9OYS Education Watch
Stegeman out as TUSD board president
Reporter: Ileana Diaz
Web Producer: Ina Ronquillo
TUCSON (KGUN9-TV) - The audience support is loud and clear and the vote cut and dry.
As applause erupted inside the meeting, outside a celebration broke out from Ethnic Studies supporters.
Katarina Sinclair was one of the seven people escorted out and arrested and sees tonight's vote as a big step.
Ileana Diaz's asked Sinclair, "What Adelita Grijalva said was she wants less tension in board meetings. Do you think this decision to change leadership will do that?"
"Absolutely I think there were many steps that could have been taken and that Stegeman took in the future that created tension. So hopefully next person will be more responsive to understand whats going on with the community," says Sinclair.
That next person is already in place, leading the rest of Tuesday night's meeting.
Diaz asks Grijalva, "Why do you think Miguel Cuevas is the best person to now bring in that new leadership?"
Grijalva says, "I think hes going to do a good job as far as mediating some of the situations."
Mediating the meetings is the very issue Dr. Stegeman was criticized for. From when students took over the meeting chained to the chairs, to the police escorting people out, to when John White spoke out against Ethnic Studies, which some say created tension and hostility.
"I feel that our current leadership didn't do anything to curb that and stop it and it became increasingly obvious to me that it wasn't going to change," says Grijalva.
But now that it has, how does former board president Dr. Stegeman feel?
"The board did this and now we can move on and talk about the important stuff," says Stegeman.
Board member Hicks, who did not vote Stegeman out of office, thinks there's still some tension.
"What kind of message does that send to the schools and community out there. Wait a minute were supposed to be a unity and unified and this was not a unified decision," says Hicks.
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