It was the Dumbest of Times, it was the Darkest of Times;

A tale of two school boards

Holy moly, it’s only Thursday, and I’m dealing with a BAD case of whiplash.

My whiplash stems from multiple channels. First, the daily barrage of mind-bogglingly cruel executive orders, statements, and policies coming from the Broligarchy has my head swiveling like someone watching the Australian Open.

Then, in the last two weeks, I tracked both the Peoria (PUSD) meeting that lasted over eight hours, and the Deer Valley (DVUSD) meeting that lasted fourteen minutes. Spoiler alert: they both showed the incompetence of their “leaders.”

So let’s get to the “long and short of it,” shall we? In an earlier post, I shared that the PUSD board held an eight-and-a-half-hour long meeting last week. President Rooks felt like this was a great accomplishment for some reason. Maybe that has to do with losing her lawsuit against the district she’s supposed to be serving or something.

Hopefully the taxpayers of PUSD won’t be on the hook for any more of her fiscal irresponsibility, but I kind of have a feeling there will be more fiscal irresponsibility.

Less than a week later, another nearby district, DVUSD, had their board meeting. At their last meeting, there was a tie for the vote for VP, so that item was tabled. During that meeting, President Carver voted for Board Member Simacek and voted against Board Member Pack, so I expected him to throw his support behind Board Member Simacek at this meeting.

I really had my reservations about President Carver after the 2022 election, but for the last two years, he’s been a pretty solid, students-first, pro-public education board member. Considering President Carver was in DC on J6, and is a member of the 3%ers militia group, I figured he’d be coming in like a wrecking ball like the cult members in PUSD.

I know he’s a Marine, so maybe it’s that service that guides his governance. He’s definitely a guy who understands the importance of protocol and decorum; he’s a rule-follower. He’s a religious guy too, but I never use that as a measure of someone’s character because, well…

President Carver has been a strong advocate for the students, families, and staff of the district for the last two years. While I may not agree with all of his votes, he does what he thinks is right and seems to lead with the district’s most vulnerable kids in mind.

The meeting that took place on January 28, 2025 started in the usual manner. I really enjoy the DVUSD celebrations and recognitions. Whether the cult members want to believe it or not, DVUSD is a great district. It’s also one of the larger employers in the state, and one of the best in Arizona to work for, according to Forbes. None of that matters to the haters in the district, including at least one of its sitting board members. As we’ve seen over the last couple of weeks, their beloved broligarchy’s motto is “If it ain’t broke, let’s completely dismantle and destroy it!”

Since the last meeting, the evangelical extremists in the district and some TPUSA lackeys have been coming in hard for President Carver. He’s been getting dragged by the Leopards Eating People’s Faces Party for nearly his entire tenure on the board, but now it’s next level. From Tiffany Benson’s articles to some online MAGA lawyer to Facebook groups, members of his own party are definitely eating his face. I won’t link to their platforms here, but he’s referred to as a “RINO” and a “Beta” on the regular.

There’s a lot of that happening between traditional Republicans and MAGAt cult members. Anyone who disagrees with their cult leader is excommunicated. Last year, at President Caver’s own Legislative District 2 GOP meeting, a fight broke out involving failed 2022 LD2 House of Representatives candidate, Christian Lamar. You may remember him because he was convicted of domestic violence in 2015.

These folks definitely have a type, amirite?

After the celebration and recognition portion of the meeting, people were milling about and the joint was TEEMING with TPUSA$$holes. Apparently they organized their efforts to put pressure on President Carver to support, as one public speaker put it, a “conservative candidate” for the VP position.

You know, Secular Fam, there is a reason why school board members are nonpartisan. Just like these knuckleheads say all the time, they don’t want politics in schools. That should include board rooms, and that’s why these positions and other governing bodies are nonpartisan. So let’s just be honest about what they’re talking about: they only want THEIR politics in schools.

These people have been wrecking-balling their opinions, conspiracy theories, and propaganda at board meetings for the last five years. And at the state legislature for much longer. You know, the people who founded this organization in 2010 knew what was unfolding, and Secular AZ has been sounding the alarm ever since.

Where was I? Oh right, the whiplash part.

After that singular public comment, President Carver rapidly made a motion to support incoming Board Member Karen Pack.

Two years ago, he supported Jennie Paperman for President and Board Member Fisher for Vice President. Do y’all remember how poorly run meetings were in DVUSD in 2023?

All I know about Vice President Pack is what I’ve seen online, at the DVUSD candidate forum, and who she surrounds herself with. It’s that last part that has me the most worried.

Arizona Women of Action is an organization whose leader, Tamra Farah, seems to be obsessed with children’s genitalia. Last year, she hosted a “training” with former DVUSD candidate Tiffany Hawkins, and PUSD President Heather Rooks, titled “Peoria Counselors Transing [sic] Kids.”

Tamra Farah is also named in a defamation lawsuit along with Tiffany Benson filed by a teacher in Mesa Public Schools. So I won’t be giving her or her group much validity, thank you very much, and we all need to stop giving validity to Christian nationalist viewpoints.

