As a result of public statements made at the dais encouraging Peoria Unified parents to pull their students from the district, governing board member Rebecca Hill is facing a call to resign.
The teachers group Peoria Education Association has been gathering signatures in support of her resigning from her post.
The petition states Hill’s actions and statements show she is unfit to continue her duties to serve the Peoria Unified School District in an unbiased, professional and fair manner.
“Your actions are viewed as an attempt to cause distrust in not only public education, but the Peoria Unified School District,” the letter states.
“As a board member, she was elected to support all our students, schools and district. She is no longer capable of fulfilling that commitment,” stated a post on PEA’s Facebook page.
Peoria Independent reached out to Hill, but she did not return the inquiry.
After a failed vote last month to consider transgender policy in the district, Hill said that she was not happy with the way the district is going.
“God is not blessing this district, he isn’t,” Hill said.
She went on to say she no longer endorses PUSD and thinks the district is going down a dark road, morally. Specifically, she pushed parents to take advantage of Arizona’s school voucher program, which allows funds that would typically be used by a school district to instead be used by families for tuition outside of their assigned district.
“I would advise parents to use their vouchers elsewhere. I don’t endorse PUSD any more. I can’t. I would advise that parents take the ability at this time to take their vouchers, which have been given to them, and use them in private schools, use them on online, home school your kid,” she said. “Choose the curriculum. Choose what happens with their livelyhood, with what is going to happen with them in the future. Public education isn’t going in the right direction. This is not what I want to see for our district.”
PEA claims Hill violated at least six board policies, including policy BCA-A, which states board members must represent everyone the Peoria district serves, not a particular interest group or geographic area.
The letter states Hill did this by aligning her agenda, statements, and actions with the special interest group, West Valley Parents United.
“During the meeting, you repeatedly shared and attempted to impose your personal religious and moral beliefs rather than basing your decisions and actions on the interest of all students in the district,” the letter continues. “In your comments you repeated harmful rhetoric about transgender students, and you failed to represent their individual needs when stated, ‘This is ridiculous that we’re dealing with this. This is basic biology… this has nothing to do with feelings… it’s biology that’s it.’”
The letter said that statement is dangerous to transgender students because “it invalidates their needs for safety and perpetuates further acts of bullying and retaliation against them.”
The letter also claims Hill violated board policies when she urged parents to remove their children from the district and that she does not endorse PUSD. Those policies state board members shall respect and support the majority decisions of the board as well as accept, respect and support the will of the majority vote in all cases.
PEA President Frank Eager said around 300 signatures have been gathered asking for Hills’ resignation.
Eager said more people need to be made aware of what is happening with the school board. He said the district already follows policy regarding transgender people using bathrooms — Title IX states under federal law that transgender students have the right to use the bathrooms they identify with.
“Title IX explicitly spells out what we can and cannot do. We should not be getting into the Bible, and we should not be basing policy on moral ideas,” Eager said. “This subset of individuals just wants to live their lives, and most of them fly under the radar.”
Philip Haldiman can be reached at phaldiman@iniusa.org, or on Twitter @philiphaldiman. We’d like to invite our readers to submit their civil comments, pro or con, on this issue. Email AZOpinions@iniusa.org.
Meet Philip Haldiman is an award-winning journalist who most recently took first place for investigative reporting in 2023 from Arizona Newspapers Association. He joined Independent Newsmedia, Inc., USA, in 2015, covering Sun City West his first year. Since 2016, he has covered the city of Peoria. Prior to coming to INI, he was a reporter with The Arizona Republic for seven years, covering numerous cities throughout the Valley. Before that, he was a freelance writer.
Community: Haldiman spearheads the Peoria Independent Hometown Heroes Awards program, honoring local individuals and businesses that give back to the community. He has hosted local candidate forums over the years and is a member of the Society of Professional Journalists. Haldiman also served as a member of the Journalism Program Community Advisory Board at Glendale Community College. Outside journalism, Haldiman served as a member of the city of Peoria Complete Count Committee for the Census, 2019-2020. Lastly, he has served as a member of his HOA governing board since 2021.
Education: Arizona State University with a BA in Journalism and Mass Communications and a BA in Theater.
Random Fact: Haldiman is a fourth-generation Arizonan as well as wrote and produced an autobiographical comic book about his time spent in Hollywood and his life as a cult film star.
Hobbies: He enjoys hiking Arizona’s mountainous landscapes and is currently working on a play for the stage.
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