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Education

Liberty school board receives calls for leadership changes

Posted 2/4/25

At the Liberty Elementary School District’s February board meeting, a room filled with community members spoke out about upholding district values and encouraging Superintendent Court Monroe, …

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Education

Liberty school board receives calls for leadership changes

Posted

At the Liberty Elementary School District’s February board meeting, a room filled with community members spoke out about upholding district values and encouraging Superintendent Court Monroe, board President Bryan Parks and Vice President Kris Kenyon to step down from their roles. 

The public comment section of the board meeting lasted an hour, with each community member and stakeholder given three minutes to speak. Twenty people were registered to speak, three in support of the board, 17 pressed for leadership change. 

Those not seaking, filled the chairs, floor and lobby of the Jerry Rovey District Facility, 19871 W. Fremont Road in Buckeye.

“I have never seen a board room like this, it is incredible that you care enough about your child’s education and the direction of this district that you would teach your children about civic responsibility and their right to protest. I teach my children about the American values, and that is one of them,” said board member Kellie Zimmerman. “These are your kids this is your community you are out taxpayers, and it is our responsibility to listen to you and to acknowledge that you are making a statement.”

Parents, students, community members, teachers, and former board members came together to guide the district leaders. 

Vicki Johnson, president of the Liberty Education Association, summed up educator concerns into four parts: removal of the district’s education services department staff, financial mismanagement, class sizes and a lack of substitutes, lack of communication and a culture of intimidation.

“(The current and former board leadership) are resolutely intent on using threat intimidation, bullying, and punishment against schools in opposition against the highly politically partisan decisions being made,” said Former board member Paul Bixler. “This needs to stop. You are hurting children.”

These calls to district administrators have been growing at board meetings for months and were partnered with a student absence campaign on Feb. 3 that resulted in a 38% absence rate. Kenyon said that involving children in the issue mirrors child abuse.

“All of us were elected to be here, we were elected overwhelmingly to be here,” Parks said, in response to public comment and against the guidance of the district’s legal team. “We ran on a platform and we’re following that platform to a tee, if you don’t like what we’re doing fine. Get us removed from office, I’ll go do something else. But until that happens, we’re staying right here and we’re going to continue with what we promised the voters.

Advocates for board resignation promised to collect signatures for a petition for a board member recall to remove Parks and Kenyon from their roles.

According to the Maricopa County School Superintendent’s website a recall election is a process where electors of a school district may force a board member to stand for election before completing the full length of their term in office. The process requires that residents within the school district demand their recall with a specific number of votes. 

Former board member Paul Jensen is among 100 volunteers, as of Feb. 3, setting out to collect those signatures.

“I am not aware of a successful governing board recall election in the state of Arizona getting the required signatures to make it happen is a lot of hard work however we will knock on the required thousands of doors to spread the word of the mismanagement” Jensen said.

The minimum signature requirement for a success recall for Parks is 2,126 and 2,950 for Kenyon. These signatures must be submitted by June 3 to move forward with the recall. 

Visit liberty25.org for more information and to watch the February board meeting. 

Education, Bryan Parks, Kris Kenyon, Court Monroe, Liberty Elementary School District, Protest

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