APACHE JUNCTION, Ariz. — The backlash is fierce in an east Valley community after a local school board cut ties with a popular superintendent this week.
Teachers and parents in the Apache Junction Unified School District blame partisan politics for the superintendent, Heather Wallace’s ouster. Now residents are organizing a recall effort.
As 12 News reported Monday, Board President Dena Kimble and board members Gil Cancio and Gail Ross voted 3-2 to sever ties with Wallace, a superintendent who had served less than two years. Wallace had more than two decades of experience in the district. Her contract was scheduled to run until 2025.
The three board members were all backed by Republican volunteers during the election. They have been mostly silent since Monday’s vote, declining to explain the nature of executive meetings with Wallace. The two dissenting board members say Wallace was forced out.
Online, Board President Kimble said, “Ms. Wallace and the board recently determined that their visions for the district are different. Thus, the parties have worked in a positive and collaborative way to end the existing work relationship.”
Support for Wallace was on full display at a public board meeting Tuesday. Parents, teachers and coaches repeatedly chastised the three members for their vote.
One principal shocked the crowd, announcing she was resigning because she couldn’t trust the board to make sound decisions. She lamented the district has severed three superintendent contracts in six years.
Supporters of board members Kimble, Cancio and Ross allege Wallace did not unify employees as a leader and misled the board last year during contract proceedings.
Supporters of the recall worry board president Kimble already has a replacement candidate in the wings who will enforce a strict academic vision that does not meet students’ needs. The three board members are viewed as supporters of State Superintendent Tom Horne’s strict, conservative vision for schools.
“There’s more to life than test scores and we learned during COVID that the emotional and mental well-being of students is very important,” said Kurt Kretzschmar, husband of a district teacher who is volunteering in the recall effort. “I’m a Republican and I’m furious at what she’s (Kimble) done.”
The campaign will need 1,500 signatures to land the recall on a future ballot, the date of which is not clear yet.
“We’ve got momentum,” Kretzschmar said. “People are upset.”
State Superintendent Tom Horne weighed in this week, speaking out in favor of the three school board members. Horne said they are enforcing “an academic oriented approach” by severing ties with Wallace.
Wallace’s severance agreement includes a $90,000 buyout. Wallace was not available for comment.
“Heather was pushed and bullied and gaslit until she couldn’t take it anymore. They’re going to say this was a mutual decision. It was not,” said Board Member Bobby Bauders on Monday.
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