Teachers: ‘No confidence’ in district leaders
Scottsdale schools Superintendent Denise Birdwell this week dismissed recent criticism aimed at her administration and the school board — while, at the same time, the teachers’ union issued a rare vote of “no confidence” against the district leadership.
Birdwell’s remarks and the Scottsdale Education Association’s public disapproval of the superintendent’s performance come after months of heightened tensions in the Scottsdale Unified School District and amid an ongoing investigation by the Arizona
“For the teachers and staff to weigh in at such a high rate, they must feel almost no trust or confidence that the work climate will improve.” Joe Thomas, president, Arizona Education Association
Attorney General’s Office into whether the district violated the state’s procurement laws.
The state’s and district’s separate investigations into procurement concerns came after parents and community members complained for months about a lack of transparency in the district’s bidding and billing practices.
Many of those complaints focused on a rebuild of Hopi Elementary School — a contentious subject among residents, partly because many said the plans lacked community input. One of the concerns pointed out in the internal investigation was that Hunt & Caraway Architects failed to disclose a felony conviction of Brian Robichaux, the firm’s then-principal — but unlicensed — architect, president and co-owner.
The internal investigation is being handled by Susan Segal, an attorney whom the district contracted with in late November to handle the review.
The state investigation is ongoing, but Segal presented a portion of her findings to the board in December, stating that the district did not break the law in hiring Hunt & Caraway for school renovations, but may have overpaid the firm.
Birdwell, in her remarks at a public school-board meeting Tuesday, did not call out any specific individuals or the AG’s investigation, but made reference to “politically motivated individuals who like to shift the focus of the Scottsdale district away from accountability and learning.” Birdwell said she wanted to assure the community “that as we move forward in this critical time, we will remain focused on our students, on our employees.”
“We find ourselves being bullied online, cyberattacks, personal attacks, harassment of a district that is truly focused on learning,” Birdwell said at a packed meeting in prepared remarks Tuesday night. “And meanwhile, we have a media that has been promoting stories that have very little merit. One might even define it as ‘fake news.’ ”
Some parents and teachers refuted Birdwell’s accusations of misrepresentation. Julie Cieniawski, president of the Scottsdale Education Association, said Birdwell’s remarks underscored the frayed relationship between the school’s leadership and its teachers and parents. “It’s really unfortunate that the leader of our district has chosen to go down that path,” Cieniawski said following Tuesday’s board meeting, “because that is not the direction that we need to go to support our students and schools.”
Cieniawski told Birdwell and Scottsdale board members at the meeting that more than 92 percent of the teachers who responded to a December survey said they “have no confidence in Dr. Birdwell.” Cieniawski said an “overwhelming majority” of the association’s 1,200 teachers took the survey.
In taking a formal vote of “no confidence,” Cieniawski said Scottsdale teachers believed Birdwell and the board were “no longer deemed fit for that position.”
Discontent among Scottsdale teachers began shortly after Birdwell forced all educators at Coronado High School to reapply for their jobs as part of an effort to turn around the underperforming school. Teachers and parents since then have expressed concerns that low morale could lead to high teacher turnover. Last year, Christine Marsh, Arizona’s 2016 Teacher of the Year, left her longtime post at Chaparral High School to teach in the neighboring Cave Creek Unified School District.
While disagreements between parents, teachers and school administration are not new, it is rare for teachers to publicly express “no confidence” in a superintendent or school board — even if only symbolically. Cieniawski, who has taught for more than two decades, said she’s “never” seen or heard of other teachers publicly expressing disapproval in a school board or superintendent through a no-confidence vote.
Officials with the Arizona Education Association, the state’s teachers’ union, could not remember any noconfidence votes taken by Arizona teachers in recent years.
“This is a very uncommon event. It might happen once in a decade,” said Joe Thomas, president of the association. “For the teachers and staff to weigh in at such a high rate, they must feel almost no trust or confidence that the work climate will improve.”