AZ Attorney General Sues SUSD Board, Former President Greenburg

SCOTTSDALE, AZ — Arizona Attorney General Mark Brnovich is suing the Scottsdale Unified School District, along with its former President Jann-Michael Greenburg for what Brnovich said was a violation of open meetings law during two meetings last year.

"SUSD manipulated public input and silenced the voices of parents in order to advance its own agenda," Brnovich said in a news release.

In the suit, filed in Maricopa County Superior Court, Brnovich is looking to have Greenburg removed from the board, to impose civil penalties on the board and to ensure that it doesn't violate open meetings laws going forward.

The content of the suit revolves around SUSD school board public hearings held on Aug. 17 and Aug. 23, 2021. The subject of those hearings was the district's instructional model, and at the end of the hearings the board made a call for comments from the public, but limited those comments to the instructional model and said commenters would not be allowed to speak about a proposed mask mandate. Those who tried to speak about the mask mandate during the public comment period were cut off.

Just prior to the start of the Aug. 17 meeting, a crowd of parents and concerned citizens gathered on the sidewalk outside of the district's meeting venue to protest the proposed mask mandate. They held signs that read, "masks = fake science," and "I do not coparent with SUSD's governing board."

During the meeting, the board voted to implement the mask mandate for students and staff within the district.

In the suit Brnovich claimed that the board, led by Jann-Michael Greenburg, who was its president at the time, violated open meetings law by placing content-based restrictions on speakers during a call for public comments.

The public does not have a right to speak during or to disrupt a public meeting, but if it does call for public comments during a public meeting, a governing body is not allowed to place restrictions on comments based on content, Brnovich said in the suit.

"The District does not comment on pending litigation but maintains that it complied with the Open Meeting Law with respect to the statutorily required hearings and the meetings held in August 2021," Kristine Harrington, SUSD's director of communications and marketing said in an email.

Greenburg did not respond to a request from Patch for comment on the suit.

According to Arizona public meetings law, calls for comments during public meetings are, "subject to reasonable time, place and manner restrictions, to allow individuals to address the public body on any issue within the jurisdiction of the public body."

Although Greenburg is still a SUSD board member, he was voted out as president of the board last November, following following controversy over a file of information he was accused of keeping on parents who were openly critical of the district.

In an investigation of the file, which some called a dossier, Scottsdale Police found that Greenburg did not do anything illegal and that all of the information contained in the file was public record. The file was compiled by Greenburg's father, Mark Greenburg.

The district's decisions regarding masking during the height of the pandemic and teachings about race have been the subject of protests by groups of conservative parents and community members for more than a year now.