By Melinda Gulick, Cindy Threadgill, Kristin Graziano, Colleen Abrams and Billie Henning | Point of View
Dr. Scott Menzel has been named the Arizona School Administrators National Superintendent of the Year for his outstanding leadership, commitment to educational excellence, student achievement and community partnership.
This prestigious award comes on the heels of last year’s recognition by Save Our Schools who named Dr. Menzel Superintendent of the Year, as well.
While Scottsdale schools are fortunate to have a universally lauded and admired district head, what our schools need even more is stability. Stability has been sorely lacking in the Scottsdale Unified School District for two decades. SUSD has experienced astonishing turnover, more than 10 superintendents in just 15 years.
We all know that SUSD needs continuity and we know that we cannot afford more turnover. And, we know that our current superintendent is also widely recognized as outstanding in his field. Why then would candidates for the SUSD governing board make it clear that they intend to fire Dr. Menzel?
The only possible explanation is that they want discord and chaos.
How will Beasley, Jacobs and Hassler explain to taxpayers that they wasted their money to buy out the contract of an award winning superintendent just so they can spend even more of your tax dollars searching for and hiring yet another in a long, revolving, ever changing line of leaders as we churn through another superintendent and two more wasted years.
We support Mike Sharkey, Donna Lewis and Matt Pittinsky because we believe that stability breeds success. They will make decisions about future superintendent contracts based on data, performance and facts, not personal agendas. We congratulate Dr. Menzel on yet another achievement that only adds to SUSD’s stellar reputation.
And, we’ll be voting for the ProtectSUSD slate of Sharkey, Lewis, and PIttinsky to protect our award winning superintendent and schools.
Editor’s Note: Melinda Gulick, Cindy Threadgill, Kristin Graziano, Colleen Abrams and Billie Henning are parents part of the Scottsdale Unified School District
