Did Dearden's Administration "Ignore" Arizona parents?

Dennis Dearden, one of three finalists for the Williamson County Schools Director position, wrote a special column dated September 24, 2008, for The Explorer newspaper in Marana, Arizona. Entitled "How to Make a Difference in K-12", the column promotes a public "community conversation" presented in conjunction with the Tucson Chamber of Commerce.

In the column, Dearden writes:

As a former superintendent, I can think of nothing more important than to find a way for us to attract, support and retain the very best teachers for all Tucson’s children. As stated in a recent McKinsey and Company report, “The quality of an education system cannot exceed the quality of its teachers.”

I believe that recruiting and retaining high quality teachers is essential to improving the quality of education in Southern Arizona, but other aspects such as creating professional development opportunities for educators and finding ways to build quality schools and providing more educational resources are also essential.

I trust that you agree that the quality of the classroom teacher has a tremendous impact on student success.

Two comments (same reader, perhaps?) in the online edition of The Explorer were made in response to Dearden's column. The reader comments are relevant because Dearden, Senior VP of the Partnership for Excellence at the time of authoring the column, was superintendent of Marana's school system for three years from 2005 until June 30, 2008.

The two comments posted are:

Marana USD parent wrote on Sep 26, 2008 1:40 AM:

" This is pretty amusing considering that under his watch Marana USD totally ignored the parents on the East side of I10 within the district, refused to do anything about the overcrowding in the schools, and then shoved a useless boundary change down the throats of the parents while still allowing Amphi students to overcrowd our schools. What a hypocrite.

There is no communication between the MUSD administration and the parents of the students they serve. You certainly never see the high and mighty School District Board members at any events on the East side of I10.

There is No support from the Marana Town Council for the schools on the East side of I10, even though 1/2 the kids are residents of the Town.

All of the legislative bodies need to step up and address the disparity in funds, services and facilities for those living on the West side of I10 versus the East side, or are we just on the wrong side of the tracks for them to really give a damn? Then again, if you look at those who run the Town and the School Board, they all reside on the West side of I10, so I guess they are all scratching each others backis. "

Ma wrote on Sep 26, 2008 1:44 AM:

" Obviously they don't want significant parent input, as they schedule it smack dab in the middle of a workweek. Clue people - most of us have to work, unless of course, the government agencies and public sector businesses are giving paid time off for us all to attend this?

Yeah, that's what I thought. "

Maybe the comments are just a disgruntled parent venting about Dearden's leadership while at Marana. You can't please all of the people all of the time in any district. But given the accusations that parents were "totally ignored" and that there was "no communication" between administration and parents, our School Board members need to do due diligence while considering Dearden to ensure that this is merely an isolated opinion and not something more widespread.