Past leaders of Arizona school boards group seek probe into executive director's hiring

A pressure campaign by 22 past presidents of the Arizona School Boards Association seeks to force the organization to address allegations that its new executive director falsified his resume.

After reporting by The Arizona Republic, the past presidents sent emails to superintendents and school board members around the state, asking them to pass a joint resolution requesting the association to conduct "a thorough and independent investigation" into its appointment of Executive Director Devin Del Palacio "and to take immediate corrective actions to rectify the situation."

Ann O'Brien, one of the past presidents and current City Council member for Phoenix's District 1, said the Arizona School Boards Association should have acted with more transparency.

"I was concerned about what this could do to the integrity of the ASBA," O'Brien said. "It's up to the current ASBA board of directors to take the proper steps and at the very least hear all of the facts related to the situation."

ASBA is a 75-year-old nonprofit that helps set policies, find superintendent candidates, train school board members and more for 240-plus school districts around the state. It's already facing competition from other nonprofits offering to provide the same services.

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After Del Palacio took the job, then-association president James Bryce and two employees resigned, telling The Republic for an Aug. 24 article that the association's board of directors had ignored an investigative report showing Del Palacio may have claimed falsely in a resume that he had a college degree. Del Palacio is a Tolleson Union High School District governing board member who also served briefly as a Democratic lawmaker last year to fill a vacancy in the state Legislature.

"I think it's a big deal that they didn't at least listen or read the investigative report from the attorneys," O'Brien said.

The past presidents sent a letter with the joint resolution that explains how they met with the association's new president, Desiree Fowler, and wrote to the board of directors about their concern "but saw no action as a result."

The letter asks school boards to join with like-minded boards and call the association into a special membership meeting, as its bylaws allow. Or, the boards can pass the joint resolution "to promptly address the controversy," the letter states.

Linda Lyon, president of the Oracle School District and a past association president, helped organize the email campaign, saying the association must be held accountable. Public schools provide far more transparency and accountability than private schools, said Lyon, who opposes the expansion of the state's private school voucher program. Because the Arizona School Board Association serves district schools, they "absolutely" need to uphold a high standard, she said.

The group focused its efforts on Pima County first. As of Oct. 17, 10 school boards in Pima County — representing more than half of the school districts in the county — have approved the resolution. The Tucson Unified School District, the largest district in southern Arizona, was scheduled to address the resolution at its Oct. 24 meeting.

Del Palacio hasn't made any public statements on the matter and declined to comment for this article.

The association, through its spokeswoman, Heidi Vega, said it "values and appreciates the feedback from a small group of concerned past members" but that their perspectives "do not necessarily represent the views and experiences of all our member districts."

"It is worth noting that we have also received substantial positive feedback from our current members regarding our new leadership and the efforts to foster a more inclusive and welcoming association," Vega said.

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Del Palacio has been a noted community leader for years. He's a former vice president of the NAACP in Arizona. He has served as chair of the National School Boards Association’s National Black Council of School Board Members. The chair of the Black council has a seat on the association's board.

He was also the president and CEO of a business called Phx United, which has no listing in Arizona Corporation Commission records.

He had worked for the Arizona School Boards Association as a consultant for two years when its board of directors appointed him as its executive director in June. He replaced Sheila Harrison-Williams, who had served as executive director for three years.

Association presidents are volunteers who preside over board meetings and appoint committees. Those in the executive director position lead the organization and oversee its operations.

Harrison-Williams made $187,000 for her work in 2022, online tax forms show; Del Palacio earns an annual salary of $215,000.

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As The Republic reported, the investigation Bryce ordered found that Del Palacio submitted a resume indicating that he graduated from the former Western International University in Phoenix with a bachelor's degree in business administration. He submitted the same resume when he was considered by the Maricopa County's Board of Supervisors as a candidate to replace Rep. Diego Espinoza, D-Tolleson, who resigned in September 2022, records show.

Yet in a 2020 interview with podcaster Stevon Cook, Del Palacio acknowledged that he attended Western with a plan to obtain a business degree but "dropped out." Cook removed the podcast from his site after The Republic's article, but The Republic preserved a recording from the site.

The flap over the resume began when an employee at the association who believed Del Palacio didn't have a college degree raised the issue to Bryce, who later said he felt a duty to have an attorney review the allegation. The association's board of directors so far hasn't given any public reasons for refusing to review the investigative report.

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One member of the board, Monica Timberlake, told The Republic that Bryce's involvement in the investigation was "unethical" but that she couldn't say more about the situation because of legal issues.

The association's counsel, Nick Buzan, later told the Arizona Capitol Times he was apparently fired over his role in advising Bryce to have outside counsel perform the investigation. A Texas law firm, with former state Sen. Martin Quezada acting as its local attorney, replaced Buzan, who declined comment to The Republic.

Del Palacio deleted his X.com account after The Republic's article and recently deleted his LinkedIn page.

One of the email's signers, Harry Garewal Jr., a member of Phoenix's Isaac School District governing board, said the controversy over Del Palacio could accelerate a trend in school boards leaving the association to find comparable services elsewhere. Credibility is crucial to keeping members' confidence, he said.

"Somebody misinformed them that they can’t speak out," Garewal said of the association's board of directors.

The group's email is going out to many other school boards in Arizona, he said, and he expects his own district to consider it soon.

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Tim Richard, superintendent of the Colorado River Union High School District, said his district left the school board association a few years ago because of concerns its board of directors was leaning too far to the political left. The district began using The Trust, a Phoenix company that provides insurance for schools and recently began offering policy services similar to the Arizona School Boards Association, Richard said.

The political backlash against the association even sparked Republican activists to start their own firm to serve school boards in 2021, the Coalition of Arizona School Board Members. It's headed by Katie Ward, the daughter of former state GOP chair Kelli Ward.

Lyon said that while some school boards have left the association, it's still an "incredible" resource for district schools and their students, providing training, legal and legislative guidance, help with hiring and other services.

"The membership of ASBA is going to have to demand action," Lyon said. "That, in my mind, is the best outcome. Worst outcome is if the membership gives up and goes elsewhere."

Reach the reporter at rstern@arizonarepublic.com or 480-276-3237. Follow him on X @raystern.

This article originally appeared on Arizona Republic: Past leaders of schools group weigh in on hiring of Devin Del Palacio