ASDB Report - March 6, 2014 Denied/Delayed Access to Public Records? Let Us Know A Parents Recap of the ASDB Crisis Denied/Delayed Access to Public Records? Let Us Know If you submitted public records requests to ASDB and have experienced a denial or delay in receiving your public records, let us know! Many fingers are being pointed at William Koehler, Acting Assistant Superintendent, and Maria Murphy, HR Executive Director, for obstructing and needlessly delaying access to public records. We are currently in the process of retaining an attorney to force ASDB to release its public records in a timely manner as required by law. Reply to: asdbreport@gmail with your public request experiences. A Parent’s Recap of the ASDB Crisis In the Spring of 2013, the board, headed by then-President Bern Jones, considered several contracts for renewal. Then-superintendent Robert Hill recommended that Dr. Amann’s contact NOT be renewed. In a document that was authored by Maria Murphy, ASDB HR Director, Supt. Hill laid out several allegations against Dr. Amann. These allegations were wide-ranging and considered by many to be an over-reaching attempt to railroad Dr. Amann. This document was presented to the ASDB Board during the meeting to consider contract renewals. Dr. Amann was literally ambushed by this document. Dr. Amann had only 30 minutes to review and defend herself against the allegations made in Hill’s document. These allegations would later be mostly refuted by an independent investigation. The investigation also clearly stated that whatever errors Dr. Amann had committed did not rise to the level of termination or non-renewal of her contract. One board member, G. Michael Williams, later stated that, had he known the actual circumstances of the trumped-up allegations against Dr. Amann, he would have voted to renew her contract. G. Michael Williams is now the ASDB Board President. Instead, Supt. Hill and HR Director Murphy got their way in a narrow board vote to not renew Dr. Amann’s contract, thus removing the strongest “deaf” voice in the ASDB administration. My very first realization that something was incredibly wrong with the ASDB administration was when I attended a board meeting at the Governor’s Tower in downtown Phoenix. This was the first ASDB board meeting I had attended in years. Apparently, the decision to remove Dr. Amann was widely unpopular and Supt. Hill claimed to be in fear of his life. Supt. Hill gave the impression that the board’s decision to not renew Dr. Amann’s contract resulted in death threats and bomb threats against Hill and ASDB. None of these threats were ever reported to Tucson Police or any other law enforcement agency. There are no official records of such threats that have been released by ASDB. As a result, then-President Bern Jones had board meetings take place at the Governor’s Tower for “safety” reasons. My initial impression of that board meeting: Supt. Hill, surrounded by his sycophants, Maria Murphy, William Koehler, and administrative assistants...at least 10 or 12 ASDB staff member hovering around behind Hill or next to him during the meeting. Hill had ASDB staff set up video cameras to record people commenting to the board in a blatant attempt to intimidate the public and staff who wanted to speak up about the wrongdoings at ASDB. I will never forget seeing Jones, Hill, Murphy, Koehler, and their staff laughing and acting as if they had not a care in the world before, during, and after this meeting. Well, the protests took place, the students got noisy, parents and the Deaf community rose up to the point where Governor Jan Brewer finally took notice. She dismissed the majority of the board, including ASDB Board President Bern Jones. Suddenly, the dynamics changed. At each and every board meeting afterwards, all I saw was Supt. Hill sitting by himself. His patron, President Jones, was now gone. Suddenly, ASDB staff refused to appear with him. There was no more laughing by the ASDB staff that Hill patronized up until then. Murphy, Koehler, Creasy, and the overpaid administrative assistants...all disappeared. Like cockroaches in the kitchen when the light turned on, they scurried for cover and hid. Instead, during board meetings, they now sat in the audience, not behind him or to his side...They didn’t want to be associated with him any longer. He was damaged goods. He ended up sitting alone during board meetings. Now that Hill is gone, these biased administrators and staff are now fighting to prevent the public from knowing the misdeeds they have committed. One administrator, Maria Murphy, HR Executive Director, even went so far as to threaten to sue a parent for publicizing public records that cast her in a poor light. Public records requests are routinely denied or delayed unnecessarily by Koehler and Murphy in violation of state law. This is the state of ASDB today. My opinion, -Rob Voreck
Posted on: Thu, 06 Mar 2014 09:31:48 +0000
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