Mark Liebner on SUSD’s Tonalea campus lease to Phoenix Rising Football Club [I attended the first part of this meeting, and I can vouch that there was outright hostility from some of the neighbors toward Phoenix Rising’s proposal, and toward SUSD administrators’ poor handling of it. Mr. Liebner does a good job of covering most […]
AG’s Office investigates Scottsdale school board over private meetings
This year through May 31, when [former Scottsdale Unified School District governing board member Pam] Kirby no longer served on the school board, she and [then and current board member Barbara] Perleberg exchanged 1,892 text messages and phone calls, some of which occurred during [SUSD governing] board meetings… Yet, astonishingly, “This [open meeting law complaint] […]
AG probing SUSD Governing Board AGAIN | scottsdale.org
…the attorney general received a complaint alleging that open meeting law violations took place during [Scottsdale Unified School District governing board] executive sessions held by the SUSD Governing Board on Dec. 14, 2017 and Feb. 21, 2018. The complaint alleged that the board discussed topics that were not posted on the meeting agenda made available […]
The Noblest of Dogs
“Noblest of all dogs is the hot-dog; it feeds the hand that bites it.” Dr. Laurence Johnston Peter, EdD (1919 – 1990), Canadian educator and “hierarchiologist,” who postulated the Peter principle: “In a hierarchy every employee tends to rise to his level of incompetence… [I]n time every post tends to be occupied by an employee […]
Coronado High School: Defining “Success”
Former Scottsdale Unified School District superintendent Denise Birdwell, who recently departed under a cloud of controversy and criminal activity, instituted the “Coronado Success Initiative” last year with much fanfare. School district governing board members Kim Hartmann, Pam Kirby, board president Barbara Perleberg, and others brayed about the good things to come. Meanwhile, Birdwell undertook a […]
Get my ass kicked or collect two hundred dollars?
I’ve had a back-and-forth comment war with Stuart Rhoden for a couple of days. You may recall that Stuart is the guy who was running for Scottsdale Unified School District governing board before he wasn’t. I think he figured out that being a card-carrying member of the Denise Birdwell pom squad pretty much disqualified him […]
The Great Spring Training Hoax
Neil deMause (http://www.FieldOfSchemes.com) comments this morning: A study by Arizona State University found that spring-training baseball was worth $373 million to the Arizona economy in 2018. I can’t find the actual report itself, but it looks like they came up with this number by interviewing a sample of out-of-town visitors at spring training games about […]
The Value of Education
It’s bizarre to me that we in the US and especially in AZ are so twisted up in knots over adequately funding our public schools and adequately paying our educators and school employees. Do the citizens and voters really not recognize the value of public education? Sure, who cares if the other kid doesn’t have […]
Public Education: Don’t forget the taxpayers
The scandal-plagued Scottsdale Unified School District just hired an interim superintendent, Dr. John Kriekard. Dr. Kriekard was a longtime educator, principal, and assistant superintendent within our district, and served as superintendent of the Paradise Valley Unified School District. Kriekard sent out an encouraging communication today: May 16, 2018 Good Afternoon, SUSD Family, Today marks my […]
Accounting is Complicated, Accountability is Not
Former SUSD CFO Laura Smith The latest shoe to drop in the ongoing Scottsdale Unified School District fraud carnival is the criminal indictment of former CFO Laura Smith. As the person most directly responsible for the financial health of the 23,000-student district and its $170+ million budget, Smith was simultaneously on the payroll of a […]