We’re not even out of January and the infighting at Maricopa schools is already underway.
First, some background: At the Jan. 8 Maricopa Unified School District Governing Board meeting, President Robert Downey was re-elected as president of the board. The discussion happened behind closed doors, but the public vote was split.
Newly elected board members Ben Owens and Shawnté Rothschild supported Downey’s reelection, while Carolyn Lopez and Vice President Patti Coutré voted against it. Downey cast the tiebreaker vote for himself.
While not a written rule, the MUSD precedent is that the title of board president rotates. That means Coutré was on deck for the next one-year term.
Downey was president for part of 2023 and all of 2024. He had just started his third term as head of the board and will have served two-and-a-half years when the term expires.
It’s that promise of a rotating president title that has Lopez, one of three board members elected in November, frustrated.
“I have lost respect for Mr. Downey,” Lopez told InMaricopa. “His excuse is that, because we have started important things, that he would like to see them through. [It] gives our public a false sense that he alone holds more power than the other four of us on the dais. He does not.”
Downey said he was following the board rules and got district approval.
“Last year, January 2024, at the MUSD Board President election, I asked a question about only being able to serve for two consecutive years as president,” explained Downey. “Board members said that that was not the case and there were no limits on how long you could serve as president. I put my name forward to be the president for 2024 and I was elected by the board.”
This term ends in December. Between now and then, the city will break ground on a new K-8 school in Sorrento and expand existing schools.
“Does he think by being a member instead of the president he wouldn’t be able to see these projects through?” asked Lopez. “His actions showed his lack of trust and integrity within our board.”
Lopez was first appointed to the governing board in December of 2023. This isn’t the first time she has made waves. Last June, she called for MUSD’s special education director to be fired.
“I think I need to learn a lot,” she told InMaricopa at the time.
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