Not listening, few or no questions, lack of setting direction for Community College

In May, the District Governing Board assessed areas where its behaviors needed improvement. Representative Deb McCasland pointed to three areas where she believed Governing Board behaviors needed to improve.

She said the Board needed to set direction for the Community College. It should not sit on its hands and approve  only administrative proposals. She also said that the Board was not listening to its ownership input. Finally she indicated concern that there are either no questions or no discussion about important issues affecting the College from a majority of the Governing Board. The Board behaviors assessment, which was made public at the June 2017 Board meeting,  is set-out below.

Cottonwood-Oak Creek Assistant Superintendent addresses Governing Board on how poverty is affecting children in his District and the efforts being made to deal with it

Yes, lots of children are doing “fantastic” in the Verde Valley.  However, “there is a significant and growing population of our students who are not doing alright.’  They are being left behind in a pretty substantial way.  They are slipping into what is called `generational poverty.’”  That was the message of Acting Cottonwood-Oak Creek Superintendent Steve King when he addressed the Yavapai Community College Governing Board on May 9, 2017. 

Mr. King emphasized that the problem of poverty is extensive and growing in the Verde Valley and must be addressed by everyone – from pre-school to post-secondary educators and others.  He lauded the recent efforts of the Cottonwood-Oak Creek school district to address the issue by dealing with the whole child in a supportive fashion.

 Mr. King’s report (edited for time) to the District Governing Board on poverty in the Verde Valley from his perspective can be viewed below.

Staff are mum on her absence

Yavapai Community College President Penelope Wills was out of her office from March 21 through April 11. When asked about her whereabouts, her staff were tight-lipped and provided no information. 

During her report to the District Governing Board on Tuesday, April 18 she did not mention her three-week absence from the College. Seems a little strange.

Wills receives about a quarter million dollars a year in salary. She is one of the highest-paid taxpayer supported bureaucrats in the County. Most believe she owes it to the taxpayers to let them know what she is doing in her professional capacity as President with her time—even if it is taking a vacation during the academic year.

One source reported to the Blog that Wills had traveled to Australia on a vacation and attendance at short conference. This report could not be confirmed.

Gone for three weeks

A message from President Wills’ office simply stated that “Dr. Wills will be out of the office beginning March 21st through April 11th.”  No other information was provided?
So, does anyone out there know where she is?  The Blog has received some rumors but cannot verify them.  Let us know if you have reliable information.

Joel Staadecker reminds Dr. Connie Harris that she reports to the “citizens,” not the Governing Board

At the March 7, 2017 Governing Board meeting held in the Verde Valley, Sedona resident and Verde Valley activist Joel Staadecker reminded newly appointed third District Governing Board representative Dr. Connie Harris that the College is “owned” by the citizens and that she reports to them, not the Governing Board. Dr. Harris, who has not lived in the Valley a year, was appointed in December to fill the seat of Al Filardo, who resigned in frustration with the Board’s treatment of the Valley. Her entire constituency is the Verde Valley.

You may view Mr. Staadecker’s short reminder to Dr. Harris below.

March 22, 2017 was her last day at Yavapai College

The sometimes controversial Yavapai Community College Economic Director, Alexandria Wright, has quit her job at Yavapai College. She begins work in August at the Ventura County Community College District in California.

The full announcement of her departure can be viewed in the on-line Verde Independent newspaper by clicking here.

As noted above, Ms. Wright has at times been controversial. For example, on September 15, 2015 she was removed from her seat for a variety of reasons on the Northern Arizona Council of Governments (NACOG) Workforce Development Board by a four – one vote of Yavapai County Supervisors. Scott Farnsworth, the College’s Dean of sciences, health and Public Safety, was subsequently appointed to that seat.

You may view more about her problems with NACOG in 2015 in an article in which she responded to beng replaced  in the Verde Independent newspaper by clicking here.

If you disagree with a Board vote, too bad – – keep your mouth shut afterwards

Reporter Zachary Jernigan wrote in the Cottonwood Journal Extra of March 15, 2017 that “President Wills [is] having trouble with board members speaking to the press.” Mr. Jernigan was referring to the March 7, 2017 board meeting during which Wills complained that it took her and her staff an inordinate amount of effort to respond to questions if a Board member spoke to the media.

There was no doubt that the comments were aimed directly at Second District representative Deb McCasland. This was confirmed by Mr. Jernigan when he interviewed McCasland following the meeting. She told him: “I am sure that [statement] was in reference to me.”

Since joining the Governing Board, McCasland has been leading the fight for more equitable treatment by the College in the Verde Valley. For the past two years she was joined in that effort by former Governing Board member Mr. Al Filardo. During that time, while making it clear that she was not speaking for the governing board, McCasland often shared crucial information with the citizens of the Valley about the direction the College was taking in the County.

President Wills wants any dialogue between the Verde Valley’s elected representatives on the Board and the citizens of the Valley stopped. The effort to restrict information coming from the elective representatives was the major topic during the Board retreat February 13, 2017. As Wills indicated during her brief outburst at the March 7 meeting, she wants nothing to be shared outside a Board meeting with the public other than what she or current Governing Board spokesperson Ray Sigafoos feeds them.

Sigafoos is the leader of the West County voting bloc that controls Governing Board decisions and is a close ally of Wills. The voting bloc has rejected a long list of recommendations coming from the Verde Valley over the past three years. Sigafoos knows little about the Verde Valley and certainly would not provide the kind of crucial information that McCasland has been sharing with Verde Valley citizens and public meetings and in the press.

The constant pressure coming from Wills and the West County voting bloc to halt McCasland from speaking to her constituents may have had an indirect impact on the third District representative Connie Harris. She seems to buy into the idea that she is not to share information with her constituents and the press in the third District. Her District runs from Jerome to Sedona and includes Cottonwood, Clarkdale, and the Verde villages. Harris, in her third month as a replacement for Filardo, has yet to utter a single sentence in support of a Verde Valley project.

Overall, the effort to suppress the First Amendment right of an elected representative to fully inform his or her constituency is under a full-court attack from the West County voting bloc and Wills. You may view the one-minute statement at the March 7 meeting by Wills below.

20 Page pdf pamphlet can be obtained here

The 20 page pamphlet reviewing the decisions by the College and the Governing Board in 2016 that may have affected the Verde Valley can be downloaded by clicking here.  2016 IN REVIEW REVISED BOOKLET JAN 1 2017