Litchfield District seeks to strike state AG communications from lawsuit

The Litchfield Elementary School District is asking a U.S. District Court of Arizona judge to strike public records from the Arizona Attorney General’s office from a First Amendment lawsuit involving a former governing board member.

According to U.S. District court filings, the Attorney General’s office and the district discussed a process to revise previously adjudicated open meeting law findings regarding complaints filed by former governing board member Jeremy Hoenack.

“At the invitation of the Attorney General’s Office (“AGO”), on September 29, 2023, LESD, through its general counsel, submitted a request that the AGO reconsider its August 13, 2021 Open Meeting Law (“OML”) letter,” the district wrote. “The 8/13/21 letter addressed, in part, whether an advisory committee formed by the District’s superintendent was required to conduct open meetings. The AGO is revising decisions given to several school districts on this topic.”

In August 2021, Republican Attorney General Mark Brnovich’s office found the district violated open meeting laws by passing an equity statement “behind closed doors” in an exclusive hand-picked committee.

“The process of creating and adopting the policies reflected in the district’s equity statement should have been conducted in the open and consistent with the procedures outlined in the Open Meeting Law, not conducted behind closed doors and presented in final form for approval or rejection by the board. The board violated the Open Meeting Law by taking a closed-door approach,” wrote Michael Catlett, deputy solicitor general for Brnovich.

According to the recent district court filings, the district does not consider the exclusive committee findings relevant to the court case.

“The OML issue related to the use of advisory committees is not relevant to Plaintiffs’ OML claims in this case,” it said. “In his Complaint, Plaintiff alleges that he was interrupted or not allowed to speak during certain board meetings. He does not bring claims arising from any meeting of the advisory committee.”

The district concluded by claiming the request to revise those findings with the AGO has nothing to do with this lawsuit, and is not essential to be disclosed in the case. Hoenack claims it builds an argument that the district colluded and, furthermore, fabricated evidence to overturn that decision.

“LESD's only ‘new’ information was fabricated … to absurdly compare other districts' unintentional technical violations with LESD's deliberate scheme to push DEI and gender-fluid curriculum ‘behind closed doors.’”

AG records requests

According to initial records from the state attorney general’s office, the Litchfield Elementary School was being investigated concerning open meeting law.

The request, opened in September, was completed by e-mail message from the Attorney General's communication director Richie Taylor April 11.

The request took over six months to complete and listed 11 single-line entries in an email.

"The Attorney General’s Office does not confirm or deny potential investigations," he said before the records request. "I will have to decline to comment."

Upon being furnished with the court filing for comment, regarding the re-opening of the OML findings, the office amended the record to exclude Litchfield from the open investigation category.

“My apologies,” he said. “The Litchfield investigations have already been closed and should not have appeared in the open investigations list.”

During Kris Mayes's tenure, her office has completed two education investigations in the West Valley: one for Tolleson Elementary School District procurement and one for Candeo Peoria Charter School.

Litchfield had three open meeting law investigations “closed” by Mayes office in Taylor’s revised records. Those investigations date back to 2021 and 2022. The state could not elaborate on the nature of the violations. Mayes took office after the violations in Jan. 2023.

Equity statements

In 2021, Jeremy Hoenack appeared on Fox News’ show Primetime with Mark Steyn, claiming the school had passed a secret socialist-leaning equity statement and training manual.

“They secretly conspired to implement socialist indoctrination,” he said on the show.  “The board passed an equity statement glossing over it being based on Ibram X. Kendi’s anti-racist definition. Next, the district secretly created a transformational equity procedure manual to promote critical race theory and curriculum, discipline, hiring, and training for all staff members and teachers.”

Hoeneck claimed education companies or district-contracted vendors may have allegedly conspired with the board members and staff to push doctrine.

In August 2021, Republican Attorney General Mark Brnovich’s office found the board member Kimberly Moran violated open meeting law by displaying a sign reading “not true” while residents spoke about the then-alleged equity statement. The state required Moran to retake open meeting law training.

According to previous Daily Independent reporting, Moran was tasked with writing the district’s equity statement in 2020. The route was a similar practice other districts took during COVID-era social justice movements to affirm its commitment to equitable policies and culture for students and staff.

To address racial equity, then-district Superintendent Jodi Gunning reportedly organized a diversity committee comprised of district administration and one board member, Kimberly Moran.

The final paragraph of Moran’s statement was used as supposed evidence the district embraced radical leftist ideology.

“Anti-racist means taking an explicit stand against racism,” the statement read. “We subscribe to author Ibram X. Kendi’s definition (of anti-racist) ‘One either allows racial inequities to persevere, as racist, or confronts racial inequities, as an antiracist. There is no in-between safe space of ‘not racist.’”

Gunning retired in June after 21 years with the district.

No evidence has been found to link those allegations of collusion with education companies and the district to push doctrine.

However, in 2022, board member Hoenack opposed the approval of a trip for school staff to attend a Conscious Discipline training seminar in Texas. He claimed the social-emotional learning (SEL) program promoted bad behavior and habits.

Opponents of Conscious Discipline point to an official blog post that touts it as a tool to change racial inequality. The post also references Ibram X. Kendi, bestselling author of "How to Be an Antiracist," as a guide in matters.

Years prior, the board promoted and purchased it as a tool to teach troubled students how to manage their negative emotions.

In March, an Arizona State University professor in the School of Social Work questioned the appropriateness of a district’s social-emotional learning lessons, designed to teach sixth-graders at Verrado Middle School in Buckeye to reflect on the impact of racist comments made to Black students, from the perspective of a perpetrator’s feelings.

The professor, Allison England, is a parent of a bi-racial student. She claims the training was inappropriate.

“The video was meant to be an intervention for someone who had actually made the racist statements," England said. “Examples were, ‘What is the impact on others of the racially discriminatory behavior you used?  What will you use to make things What will you do to make things better? What steps will you take?’ However, all students at VMS in sixth grade were led through the module, leaving students who had not engaged in the racist comments and even the victims being a part of it and, quite frankly, being confused.”