Part of the reason we’re in this situation right now, from school board to the White House is because we’ve been acting like anything coming out of their mouths is normal and valid. It’s not. It’s privileged, ideological, dangerous, dumb, and almost always goes against best practices and expert advice.

Think about it. They advocate against vaccines, despite best practices and expert advice. They disregard established legal precedent despite best practices and expert advice. They demonize programs like SEL and DEI despite best practices and expert advice.

Ad infiniDUMB.

All one needs to do is watch a few minutes of ANY of the Cabinet confirmation hearings that have been happening these past few weeks.

And as I’m typing this, the new administration’s obsession with blaming everything on and eliminating DEI initiatives may very well have caused the tragic collision of a commercial airliner and a military helicopter at Reagan International in DC. Can you imagine being so racist you’re willing to put everyday Americans’ lives at risk?

It all reminds me of the witch hunt against school mental health professionals in PUSD. On one side of their mouths, the cult members lament about the poor state of mental health with children that in their narrow minds, are the only reason that school shootings happen.

On the other side of their mouths, people like Clerk Tobey in PUSD assert their ultimate authority over all things mental health, so he’s fast tracking his policy to eliminate social workers for one of the largest districts in the state.

Back to “the short of it” - the DVUSD meeting. After the VP vote, the only people who didn’t look shocked were Vice President Pack and Board Member Fisher. My contacts who were at the meeting said that the TPUSA$$holes were downright giddy after the vote, while teachers, staff, and pro-public education parents were blindsided.

So what happened? I can’t say for sure, but it seems that the Marine veteran is scared of the MAGA machine. He sure did spend a good, long time speaking with a couple of junior TPUSA$$holes before the start of the meeting.

For those of you in the know, the young man in the back left is Nico Delgado, and the other young man, whose name escapes me, frequents the PUSD meetings. Rumor has it Lil Nico is planning a run in DVUSD in 2026. Poor kid. He’s been groomed and indoctrinated by cult members for years. And by some seriously creepy ones at that.

He’s young enough that he may still be able to get out of the cult and get the help he needs to deprogram.

Carver caving to the MAGAts saddens me, but it doesn’t surprise me. First, he’s a dyed-in-the-wool Republican. He’s served the Arizona GOP as an LD chair, and he seems to believe most of what his party tells him. I truly believed that his service on the board, and time spent touring schools, and speaking with teachers and parents had resulted in him joining the rest of us in reality. It seems that pressure from his party members was too strong for him to keep his spine intact.

Semper Fi, amirite, Jarhead?

Now, a district that is coming off the loss of both a bond and an override election and the loss of a beloved and stable school board president just had an extra helping of uncertainty and chaos on their already full plates.

But wait, it gets worse.

There was another public comment, imploring the board to save the Mandarin program at one of the schools, and then it was time for board comments. Board Member Fisher was first and played all of her Greatest Hits: Dr. Finch is the worst superintendent ever, eVeRyOnE iS sO mEaN tO mE, Carver & Finch are diabolical masterminds lying to everyone, she knows everything about everything, blah, blah, blah. When her time was up, President Carver tried to get her to stop, and she just bulldozed right through all three requests for her to STFU. Finally, flustered and emotional, he abruptly adjourned the meeting.

Don’t get me wrong here. A board member like Mrs. Fisher is tough to handle. Her entire goal is to sow mistrust and demonize her colleagues and the district she’s supposed to be serving. I’ve dealt with board members like her before, and it sucks. His decision to end the meeting didn’t violate any rules, but it sure did feed into the “bEtA MaLe” narrative coming from his face-eating homies. He could have muted her mic, he could have called for a recess, saying, “we’ll reconvene once Mrs. Fisher has time to regain her composure.” It’s hard in the moment to do those things, but given the fact that this guy chaired that LD2 meeting that devolved into fisticuffs, I expected more.

I'm kind of blown away by how completely, voluntarily, and entirely without lube Paul Carver screwed himself at this meeting. The relationships he’s cultivated over the last two years are now damaged. If he thinks that nominating and voting for VP Pack will keep the leopards away from his face, well, that’s adorable. Just look at how the new Secretary of Defense (LOLSOB), Pete Hegseth is treating General Mark Milley. He cut off his security detail and is considering stripping him of a star.

Maybe President Carver likes having his face eaten? Weird kink, but mmmkay.

Or maybe he put partisan politics - in a nonpartisan position - over the students, families, and staff in the district he’s supposed to be serving. My biggest concern is that if a couple of pimply-faced kids can bully this Marine veteran into this vote, what else will they bully him into?

I guess you’ll just have to stay tuned to find out.

Whew. Things are ramping up, and these Substacks will be coming out more frequently. Hopefully. But it takes a lot of time and work to keep these updates flowing. So you know what’s next, Secular Fam. We need your help! Become a monthly donor or upgrade to a paid subscription.

Our Secular Day at the Capitol is right around the corner, and we have secured one of my FAVORITE atheist authors, Seth Andrews. It’s also event season! If you want to volunteer for a street fair, home tour, or the epic Tucson Festival of Books, sign up to volunteer here!

Like it or not, chaos is our new normal. A major component of fascism is to overwhelm and confuse people while they usher in an authoritarian regime. Don’t give in to despair, because that’s how they win.