I, like most of you on Facebook, love this town. We volunteer, mentor and give in many ways to this community we are proud to call home; it’s beautiful here.

I am very frustrated and saddened about what’s making news. The Fountain Hills School District is being destroyed in the press and on social media all across the U.S. This is damaging our schools and is impacting our community negatively.

Why are we in the news? Why is this latest issue exploding? I feel the answer is that our FHUSD professional leadership staff is failing to get the job done.

Incidents should be dealt with at the administrative level, professionally and with respect. The latest fiasco should not have gone to our volunteer School Board; they were put into a rotten lose/lose position. This certainly could have been prevented. We need effective and innovative professional leadership in our great town’s schools.

Now, due to ineffective management, fewer resources are getting to our kids’ education, classrooms and teachers and instead now need to fund legal expenses, press releases, independent hearing officer and more.

Enrollment continues to drop here and this news will cause more parents to choose other schools for their kids. According to The Arizona Republic our district is ranked “extremely high” for administrative costs ($925/student). High cost and poor management performance cannot continue. Continued losses in student enrollment and high staff turnover (approximately 15 staff left FHHS alone at the end of the last school year) are some of the additional challenges that our leadership needs to correct.

This community supports our schools greatly and we expect better – let’s go.