Whistleblowers: Kristel’s Delusions Damage TUSD, Discipline, HT’s corrupt relationship with TEA

To: The Tucson Community- 31th Open Letter
 From: Whistleblowers– Comprised of a Large Group of Extremely Concerned TUSD Administrators, Teachers (welcoming new teachers!), Retired Administrators and Teachers, Parents, Grandparents- Growing with Each and Every Letter

Subject: Kristel Ann Foster’s Delusion Continues to Damage TUSD; Who Is In Charge of Discipline? HT Sanchez Corrupt Relationship with TEA

Kristel Ann Foster lives and campaigns in an alternative universe, one in which she seems to go into a delusional state, where she looks at herself in the mirror, first thing in the morning, and tells herself that she is Mexican. She believes this until she campaigns on the east side of Tucson. Then she magically morphs back to being white. She is a politician of pure convenience. The “Kristel” universe is one in which she can cleverly convince herself that Mexicanos, and especially two specific men, adore her or have adored her, which brings her closer to her self-delusion of being Latina. She talks about them incessantly. They are part of the delusion which she clings to desperately and really everyone that knows her just wants her to shut-up about them already.

Es una probe que piense que es — que no es. (She is a poor soul who thinks she is what she is not, in all aspects of her life.)

Last week a more in-depth news story broke about TUSD and its failure to deal with discipline at Palo Verde Magnet High School. The former Chief of Police, Roberto Villasenor, communicated his grave concerns pertaining to Palo Verde and stated that the SRO was fearful for his life due to death threats that been made against him and others. The Palo Verde Principal admitted that his hand were tied. Imagine, a high school principals feeling as though they have their hands tied (by HT Sanchez). Take a few minutes to view the news story @ http://www.kgun9.com/news/tpd-officer-feared-for-his-life-at-tusd-hs

TUSD has gradually been exposed on its on-going failures in this area. In a shallow and thoughtless response to the news coverage, delusional Kristel emailed a large mailing to her list server to explain that TUSD is moving toward more restorative and disciplinary practices….blah, lie, blah, lie, blah. In her lie-packed email she once again attempts to justify the disciplinary problems that have taken place at Secrist, Booth-Fickett, Soleng Tom, Utterback, Palo Verde, Pueblo, Wright, and on and on! She says that “other districts” have experienced, “public resistance and negative media about the safety at the schools and claims that TUSD has strengthened discipline policies.” What she has failed to admit is that the policies are NOT being implemented consistently, across the District. She must have slipped back into the Kristal universe while she was writing her baseless defense. The very sad reality is that these types of blind defenses have made her absolutely worthless as a TUSD Governing Board member and has now placed our schools in harm’s way.

We who are at the schools have written about what is actually taking place at the schools and we can say without a doubt that nothing has been strengthened at the schools, especially when it comes to discipline. Principals and teachers get mixed messages; coming at us from several directions. Information about discipline is inconsistent and lacking in any substance. Contradictions are not effective when attempting to “strengthen” procedures. Training has been inconsistent in content and in those who receive it. Contradictions on policy have become an ongoing practice. Some of us work at schools in which training had not taken place by the beginning of the school year- last year and little was done during the year. Principals are issued edict after edict from 1010ers about what has to be done (again, with one contradiction after another). It has been made clear by top administration to us that we are to use race and ethnicity as a factor in our decisions when a student has violated the GSRR (but this is done only through unwritten and unwitnessed directives). When we compare notes most of the principals in our group (along with peers who share with us) that we HAVE to get our numbers down for two groups (African American and Latino) no matter what it takes. Of course, this is so that HT Sanchez can get the numbers down for African American and Latino students in his Houdini act to make the USP disappear- even if his methods are totally corrupt.

One principal said, flat out, that she was not going to implement restorative practices or PBIS. We doubt that anyone at 1010 knows that this particular school is doing nothing in line with the GSRR. She knew nothing of the GSRR, having been hired at the last minute in late July of 2015, without any principal experience and she shunned any of us who tried to support her. Training on the GSRR, Restorative Justice and PBIS, along with the new public school prison system (DAEP) were haphazard and of terrible quality. Where did Kristal Foster get that the area of discipline was being strengthened? Of course, from her boss, HT Sanchez, the BSer of all BSers! Remember, in her universe, he is the center.

No one is sure of who is in charge of discipline, which, in itself is an epic problem. We have had Adrian Vega, Abel Morado, Eugene Butler, Michael Conrad and Chuck McCollum (all men)- all take part in discipline. We have even asked some of the plaintiffs’ representatives who, in their view, is the “go-to” person and we were told such as person had not been identified to them. Take a look at the new organizational chart in which the words “discipline” and “GSRR” do not appear:

http://tusd1.org/contents/govboard/packet06-28-16/6-28-16-BAI17-DistrictOrgChart16-17.pdf
 Now, Matt Munger has stuck his authoritative toe into the discipline pool, which adds another contender to the confusing list of administrators who issue directives on discipline. This week Munger told principals that we should suspend students for 1–3 days when they are involved in a fight that has future potential of having fall-out on the campus and that “they” (probably, HT and he) want the campuses to be safe and we (principals) are to do what we need to do to keep our campuses safe. This is a CYA directive if there ever was one! We believe that this new dictate was issued in correlation with the news report by Valerie Cavazos from KGUN 9 News. This is a different directive and message from what we had received previously so the public exposure has shamed them into tightening things up. But only somewhat.

Oh, and let us point out that Adrian Vega and Eugene Butler are long-gone and added to a very long trail of those who have left the District. Yet, as more of her delusional campaign lies, Kristel Foster has the nerve to say that she has brought more stability to TUSD (oops, she must have slipped back into her “let me pretend” universe).

Everyone in our group is fearful that the lack of safety at our schools will simply escalate with the opening of school, which continues to seriously threaten the safety of students and staff. Even with the new Munger edict, it is difficult to control a fire that has burned hotter and hotter for the last two years, destroying great portions of the foundation. Now all of the sudden, principals are not only being asked to tame the fire but expected to somehow rebuild the foundation, without any of the materials and tools that are needed.

Get this! Matt Munger and his authoritarian edict was enough of a surprise to many of us but then HT Sanchez pushed us over the edge by having TEA President Jason Freed address the principals. He told us that we were to tell our teachers that they had received a salary increase (and to basically discount any opposing viewpoint). We believe it is highly unprofessional and unethical to have the TEA President tell us what we are to say to our teachers. The quid pro quo between HT Sanchez and TEA is disgusting.

If any student, employee, contracted employee, police officer or visitor to any of our campuses is significantly harmed due to HT Sanchez’ undermining of the GSRR and court order, along with the neglect in overseeing and correcting his actions by Kristel Ann Foster, Cam Juarez, and Adelita Grijalva, there will be public outcry like never before along with litigation.

What is obvious is that HT, Kristel, Cam and Adelita have not to this point done what they should have done.

It is clearer than ever that Kristal Foster must be ousted from her position as a Governing Board member and Cam Juarez, who has gone underground, has been as inept (albeit for different reasons) as Kristel. Oust them both!

Thanks Again!

We continue to be grateful to Three Sonorans for publishing every single one of our letters. We appreciate greatly that the Arizona Daily Independent publishes many of our letters and references them within their own posts, from time to time. Additionally, we want to acknowledge an organization that is also working very hard to expose the facts about TUSD: TUSDKidsFirst, which also has made reference to our letters, which we appreciate. Check the organization out at:http://tusdkidsfirst.org/