Peoria Unified replaces board president amid teacher sexual misconduct allegations

GLENDALE — The Peoria Unified School District (PUSD) Governing Board voted to replace governing board president Heather Rooks Tuesday night amid the district’s ongoing teacher sexual misconduct case.

The motion was passed 3-2, with Rooks and board member Janelle Bowles being the dissenting votes. Jeff Tobey was elected the new governing board president.

This comes as the district deals with a case involving two former Centennial High School teachers accused of sexual misconduct with a student.

Governing Board Clerk Becky Proudfit explained that she was in favor of replacing Rooks as president because, by submitting a report with the Maricopa County Attorney’s Office to look into how Peoria Unified employees handled mandated reporting in the case, she had gone against the board’s due process. Proudfit added that Rooks is questioning the evidence the board was presented with by police.

“Mrs. Rooks is convinced, despite factual evidence from (the) Arizona Department of Education (ADE), legal counsel, Peoria PD and PUSD’s HR department, that Centennial administration are somehow responsible,” Proudfit said.

In addition, Olivia Fray — who is a senior at Centennial High School — emphasized she was supporting the call for Rooks to be replaced in order to protect the district’s students.

“I think its shocking that in my last eight days I have to be here defending the generation to come up in this district, but I have friends in this district, my little sister is in this district,” Fray said.

What led to the board president being replaced?

Rooks posted on X Monday confirming the she filed a request, stressing that she filed it as a Peoria parent and not as the governing board president.

In a video attached to the post, Rooks also cited a letter from a student to school administration including details of the misconduct that she claimed was ignored.

A petition demanding a special governing board session to replace Rooks was then posted on the Arizona Education Association’s organizing platform. It claimed she was “circumventing the majority vote of the governing board” by filing the request with the county attorney directly and by “publicly disparaging” district employees.

Rooks claimed the call for her removal was due to a recent interview with The Arizona Republic where she called out the district for mishandling the sexual misconduct case.

The AEA told KTAR News 92.3 FM that although the union hosts the online platform, the events are individually organized and “the event that Rooks is referring to is not an event organized by our statewide union.”

It also confirmed it is not involved in the ongoing investigating, adding that neither of the teachers involved were union members.

During the meeting, Rooks spoke out about her decision to take action and look into mandated reporting by school employees, saying based on the police report, teachers and administrators at Centennial High School could have been aware of the incident.

“There were no other staff members interviewed. There were no fellow coworkers of the two teachers that were interviewed. (Those) who were interviewed were parents and students,” Rooks said. “And in all of the interviews the students were describing the behavior of Haley Beck as weird, flirty and inappropriate… are we supposed to ignore that?”

Peoria Unified superintendent defends district’s handling of case

Peoria Unified School District Superintendent KC Somers told Centennial High School families last week that district officials met their legal obligations as mandatory reporters.

The Peoria Unified Governing Board voted last week to table an item that would have brought in the services of a third-party investigator to investigate the allegations until they get advice from the county attorney.

The teachers allegedly involved in the misconduct were identified by ABC15 as Angela Burlaka, 47, and Haley Beck, 27.

Burlaka voluntarily surrendered her teaching certification on Jan. 26, the same day the district terminated her.

Beck was found responsible through the district’s Title IX process of violating the governing board’s policy on sexual harassment, and a statement of charges to terminate her was adopted on March 26. Her teaching certificate remains under investigation by the State Board of Education.

The Peoria Police Department has submitted its findings to the county attorney’s office for review.

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

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