Whistleblowers: Kristel Foster and Adelita Grijalva playing race card in TUSD now that truth and logic has failed them

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Open 52nd Open Letter
From: Whistleblowers– Comprised of a Large Group of Extremely Concerned TUSD Administrators, Teachers, Retired Administrators and Parents, Grandparents

Kristel Foster/Adelita Grijalva Maxim: WHEN TRUTH AND LOGIC FAIL, PLAY THE RACE CARD!

Adelita and her peer Kristel Foster have taken hysteria and paranoia to a brand new- low of lowest level- as Governing Board members.

On March 2nd, Adelita Grijalva posted the following on her FB as an emotional, groundless, and irresponsible response to HT Sanchez’ resignation: “While these 3 white board members claim they serve all children in the district the truth is that they are part of a much bigger plot to destroy public education and ensure that only certain kids receive quality education. By creating dysfunction in the district and pointing fingers internally they distract us from the real reason our public schools are failing our students: the nationwide attack on public education and the criminal under-funding of public schools on the state level. The only real threat Sanchez ever posed was that he was uniting people across the district to push back on this direct attack of public education.”

It makes us wonder if Adelita and Kristel Foster are consulting with someone- oh, let’s say someone like Raul Grijalva- who, like Steve Bannon, but to the LEFT, fabricates conspiracy theories in order to create one distraction after another from the REAL issues. Kristel Foster and Adelita have taken to writing and speaking in constant defense of their now departed HT Sanchez. The attempts almost seem martyr making. They need to halt their none-sense and focus on the District; our schools and students!

It seems that HT Sanchez was finally confronted by Board members with an outline of performance problems which probably included;

• lying to the Board about contracts and the budget (including 301 funding);
• using 301 funding to bolster or balance the budget;
• freely — and against TUSD policy- giving bonuses and raises to administrators without Board knowledge or approval;
• increasing a leased employee’s pay without Board notice and approval;
• and not reporting a recent sexual assault of a student as legally required. HT’s edicts on discipline have been a whip-lashing experience.

He even issued a directive to us, as principals, not to follow the GSRR. Then he tried to bury the dictate and hoped that we all would not remember it. (As an aside but none-the-less important, most of HT’s dictates about discipline came through his top guns. Are we the only ones who have noticed that those assigned at the top level to “handle” discipline are all men? All men who have mismanaged discipline over and over again. Hey Adelita and Kristel- you got any gender cards? Or are you saving those for another distraction?)

HT played favorites with the Board and would deliver requested information to those who supported him (under the old Board majority) and ignored the two remaining members. He was surly; sometimes downright nasty to the two in the minority. Things changed when Cam Juarez was ousted and Rachael Sedgwick was voted in. (Another important aside: Kristel cries out to the community that Cam lost because of the “Change” campaign which was well funded. She stresses that Cam is Latino and disabled to gain emotional appeal and once again pulls the race card out from her cheating sleeve. The facts: Cam did not want to run for the Board. HT talked him into it. Cam ran a lousy campaign, including accepting a $5,000 bribe from a contractor who has a $10,000,000 contract with TUSD. Once this was made public, he promised to give it back to the contractor but broke his promise along with many others he had made in gaining his seat. Cam lost because of his horrible track record on the Board, the bribe, not returning the bribe money, and his lack of effort in campaigning. His national origin and disability had NOTHING to do with it. And if the “Change” campaign got him out, how is it that Kristel got in- again. Facts: Her campaign was lie based. Voters unknowingly bought her lies.

Sanchez refused to concede that there was a new Board majority in place and he continued with his insulting and dismissive treatment of the new Board member along with the former minority Board members, who together changed the Board from a rubber stamp body to a Board that actually is attempting to do its job.

