New TUSD board begins 2019 with a drama-filled first vote that Counts
Tucson’s largest school district had its first meeting with its new school board member Leila Counts, who defeated the board President Michael Hicks in last year’s election.
The first vote every year is to elect the school board President and Clerk. Last night, Tuesday, January 8th, 2019 — the 8th anniversary of the Tucson Tragedy and the night of the first national speech from the Oval Office by President Trump — the TUSD school board took over five votes to decide who these two members would be.
In the end, it would be Mark Stegeman and President and Rachael Sedgwick as Clerk, both winning by a 3–2 victory with Leila Counts joining with them.
However, there is so much more to the fascinating game theory and maneuvering that took place last night to accomplish this outcome, and of course, the UA Professor who got this Ph.D. in game theory came out on top.
That’s not a bad thing, however, because Kristel Foster and Adelita Grijalva were played so masterfully by the other three that we made an excerpt that is a much-watch video for those who follow TUSD and who would like a glimpse of the new board dynamics this year.
The entire discussion and votes on the election for these two leadership positions took just over 30 minutes, not quite the 45 minutes the Arizona Daily Star claimed, nonetheless it was a magnificent show that displayed how petty Foster and Grijalva truly are.
It begins with Grijalva nominating Foster for board President. The theatrics begin with Adelita asking a question to which she already knows the answer. “Ms. Foster, I would like to ask if you would be interested in serving as board President.”
“I would be honored, thank you,” replies a choked-up Kristel.
“Then I would like to nominate Ms. Foster for the office of President” responds Adelita.
“Um… Ms. Foster?”
Rachael Sedgwick tries to jump in at this point. However, keep in mind that at this point TUSD has no board President since Hicks is now gone. The current person presiding over the meeting is Kristel Foster.
Foster puts her hands up to stop Ms. Sedgwick. “Excuse me for a second. I will second that… for purposes of discussion.”
Now the mind-games begin, and Leila Counts showed herself as an independent thinker in the following half-hour exchange. The strategies used before each vote and the responses as failed-vote-after-failed-vote takes place will now be examined.
Rachael Sedgwick, who recently graduated from the UA Law School and passed her bar exam, now begins her discourse. We give a quick background of the history of the half-year term for President of the Board.
During the calendar year of 2018, the board voted (with Foster and Grijalva dissenting) to elect Presidents for half-year terms, and thus Mark Stegeman took over the first half while Michael Hicks took over starting in July 2018. Meanwhile, when Adelita had her board majority during the HT Sanchez era, she grasped onto control and remained board President for 4 straight years (2013–16), never giving poor Kristel a chance to gain experience as President; not even for half a year.
But then board member Cam Juarez (2013–16) lost in his bid for re-election after he got caught in a pay-for-play kickback scheme; Juarez never filed his legally-required campaign finance reports that would prove he never returned the money he promised.
(1:25 mark) Sedgwick proposes to continue the half-year model in 2019. In an attempt to show that both “sides” (Grijalva/Foster vs Stegeman/Sedgwick) can work together and share power, Rachael proposes that Foster takes the first-half and Sedgwick takes the second-half.
(1:38) Adelita jumps in to say she never liked the half-year President model. “The fact that Ms. Foster is entering her 7th year on the board… she’s done a great job… I would be more comfortable in having only one president for this year.”
(2:55) Leila Counts speaks for the first time. “As a new board member, I’m interested in this board working in a functional way, a collaborative way… before being elected I would watch the board and the six-month term was really effective. It opens up opportunities for leadership across the board. We can really break this idea that there is an alliance and that this is really a board of the community. So opening up the opportunity for different leaders to step forward… I like Ms. Sedgwick’s idea of a six-month term for both the President and the Clerk.”
(4:08) Mark Stegeman says that developing a sense of cohesion for the board is important, and supports the six-month term.
(4:54) “So, I’m not interested in serving for just a six-month term. So I won’t accept a nomination for a six-month term,” says Foster.
(5:50) Foster has been speaking for a while against this idea, then says “right now there is a motion on the floor nominating me [grabs heart] and I thank you for that, it’s an honor to serve for the year.
