Photo Credit: Fox News
The Scottsdale Unified School District is in full crisis mode as a recent discovery has turned into a bombshell: the Governing Board President Jann-Michael Greenburg and his father Mark had compiled a dossier on over 50 parents in the district, including personal and financial information.
The dossier was stored on Greenburg’s computer, and was discovered when he sent a screenshot showing a Drive folder with a parent’s name on it and a link. The contents of the folder were public to anyone who had that link, thus leading to the scandal unfolding as the contents of that folder become public.
Along with personal information including bank and mortgage statements, divorce decrees, and social security numbers, there are extensive videos featuring a man with a motorcycle helmet on which is widely known to be Jann-Michael’s father Mark. In these videos, Mark shows a fixation over various parents, including stating that he had hired a public investigator to retrieve license plate numbers from cars at an event.
Mark is not a stranger to Scottsdale politics. He has long had a combative style on social media, targeting who he perceives to be political enemies, including a public spat with the Save Scottsdale Facebook page. He was alleged to be behind a website impersonating former SUSD board member Barbara Perleberg, leading to a lawsuit from Perleberg. He also filed a lawsuit about another perceived political enemy, Scottsdale parent activist Emily Austin, and she has filed a countersuit alleging that he has doctored social media posts in order to paint her as an anti-Semite.
Keeping files on political enemies is nothing new. But when your list of enemies includes over 50 parents, many with no real political involvement, clearly there is a level of paranoia and aggressiveness that Joseph McCarthy would be proud of. One must wonder how they convinced themselves that gathering license plate numbers, mortgage statements, and divorce decrees from parents even remotely approaches appropriate behavior.
For a role as community-based such as a school board president, one which demands trust from parents, this behavior is entirely unacceptable. Furthermore, it seems clear that the Greenburgs are a package deal, and that dealing with Jann-Michael means dealing with the unrelenting, unrepentant ugliness of his father. And Mark has demonstrated that he has no business being anywhere near any elected office. Therefore, we believe that Jann-Michael Greenburg should resign, because there will be a lot of healing to do within SUSD, and that healing can’t exist as long as the Greenburgs are anywhere nearby.