Local opinion: TUSD board must balance accountability with civility

The Tucson Unified School District has a storied past. Anyone who has followed TUSD knows that its Governing Boards have not always been known for calm, collaboration or civility.

That is why we should protect what our current Board has accomplished. In the past five years, the Tucson community has supported both a Bond and an Override election. One has helped beautify and update much-needed infrastructure, while the other has allowed the Board to approve much-needed raises for staff. I believe that support is, in part, a reflection of this Board working together with one goal in mind: to make TUSD better for our kids.

While we have disagreed, we have also asked difficult questions and challenged one another. With that said, I believe we have governed without turning our disagreements into a public fight.

I am now in my second term on the TUSD Governing Board. I ran because I believe in public education. I ran to support our teachers and staff and, most importantly, as a parent and TUSD alum, to serve the nearly 40,000 students who deserve leaders focused on education and the future.

I am confident my Board colleagues share this goal. We may not always agree on how to get there, but I believe we all want to do right by our kids. A stronger Board is a better Board — one that can disagree, listen, learn and ultimately work together in the best interests of students.

That requires oversight. It requires asking questions about how taxpayer dollars are managed. It requires scrutiny and accountability.

But accountability must be grounded in facts.

Recent public criticism of TUSD's financial practices has raised important questions about how we, as elected officials, approach our responsibility to the public. Asking for additional financial information is appropriate. Questioning decisions is appropriate. Demanding accountability is appropriate.

Financial information is accessible to Board members, and staff has been available to answer budgetary questions at any time. TUSD also makes extensive financial information publicly available through its Financial Services Reports page, including budgets, budget books, annual financial reports and comprehensive financial reports.

If a Board member wants additional information, we have the ability to ask for it. This is the type of oversight that is expected of Board members.

What is not appropriate is allowing disagreement to become an accusation about an employee's competence, integrity, or motives without a factual basis.

This is not about one Board member, one disagreement, or one election cycle. It is about the standard we should expect from ourselves as elected officials.

Criticism is part of public service. I have spent more than two decades working in and around public service, and I have never expected to be insulated from scrutiny or disagreement, especially as a member of the Governing Board.

But questioning someone's work is not the same as questioning their character, competence or integrity, especially when done publicly.

If employees believe that disagreeing with a public narrative could result in being personally targeted, they become less willing to speak candidly.

It also makes it harder to recruit and retain the talented people our schools desperately need.

This standard applies to all of us—including me. Being elected to the Board gives us a responsibility to ask hard questions, seek accurate information, and make decisions based on evidence.

I did not run for this Board to fight with employees. I did not run to create headlines or to resurrect the dysfunction that has defined too much of TUSD's history. I ran to help make this district better and would venture to say my colleagues did, too.

We can disagree without becoming divided. We can demand transparency without suggesting secrecy where none exists. And we can hold people accountable without publicly diminishing the people doing the work.

Nearly 40,000 students walk through TUSD's doors every day. They deserve a Governing Board focused on them, their goals, and helping them to attain those goals.

That is the standard I will continue to uphold and ask my colleagues on the TUSD Board to do the same.