Adelita jumps in to support Foster for one year again, Stegeman and Sedgwick comment that they will not support a one-year president term.
(7:45) “I’m not so confident voting for one individual for the office of President unless I can rely on that person being present at every meeting, on time… Unfortunately at this point… I’ve been at every meeting and on time, and that will be the reason I will be voting no.”
(8:40) Leila Counts: “So… I have to say that I’m a little bit disappointed because I feel that in order to move forward as a district we need to have flexibility and we need to have compromise… I want to feel that, as a new board member, comfortable with my decision, not feel hastily pushed into anything and have the opportunity to reassess so I’ll be voting no.”
Kristel wants full control for the entire year and says that she will not be president for only six months. Kristel had 5 votes to be President, but only if she will accept a half-year term. She refuses this compromise.
(9:54) 1st vote fails (2–3): Kristel Foster for President for full-year FAILS.
(10:37) Stegeman: “Recognizing that there is a perception that Ms. Counts is walking into a 2–2 split which I think is a bit oversimplified but has some truth to it at least and I think it’s important to incorporate both halves of that perceived split in a joint presidency I think that would be a very positive signal to the community, I’ll move that we appoint Mrs. Grijalva president for the first six months and Ms. Sedgwick president for the second six months.”
The motion gets a second and Leila Counts comments that she hopes that they can agree on this compromise.
At this point during the meeting, I started to see that Kristel Foster and Adelita Grijalva, perhaps out of ego and pride, were blind to the compromises that were being offered to them. They were going to have a 5–0 vote to be president if only they would accept it for 6 months!
(11:40) Adelita says she’s not interested in only half a year reign.
(12:00) Mark Stegeman asks for a point of order and Kristel says “Excuse me… EXCUSE ME, excuse me” while putting her hand up towards Stegeman.
(13:00) Kristel Foster votes to withdraw the motion. Grijalva seconds.
(13:20) 2nd vote passes (5–0). Motion to withdraw nomination for Adelita Grijalva for President PASSES.
(13:50) Grijalva: “I just want to… ummm… ask the board to move forward with… ummm… nominating Ms. Foster for the year… I have some SIGNIFICANT issues with, with the, with voting actually… for the person that is being suggested for latter of the six months.”
This was the first personal attack on Rachael Sedgwick by Adelita Grijalva!
(14:50) I will second that and open the floor to comments from the board.
Stegeman says he will vote no because “we need to get past the sort of perception of two sides competing for power.”
He then says that if this motion fails then he would be interested in voting for Ms. Counts for the year.
The strategy here is interesting. The “Stegeman/Sedgwick faction” are trying to share power with the “Grijalva/Foster faction.” After what will now be two attempts split that power, Stegeman is willing to go with the “neutral” Leila Counts, someone who had the support of Democratic elites in Pima County. However, Foster and Grijalva are hungry for hegemony, and they don’t see the olive branch being offered in compromise to move the district forward.
(15:55) 3rd vote fails (2–3): Kristel Foster for President for full-year FAILS.
(17:00) Kristel Foster speaks sadly: “It actually feels like there’s not confidence in me as a leader so I’m not confident moving that... I’m… if there’s not three votes for me to be president of the board then I’m not the person that this board wants to lead.”
Keep in mind Kristel Foster would have had a 5–0 vote to be President, TWICE ALREADY if she would have agreed to share her power. That was confidence in her to be president! Sadly, her wounded ego would only accept complete power for the entire year.
(18:30) Sedgwick, responding to Stegeman’s idea of voting for Ms. Counts, says that this would not be a good idea since it’s her first year. She then asks if she would accept Sedgewick for the first-half and Counts for the second-half.
At this point, I’m sure Leila is getting to experience what we all got to see meeting after meeting for years now, but now she’s part of this mess for the next four years! Keep in mind that the board still hasn’t even come to an agreement on the first agenda item of her tenure.
(19:00) Leila Counts says she does not want to be president for any part of her first year.
Some back and forth ensues with the issue of having a half-year term. Ms. Foster says that since two of the board members will not have it, what do the other three board members think?
