The one thing that has become perfectly clear to even the most casual observer of Tucson Unified School District Governing Board races is that any challenge to the status quo will be met with retaliation in one form or another. On Monday, the Tucson residents behind TUSD Kids First learned firsthand just how vicious that retaliation can be from Grijalva sycophant, David Safier, of the Tucson Weekly.
In a continuing effort to divert attention away from the allegedly illegal contributions made by a partner in the Phoenix-based company, ESI, to Cam Juarez and Kristel Foster, and sully TUSD Kids First Committee Chair Jimmy Lovelace, Treasurer Kathleen Campbell, and contributors Cody Richie, Jim Click, and Tom Regina, Safier makes tenuous connections between unrelated dots.
Safier’s connections draw a picture of business interests interested in closing more schools in order to make big bucks. Aside from the fact that more failing, or closed schools will cause nearly everyone in town to suffer financially, Safier ignores the fact that some of the people behind TKF; like the Campbells, have kids in TUSD schools.
The Campbells’ interest in a healthy TUSD has nothing to do with future building projects, as Safier implies, but everything to do with building a brighter future for their kids and others students and teachers, at TUSD.
In response to Safier’s smear, Jim Campbell wrote in the comment section:
Since Mr. Safier is implying that my wife is trying to cheat the system as well as being a greedy homebuilder I only feel I should respond. Unlike Mr. Safier, that donates to candidates and doesn’t disclose those conflicts, I am more than happy to explain our personal situation.
First and foremost, my wife believes deeply in TUSD. I have tried repeatedly to get our kids away from the drama in TUSD but Kathy feels as residents we should support our public school system. My son graduated from UHS and my twin girls go to Sahuaro and Sabino. I myself am a product of TUSD. Our family is all in with TUSD. Kathy refuses to run away as so many others have and deeply believes that with more dollars in the classroom and a better working climate things will change. Things will be better for our kids and for our teachers.
The other side. My wife has repeatedly donated to TUSD including $10,000 to the Career Counseling Center at UHS, thousand of dollars in art supplies, refrigerators, food, water and helped refurbish the vehicles for the great UHS-Rincon marching band. Cody Richie as well has donated to multiple schools including providing the Tucson high football team their shoes. Jim Click has repeatedly supported the auto mechanics program at TUSD as well as other TUSD needs. When it comes to TUSD this group that you ridicule are givers not takers.
TUSD’s own dysfunction caused my wife to engage. Of course as a developer I was against it for fear of retribution but as she stated eloquently, family comes before everything. One of our girls has been repeatedly bullied and beat up at her TUSD school. It didn’t end until the other girl was taken away by the sheriff but was back in school the following week. The advice from the sheriff was we must press charges because the school won’t do anything to protect our kid. This was very frustrating to Kathy.
Add to this the multitude of other issues; subs teaching for months on end with no permanent teacher, teachers that are not accredited and know little of their subject matter, the overall shortage of teachers throughout TUSD and administrators that were either too busy or too inept to truly care. Of course TUSD promotes the inept so that fixes itself sometimes. So before Mr Safier implies we are also racist let me state that our twins are Hispanic and my son is from Azbaijan.
As for work, I do work for OasisTucson Inc. Anyone that knows me knows I am primarily a developer as I have a hard time holding a hammer. It is a fact that our multiple companies are related but Zach Hinman and my wife drive Mesquite Homes. There is no hidden agenda here as I put OasisTucson on everything including my e-mails. And Mesquite Homes has no interest in TUSD land. That decision was made a few years ago when Zach and Kathy wanted to stay small and only build 10-15 homes a year.
Finally it is laughable that Mr Safier can’t understand that there are people whose kids go to TUSD that may want something better. This isn’t about politics, it is about our damn children and it is people like David Safier that makes even me willing to throw it all away in Tucson to make change happen.
Safier readers gave Campbell 17 likes, 1 dislike.
The TUSD Governing Board majority has paid lip service to partnering with business, but for some reason when business people try to engage they risk being vilified.
Kathy Campbell said the hit piece by Safier is “representative of the bully culture that exists.”
For years, only a few unfortunate parents and teachers knew of TUSD’s bully culture. Now, it is on full display as the Grijalva crew desperately fights to maintain their center of power.
TKF has endorsed democrat Betts Putnam Hidalgo, republican Brett Rustand, and independent Mark Stegeman. The three seem to have no more in common with each other than they have in common with the contributors to TKF. However, all of them seem to have one thing in common with the vast majority of Tucsonans: providing the quality education and safe learning environment our kids deserve.