations of the majority of the Tucson Unified School District Governing Board to stack the deck on the Audit Committee has resulted in the disenfranchisement of open enrollment students and parents.
Adelita Grijalva, Kristel Foster, and Cam Juarez voted last year to limit membership to committees to only those people who live within the District’s boundaries. The move was made in order to disqualify two watchdog members of the Audit Committee. While that decision raised eyebrows and eventually caused a complaint to be filed with the Arizona Attorney General’s Office, the majority held firm in maintaining cronies on the Committee.
Now, it appears that commitment is costing open enrollment families dearly, as they find themselves unqualified to participate in District and site-level decision-making processes. For schools with large open enrollment populations, the restriction on membership could have serious inequitable consequences.
Another item on Tuesday night’s agenda that caused quite a bit of consternation was the months-old request by Board member Michael Hicks regarding a shared governance policy.
Time and time again, Hicks’ effort to get a policy on shared governance in place has been blocked and on Tuesday night, Grijalva, Foster, and Juarez tried once again to prevent even a discussion of the matter. “We have been playing with this policy for months,” stated Hicks. “This is nuts. I get criticized by Mr. Juarez and Ms. Foster all the time about not doing my job and you guys are not doing yours.”
“I am just supposed to sit here and take,” said Hicks. “Here we are again kicking this issue down the road again.”
Hicks advised his fellow Board members that he didn’t care how a more open policy is created. “It just needs to get there,” he stated.
“I understand Mr. Hicks’ frustration,” said Dr. Mark Stegeman, “because it took so long to get it on the agenda. I do think that this is the first time we have even been able to talk about it.”
The item may be discussed at a future time. For now, it appears to have been kicked down the road.
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