Foster and Grijalva grossly and irresponsibly mislabel all of this as racism. They know only too well that making such an allegation is an emotional charge in Tucson and a solicitation for support from those who do battle against legitimate racism. Their allegation is empty but they will use it to deflect from the reasons that Sanchez decided to resign rather than to have exposed his performance deficiencies. Think about it, if they were to admit that Sanchez’ performance was of concern their own precious but deceptive credibility would be shot! Sanchez is a first class weasel. He weighed his options and figured that his performance slip-ups would haunt him for the rest of his weasel career if made public, so he negotiated a settlement of only a fraction of what he would have been awarded if he had been fired without cause and he left the 1010 building just as fast as his legs could carry him.

But the weasel is much too much of an ego maniac to just walk away. He will stay in Tucson just to keep stirring drama (not because his kids are in school- because, remember, last year Mary pulled them out of school to go back to Texas after she discovered one of HT’s indiscretions. The guy just keeps making mistakes and getting caught). Many of his blind supporters are taking turns playing the race card. Cesar Aguirre is an obedient but stupid soldier along with his boss, Brian Flagg and then, of course, there are the Jamie Utts of the world who speak and judge without any facts. It all makes HT happy because it takes away from having people pay attention to the real reasons behind his termination from TUSD.

Foster and Grijalva will make every effort to manipulate one decision after another while holding up their illegitimate race card. They will try it at the Board meeting tonight- March 7th- in appointing an interim superintendent. They attempted to use it to stop HT’s demise, which was of his own making, and to save their own political futures. They need to put their race card away before they realize it nothing more than a joker.

We can guess that HT’s list of performance worries was long and at some point we may take a stab at guessing more of the issues, but for now, we are happy that HT’s reign has ended.

One thing is for sure, if we had been able to provide a list of HT’s performance woes to the Board (besides our 51 open letters), we would have added Karen Kopec as one of HT’s top hiring bloopers. Last Thursday at our weekly meeting she began to sob over Sanchez resignation. She sniffled over how great HT is and that she came to Tucson only because of him. She went on and on and on about his wonders. This all from an administrator who has contributed nothing since she began her job (given to her by her friend Sanchez). She usually has nothing to say at meetings and she made it overwhelmingly uncomfortable for most of us while she came unglued. Some in the audience applauded her (we think to end the miserable blubbering) which meant that the rest of us had to chime in. After all, notes are taken on who is “in” and who is “out” based on the support shown for the top level clowns. She was so distraught that she could not run the next meeting. Instead, Abel Morado stood up and ranted about the greatness of HT and since he is the leased employee who got a $34,000 raise without the Board’s knowledge or approval, it is remarkably clear that he owes HT a lot. Kopec told us that she is not planning to stay after her contract is up. She should do herself and the District a favor; ask to be released from her contract and hitch a ride with HT back to Texas, ASAP. With her salary, the Board could allow the interim superintendent to bring in someone to support the immediate work at hand.

Adelita recently referred to us as trolls. We are glad to see we had finally gotten under her skin. It is a shame that we never made to her conscience. Adelita, we are TUSD principals, teachers, and parents. There are many, many of us. We are not goblins, ogres, monsters or any other name for a troll. We are the best, the loyalist and the truest to TUSD. We have been frustrated, demoralized, embarrassed, and even angry about what you, your peers and HT have allowed to happen to OUR school district. We have also been loyal to TUSD, to our kids, to our values. We believe that we have been courageous in confronting the many messes you and HT have created. You know as well as we do that revealing our identities would have resulted in harm to us from HT and some on the Board. You, as Board President, brought HT in as a superintendent with two months of interim superintendent experience. He was not qualified for the job. For some, he was charming and his BS sold them. But is was just a matter of time before his incompetency became so blatant that the Board had to do something. Most of us will be here long after you leave for whatever political payoff you have waiting but while you remain on the Board maybe, just maybe, you could find it within yourself to be more dignified and professional human. Civil rights protections should not used for your or Kristel Foster’s personal or political manipulations. It is insulting to those of us who cherish these rights and who know that what you both are doing has the potential of hurting authentic claims of injustice.

Put your race card away. It has expired.

Originally published at TSON News.