Arizona School Board Hosts Retirement Party For Superintendent, Though Senior Prom Remains Canceled

An Arizona School Board plans to host a retirement event for the outgoing superintendent, though the district has canceled or restricted end-of-the-year festivities for students citing the coronavirus pandemic. 

The Chandler Unified School District (CUSD) in Chandler, Arizona, is hosting a retirement party for Superintendent Dr. Camille Casteel. A concerned parent group told The Daily Wire that a reception will be held in Casteel’s honor and each guest that RSVPs is allowed to bring additional guests. Guests will be bused into the party using shuttles. 

The initial RSVP for the retirement party allowed each invited guest to bring 10 additional guests, though a spokesman for CUSD told The Daily Wire that was an “error.” The new RSVP allows four additional guests. 

Spokesman Terry Locke said the event is outdoors, where masks will be required and social distancing will be “encouraged.” 

The same school board that is sponsoring the retirement party has also canceled the district’s high school prom and limited guests for senior’s end-of-the-year graduation ceremony. 

Jennifer Alvey, a parent of five in CUSD, told The Daily Wire that parents are frustrated that the school is putting the superintendent’s retirement party ahead of student’s final high school memories. 

“We parents’ frustration isn’t that our School Board is holding the events for Dr. Casteel’s retirement, but rather the glaring double standard of the Board not being willing to also approve virtually the exact same logistics for our students’ Proms and Graduation ceremonies, using the excuse of ‘COVID risks’” Alvey said.  

The district initially limited senior graduation to two guests per graduate, though the number was bumped to four guests following parent backlash over the district’s “hypocrisy.” 

“Although we’re happy to see additional guests being able to attend with their students during one of the biggest celebrations in their lives, we find the hypocrisy to be staggering,” Alvey said.  

One mother told The Daily Wire that she did everything in her power to keep her child in CUSD, but is now considering changing districts due to the lack of transparency and dishonesty. 

“I have done everything to continue to stay in CUSD, including paying someone every day to drive my daughter to and from school over the past years because CUSD was where we needed to be. No other district could compare,” Amy Jascourt said. “The board members are not voting what is best for our children … CUSD used to be the leader, the one district everyone looked up to. Now, you are the district no one wants to be part of.” 

In November 2019, CUSD came under fire for implementing a program called Deep Equity, which reportedly has a hostile attitude towards white people. The program was brought to light by Fox News host Tucker Carlson who said that “Deep Equity orders teachers, and we’re quoting now, ‘to explicitly reject and resist any parents who disagree with it.’” 

Deep Equity “is a comprehensive and systemic professional development process aimed at producing the deep personal, professional, and organizational transformations that are necessary to create equitable places of learning for all of our nation’s children.” The company uses unmistakable leftist language. 

The Arizona Daily Independent reported that CUSD’s spokesperson said that “approximately 2,600 certified teachers have participated in the professional development because we facilitated a ‘train the trainer’ model. Approximately 270 received direct training.”

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