(22:30) Sedgwick says that heard from all the board members, and Counts has already declined, so “that leaves Dr. Stegeman and myself. Understanding that appointing Dr. Stegeman at this point might be a sort of contentious issue, I’d like to make a motion to nominate myself for the entire year with the understanding that we will revisit the matter in six months.”
Stegeman seconds. No explanation of why this would be “contentious” is given.
(22:23) Grijalva: “Based on past experience with Ms. Sedgwick here on the dais and also in executive session I could not support her for any leadership position on the board.”
Adelita could have just said that she would be voting no. Now she is throwing shade Rachael’s way! That’s her second personal attack on Sedgewick on just this agenda item.
(24:25) 4th vote fails (2–3). Leila joins Foster and Grijalva on the self-nomination for Sedgwick to be President of the board for the year which FAILS.
(27:10) 5th vote passes (3–2). Leila Counts votes with the “Stegeman/Sedgwick faction” to elect Mark Stegeman as President of the Board for 2019.
Mark Stegeman agrees to resign at the last board meeting of June so that effectively they get what they wanted, a half-year term.
Rachael Sedgwick becomes the new Clerk of the Board with the same vote outcome and the same agreement to resign in June.
This board meeting was a masterful display of game theory and strategies. We believe that three board members wanting half-year terms were sincere in the desire to compromise and to share power.
However, in the end, rather than share half and half, Foster and Grijalva wanted all or nothing and got just that. After two potential 5–0 votes for them to be president for half a year they got… Nothing.
The person who stayed quiet and did not strategize to win (or did he?) won in the end.
Leila Counts received a lot of criticism on social media after her votes, especially from the Foster followers. She provided two responses; the first one below is from 1:59 am after her very first board meeting.
I will lead with this- “the opposite of compromise is not integrity, it is death and fanaticism”. Within my first minute on the board, those who shall not be named attempted to steamroll me, knowing very well what they were doing — it was deliberate and unseen and the details of it will need to remain private, in order not to further continue down this well worn and deeply dysfunctional path that the TUSD board has been on for over a decade. Also, I supported Ms. Foster for president in continuing the precedent we have followed for the past year, she refused the nomination. Adelita refused the nomination for president made by Dr. Stegman as well.
I appreciate the many questions people have right now and I am happy that they are reaching out to me directly. Conversation can only ameliorate fears, which is what I know is happening with some right now. I urge us not to be reactionary and instead continue this conversation. The policy votes of supporting families, students, and educators are still yet to come, please stay tuned and watch. I will never forsake my values that you voted me in on. One vote is not worth more than any other, and it would be best to not catastrophize situations but continue to move towards fruition of those values, step by step.
I am providing this opportunity to hopefully build trust and understanding and am creating an invitation for anyone who would like to discuss this further- this Sunday at 2pm at Cafe Passé.
I am also happy to meet in person for those who are unable to make it. Thank you!
Here is the statement I gave Tucson Education Association, I’d like to share it here. Feel free to share this and or join me on Sunday at Cafe Passe at 2pm if you have more questions…
I was frustrated with the outcome of last night’s election and it was not what I desired. While campaigning for this position I continually heard from voters that the focus must be on student success and that the board’s dysfunction and polarization were harming the district. Throughout the campaign, I underscored the need to compromise and to work collectively on behalf of students and families in TUSD. I remain committed to this vision.
Long before I joined the board a decision was made to rotate the role of the president every six months. While not ideal, in the short term I believe this practice will help bridge consensus on the board and help to come to a shared vision and effective governance. I was incredibly disappointed that under this practice Ms. Foster and Ms. Grijalva both declined the nomination for president. I believe both of these members are highly qualified and can lead TUSD, but their unwillingness to assume the role for a six-month term left few options. I plan to work closely with all members of the board and the administration to ensure our focus is first and foremost on student success while working to revise board policies to help facilitate effective meetings and governance.
In six months we will revisit the leadership roles and hopefully, by then we will have addressed our governance model and we will modify the executive committee terms in an open process. I am more confident than ever that if we can put aside political brinkmanship we can find common ground and improve TUSD.
Welcome to the next four years of your life, Leila.
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