Peoria Unified governing board members clash over teacher sex scandal

The current and former Peoria Unified School District Governing Board presidents got into a contentious exchange Thursday about a high-profile teacher sex scandal.

Haley Beck and Angela Burlaka are accused of having a sexual relationship with a male student while they were teachers at Centennial High School. Both were fired earlier this year and are under criminal investigation. A second person came forward last week with a new claim that Beck groomed and exploited him when he was a student.

Jeff Tobey and Heather Rooks failed to find much common ground about the case when they appeared together on KTAR News 92.3 FM’s The Mike Broomhead Show for an exclusive joint interview.

Watch the entire interview above. Here are the highlights of their back-and-forth:

On Rooks being removed as Peoria Unified board president

Rooks is still on the PUSD Governing Board, but she was voted out as president and replaced by Tobey after asking the Maricopa County Attorney’s Office to investigate whether the district had followed mandatory reporting laws.

“The leading up to that special meeting that was called to remove me as board president was [my] filing with the Maricopa County Attorney’s Office, Rachel Mitchell, to conduct an investigation into the district to see if they failed to mandate report,” Rooks said.

However, Tobey said that wasn’t the reason Rooks lost her presidency.

“Heather Rooks’ removal wasn’t because she went to the media or because she requested an independent investigation. It was strictly because of her behavior and slandering employees publicly,” he said.

On how the district is cooperating with police

After submitting multiple public records requests as part of their investigation, the Peoria Police Department served two search warrants at district facilities in May and June.

“My goal is to see this investigation through and have the best chance of prosecution possible. I would say that the message seems to be that we’re fully cooperating. That’s what I keep hearing. The district is fully cooperating,” Tobey said.

Rooks, however, is skeptical about how cooperative Peoria Unified has been.

“Why did it take the police to reach out to the district to ask for more records?” Rooks said.

On how attorney-client privilege affects disclosure

Tobey said the board has to be careful about what it makes public and what it shares with police.

“We are a government entity seeking clarification from a judge on how do we handle federally protected data. And then what do we do about attorney-client privilege?” he said.

Rooks wants to waive attorney-client privilege in favor of transparency.

“If there is information that the police need in this investigation, I would like to make sure that I fully cooperate as a governing board member,” she said. “But it has to be a vote, and I have repeatedly requested it, and that is up to the discretion of the president, Mr. Jeff Tobey, to put it on the agenda.”

Funding for this journalism is made possible by the Arizona Local News Foundation.

Subscribe to the KTAR Eyes on Education newsletter to get our top education stories, exclusive guest interviews and more to your email inbox.

Related

Did Peoria Unified leaders know about latest grooming allegations against Haley Beck?Peoria Unified School District faces new claim accusing Haley Beck of groomingState lawmakers want ABOR to investigate what happened to ASU hockey playerUofA fraternity suspended after allegedly forcing new members to eat live goldfishWould Prop 320 increase teacher pay or cut funding from schools?AZ Department of Education receives $5M federal grant to train special education teachers