Gallon gone again: Forced off Arizona project

Former Plainfield schools superintendent Steve Gallon III, who left town under a cloud is gone again.

This time from a consulting gig for the Tucson Unified School District in Arizona.

Mark Spivey reported in the Courier on Friday that locals had picked up on incidents around Gallon's tenure in Plainfield (see here) as he was being considered to head a team evaluating the Tucson district's Mexican-American studies program.

As of Saturday, Gallon was gone, forced out by the intense scrutiny of the local media and blogging community.

KGUN, ABC's Tucson affiliate reported late Saturday afternoon (see here) that the Arizona Department of Education was continuing to work with the Cambium Learning Group after being assured that Gallon is 'no longer working on the Arizona Audit Team'.

Meanwhile, David Safier, at Blog for Arizona, posts the state agency's statement on the matter on the blog (see here).

The story was also picked up by the Arizona Daily Star (see here), which reported Cambium saying that it had put Gallon through a background check 'and no red flags popped up'. Evidently, Cambium, unlike Tucson activists, was unaware of the existence of Google.

While Cambium, a publicly traded company and nationally recognized consultancy (see here) was busy backing away from any involvement by Gallon in the project, it introduce the name of yet another consultancy group -- National Academic Educational Partners (see here) -- with which Cambium said Gallon is also no longer associated.

Not only is Gallon off the panel, which is controversial in itself as part of an effort by conservatives in the state to thwart Tucson's multi-ethnic studies program, it appears he has been disinvited from Cambium's 2011 Best Practices conference, slated for Tucson's Ventana Canyon Hotel (nice digs, my sister got married there!).

Cambium's brochure for that event features Gallon leading a half-day workshop titled 'Leading Successful School Turnaround and Transformation', about which Cambium says --

Gallon provides an overview of the key processes and elements to planning, implementing, and leading a successful school turnaround and transformation. Participants will learn about effective approaches and strategies that improve student learning and achievement, including, but not limited to, creating a culture of excellence, using data to drive instruction, and engaging parents and community stakeholders. Practical, proven, research-based techniques will be provided by one who has successfully led school turnaround and transformation as a principal and district leader.

Except, it seems, that Gallon will not be there. (The brochure was still up Saturday night, see here, PDF).

Which just goes to show things in the Internet age are certainly not like they used to be.

One's past now goes everywhere with them, whether or not one's employers use Google.

---

• Courier:  "Former Plainfield super's appointment raising controversy in Arizona"
• KGUN9:  "Cambium assures state Gallon is not, has never been, its employee"
• Blog for Arizona: "Steve Gallon removed from Mexican American Studies audit"
  
• Arizona Dept. of Education:  "Press Release, 3/18/2011" (PDF)
• Arizona Star:  "Member of ethnic studies team criticized"
• Websites:  "Cambium Learning Group" | "National Academic Educational Partners"
• Cambium Conference:  "2011 Desert Canyon Best Practices Institute" (PDF)

-- Dan Damon [follow]

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------------------------------------  CLIPS: 03/19/2011 - Sat  ------------------------------------------------

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