Cantor here.....not a happy camper...... In Saturdays Scottsdale Republic there was a letter to the editor from former CEO of Scottsdale Healthcare, Dr. James Shamadan, a gentleman I became acquainted with over the years due to the 17 times my dad was hospitalized there for rheumatoid arthritis, vascular disease, heart bypasses, and other issues. Dr. Shamadan is a careful critical thinker. He echoed what I have been thinking about over the last 10 months......what experience does Ms Petersen have with city issues, city and resident advocacy, attendance at Council or Planning Commission, Transportation Commission, etc., or even the General Plan Update meetings? For some months several of us who participated as parent volunteers in the Coronado Complex Schools, have been looking at the many problems and needs in the Coronado Complex and there are some stunners that came to light following the failure of the 2013 override. We have tracked back to 2006 when the Scottsdale Coalition worked out a program with ASU, thanks to Dr. Michael Crow and the help of the Dean of the Fulton College of Education, at that time, Dr. Eugene Garcia and Professor Gary Bitter. The Scottsdale Coalition members involved at the time were Sharon Oberritter, Jim Heather, retired ASU faculty member Rita Saunders-Hwranek, the late Frances Young and me, Nancy Cantor. It was our hope to build on the presence of ASU at SkySong providing the STEM program for our students and creating opportunities for our teachers to acquire advancement in their studies through technology programs at SkySong and to participate in long distance education via the technology options at SkySong. Sadly, the student programs seem to have migrated to other areas of the district largely because there is little comprehension of the Coronado Complex needs on the part of Governing Board members. Ms Petersen was serving on the Governing Board at that time and comments about her time in the Coronado Complex are not pleasant. Seems she did not give the time and advocacy that teachers thought our students in South Scottsdale needed. Nor did she give the time teacher needs. Ms Petersen came to the Governing Board from serving on the Scottsdale Parent Council, another district group that since the mid-90’s has not taken the time to try and deal with, or accommodate the issues impacting these working class neighborhoods; or deal with the parents concerns, especially the inability of parents to attend mid-morning Parent Council meetings. Ms Petersen did not serve our southern neighborhoods well at all. Because of her lack of leadership and comprehension, many programs that provided basic education and enrichment moved out of the complex to other schools in the district. Because of Ms Petersen’s lack of awareness and comprehension to all that plays into to open enrollment loss of those programs to northern schools caused the enrollment to fall in every school in the Coronado Complex. I did not bring this up before because I work on the campaign of Cindy Hill and thought it might be construed as sour grapes. Last night at the Tonalea Neighborhood GAIN event, I changed my mind. When Ms Petersen commented to me how glad she was that I would be working to get the override passed in the Coronado Complex, I replied that “Us old coots have to get out and help cause the southern schools and neighborhoods always seem to be forgotten until the last minute.” Ms Petersen commented in hearty agreement. The husband of a retired school teacher, himself a retired Marine Corps officer, sitting next to me shook his head that she would agree with me. Heck I shook my head and sat down abruptly. In the 27 years that I have been involved with SUSD as a parent and advocate I needed to get a handle on myself. Whether SUSD Governing Board or City Council, where ever you choose to serve you need to know your whole community, how it works and be engaged with the whole community (Unless Scottsdale decides to got to council by districts).
Posted on: Sun, 26 Oct 2014 20:00:41 +0000
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