Tuba City education board asks lawyer to draft documents to dismiss superintendent
By Cindy Yurth
Tséyi' Bureau
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CHINLE, April 24, 2008
The Tuba City Unified School District school board has instructed its attorney to prepare a draft document for the dismissal of Superintendent Eugene Thomas, according to the minutes of their April 16 regular board meeting.Thomas was placed on administrative reassignment at that meeting after the board met in executive session for over an hour.
The board voted 3-2, with Alvin Harvey and Jack Begay dissenting, to place Thomas on leave, temporarily replace him with Tuba City Primary School Principal Harriet Sloan, and instruct the attorney to draw up the document.
Board members also instructed support staff to ask the Arizona School Boards Association to assist in hiring an interim superintendent.
Voting for the measures were board President Linda Honahni, Mary Worker and Alan Numkena.
Honahni, Begay and Harvey were the subjects of a recall petition submitted to the Coconino County election supervisor last month. Supervisor Patty Hansen ruled last week that, when non-registered voters and other improper signatures were culled out, the number of signatures on the petition was insufficient for a recall election.
Honahni declined Tuesday to discuss the board's action, referring a reporter to the board's attorney, Ben Hufford of Flagstaff. Hufford did not return a phone call to his office Tuesday.
Thomas, reached on his cell phone, said he had no comment.
Thomas signed a two-year contract with the district last July, so for the board to dismiss him, it would have to maintain he breached the contract somehow.
A board-ordered investigation into Thomas's financial dealings at the district in January revealed he had given two large raises without board approval and failed to mark school district vehicles as such.
Several other allegations, including that he had misused an employee purchase program, turned out to be false, according to the investigator.
The two district employees who had requested the investigation were placed on administrative leave in February and are still on leave.
Thomas is also being investigated by both the Mohave County Attorney's Office and the Arizona Board of Education in connection with the financial collapse of the Peach Springs Unified School District, where he worked before coming to Tuba City.
The superintendent, who is suing the Navajo Times, the Arizona Daily Sun and the two whistleblowers for defamation, maintains in court documents that he had inherited a district with financial problems and was in the process of getting it back on track.