Says “College staff will never care from far side of mountain”
An editorial in the December 23 Cottonwood Journal, written by Managing Editor Christopher Fox Graham, slammed the continued appointment of the Deans hired to supervise the Verde Valley and Sedona College facilities who live outside the area (and have no intention of moving here). The editorial was based on a front page story in the same issue, “Board fumes over college staffing.” The article reported on the most recent Dean to be hired for the Verde Valley, Kelly Trainor, who resides in Prescott. (The online version of the newspaper article may be found by clicking here.)
The Blog has pointed out in earlier postings that the top 4 administrative appointments to the Verde Valley Campus and the Sedona Center have all been Prescott area residents. And none of the appointees have indicated they will move from the Prescott area to the Verde Valley.
Shafted
Graham wrote: “A lot of phrases come to mind when we think of how Yavapai College views the Verde Valley, but `I think the Verde Valley is getting shafted,’ is perhaps the best, spoken by none other than Yavapai College District Governing Board member Deb McCasland, who along with Al Filardo, represents Verde Valley interests.” He asked one to imagine that the Governor of Arizona flew home to California after a day’s work at the state capital and analogized the image to the Prescott resident administrators running the Community College in the Verde Valley.
Does Penelope Wills intentionally make these appointments to control the Verde Valley?
He pointed out that “Deans who do not live in the Verde Valley do not hear concerns from neighbors, nor do they bump into residents at the grocery store, nor do they enroll their children at Mingus Union, Camp Verde nor Sedona Red Rock high schools and hear about their children’ friends’ college plans. They have no community connection to the Verde Valley, which perhaps is exactly what Wills wants.” (The complete editorial may be read by clicking here.)