www.montgomerycollege.edu

Brian K. Johnson, in better days.

​The Governing Board of the Maricopa Community Colleges meets tomorrow morning to vote on candidates for several positions available within the institution.

 

But the board will not vote on the Maricopa Community Colleges' scandal-plagued original choice to be Associate Vice Chancellor for Student Affairs, Dr. Brian K. Johnson, after "a mutual decision subsequent to his being offered the job that his name be withdrawn," according to spokesman Tom Gariepy.

The position would have paid $117,312 a year.

Gariepy declined to discuss reasons for the colleges' decision or to even explain whether the college reached out to Johnson or vice versa, telling New Times "it's really part of an HR process, so I doubt that that's something we'd be able to discuss."

Johnson is no stranger to the Maricopa Community Colleges, having spent 15 years working in student-support programs with MCC before becoming Senior Vice President for Student and Community Services at the Community College of Allegheny County in Pittsburgh.

From there, he took a job as president of Montgomery College in Maryland, where he was ousted by the Board of Trustees in September 2009 over faculty allegations of mismanagement and overspending. That same week, the Maricopa County Sheriff's Office issued a warrant for his arrest over $12,000 in back child-support payments, according to published reports. Now he's out of the job he thought he had.

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Famous satirist Jonathan Swift proposed eating poor children. Apparently, that's funnier than joking that students are stupid.

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Sometimes, jokes go too far -- especially when they're sarcastic letters distributed by a school principal about the ineptitude of students that land in the hands of pissed-off parents.

Ron Sterr, principal of Litchfield Elementary School, was trying to be funny when he sent a parody "field-trip-permission" letter to teachers last week berating students who didn't finish their homework and making sarcastic comments about the drastic measures the school must take to deal with peanut allergies. But one of the teachers apparently mistook the letter for a serious missive and sent it to students' parents.

Which brings up the question: who's the stupid one(s) at Litchfield? 

Litchfield Elementary School District Superintendent Julianne Lein said the school district's been barraged with calls from angry parents. In a press release, Lein writes, "The Litchfield School District renders its most sincere apology to our students, parents, community and staff for this incident. We are taking specific steps to remedy this situation."

It is unclear who actually wrote the letter that Sterr sent, but he's the one placed on administrative leave.

So what's everybody so ticked off about? Check out the controversial letter, in its entirety, after the jump:

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A Phoenix charter school believes that when it comes to a "biased" news report, the best defense is a good offense.

After Channel 3 News (KTVK-TV) aired a sensationalized report about asbestos at North Pointe Preparatory, the school published a retort prominently on its home page headlined, "Faltering Station Creates News. The un-bylined article (which we think was probably written by Principal Richard Gow, its main source) makes a few good points about the Channel 3 story's weaknesses, but throws in a few zingers about the station's financial health and the media in general:

"As we all know, factual news reporting is a thing of the past for many local stations. Declining ratings have created an environment where stations have to create a story and biased reporting has replaced the presentation of fair and balanced information," said Principal Gow.

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