Tiffany Meskimen

OGL 481 Pro-Seminar I:

PCA-Ethical Communities Worksheet
1) Briefly restate your situation from Module 1 and your role.

I joined the staff at Deer Valley High School in the fall of 2014, as the assistant to the
principal. I took the position after the previous administration’s very public athletics
scandal, which I had very clear knowledge of, as I had worked as the Superintendent and
Governing Board’s executive assistant throughout the scandal. The first day on campus I
joined Kim, my new boss to find a campus torn, untrusting, and many who just wanted
out, while others waited to tell us how it was going to go.

Kim and I had worked as a team a few years prior, and she chose me to help her fix a
campus that was broken from years of poor leadership. Previous administrators, Barb and
John, had built a split culture, which rewarded those who supported them with praise,
leadership positions, and the best schedules; and threatened those who questioned their
authority and leadership strategies by publicly calling faculty out in meetings, denying
leadership positions and/or transfers, and filling class loads to the maximum, to name a
few things we found upon our arrival. We also found a few newcomers who were eager
to help change the culture but were leery of being cast out by seasoned staff whose
allegiance to Barb and John was apparent as we started our new positions.

Student enrollment was declining, test scores and graduation rates were the lowest in the
district, and the community had lost trust in the school. Kim was to lead a change in not
only behaviors of teachers, but the district’s view of the campus. I was to create a new
staff culture of customer service and cooperation to create a more effective team.

2) Describe how the ethics of the organization influenced the situation.

Barb and John’s public termination swirled around continued unethical behavior not only
surrounding the football team, but also a myriad of other misguided leadership decisions.
After many smaller infringements that had previously been handed down from the
Arizona Interscholastic Association (AIA) the organization had reached its final straw
when Barb and John knowingly permitted ineligible players to play a football game. This
infringement initially resulted in the suspension of all Deer Valley sports programs for
the 2013-2014 school year (Garcia, 2013). This decision would drastically affect the
students at Deer Valley and pressed district authorities to step in and begin appropriate
disciplinary actions against the administrators and forced negotiations for a lesser penalty

1
 from the AIA. The district and the AIA had enough of the continued unethical actions
and thought it time to make a point of the behavior through stringent penalties.

As district and governing board leaders contemplated their fate, some teachers and
parents rallied behind the administrators and took to the streets (during the homecoming
parade), passed out petitions of support at football games and other school activities, and
spoke in support of them and their actions during board meetings. This group failed to
look past the act of unethical behavior because in their eyes, it was done in the best
interest of the students – it was done for the family, and that was the only frame these
folks viewed the decision through. Dobbs even stated at the AIA hearing, “it was a
decision that we made from our hearts, not necessarily our minds” (Garcia, 2013). The
actions of the administrators were overlooked as unethical merely because they matched
the spirit of the community and that they had done the right thing for the students. Like
we learn from Bolman and Deal, Barb and John led as “vigorous and far-sighted leaders
who create a stable and prosperous state. But eventually corruption spreads, leadership
falters, and the dynasty collapses” (2017, p. 331). The duo had missed the fact that while
their initial actions may have been best for two or three students (or even one football
team), the decision came with harsh consequences for hundreds of others.

Enter Kim and our new administrative team, where we would face the teachers, staff, and
parents whose sense of family had been greatly divided. Our leadership had to bring a
new sense of ethics to the community, and Kim led us to do a great job. She embraced the
football community and insisted that everyone embrace all extra-curricular activities
around campus. She met with parents to explain her commitment to programs and how
excited leaders were to shine a new light on Deer Valley. We began new traditions
around each sports program and called upon those coaches and team leaders to support
other extra-curricular activities around campus. Kim symbolized her faith in the students,
leaders, and coaches by fighting for any injustices brought down by the AIA. She even
talked the association into adding the new athletic director to the AIA committee as a
show of good faith and commitment to Deer Valley doing the right thing. We also
brought in those staff members who had been quieted for so long to hold new leadership
positions around campus. The new leadership’s faith in the students, staff, and
community brought a new light and sense of community to the campus. Our efforts began
to show signs of turning campus into a united family, rather than the previously divided
one.

3) Recommend how you would apply one of the ethical communities for an alternative
course of action regarding your case.
The group who sided with Barb and John felt they supported them out of spirit and
loyalty, but they could never reframe their actions through the eyes of others like district
officials, the AIA, or even the message they sent to students and other staff. Their
constant fight against all directives from district set a bad example that effected student

2
 grades, graduation rates, and even extra-curricular participation and success. What
needed to or should have happened, was an admission of wrongdoing, a plea for
forgiveness, and an acceptance of consequences for their actions, in addition to an
overhaul of staff leadership positions throughout each department. Barb and John had
many staff members who backed them, and they had the capacity to turn around their
reputation, they just continually felt the need to stick it to the district.

Because Barb and John did not follow ethical procedure in the first place, the behavior
carried over to the staff, resulting in the failure to leading the school in an upward manner
in more ways than just an athletics’ scandal. The staff had not followed protocol for
years. Teacher evaluations had not been completed through several semesters, student
test scores plummeted, and many teachers sat idle not saying or doing a thing to better the
campus. The group who sat by without fighting back, could have stepped in to take
actions to implement change for the success of students, but were afraid of the backlash
from administrators and supporting staff. They could have symbolized a heroic bunch
who kept the campus from sinking into the bowels of the scandal. Instead, the campus
fell silently into the abyss of the athletics program and scandal, while no one looked out
for the good of student learning.

As the new administration, we were met with demands for change from both sides. Those
who had been silenced for so long demanded that we implement change to address the
behaviors of those unethical people on campus, and those who stood behind the previous
administration demanded that Kim fight for change from the district and remained
unwilling to make necessary changes on campus. There was also the group who just
stood by and rode the coat tails throughout the whole ordeal. Again, district officials
should have corrected things long before they got this out of hand at Deer Valley, yet
here we were. An us-versus-them mentality rang through the staff, even as we started our
assignments. Had leaders talked more, brought in staff to discuss the culture, the spirit,
and what drove staff on campus, I think there would have been a more cohesive approach
and answer to the entire situation.

4) Reflect on what you would do or not do differently given what you have learned
about ethics.

The one thing that could have changed the outcome or even prevented the fights we
incurred as we implemented change, was for us to call out staff sooner that we did.
Because we were focused on keeping the peace throughout campus right as we started,
we neglected to see there were a group of staff members who we should have helped
move on. Yet, playing to the political side of things, we kept them on for far too long.
This made the changes we wanted to implement difficult and slow to start, and in

3
addition, we later found they had sided with those who supported Barb and John, but just
hid it well.

There were a few teachers who did the least amount of work without rocking the boat,
but then refused to get on board once we began to implement changes. They began to talk
behind our backs, acted as if they were part of the community, and then led attempts at
undermining our authority. These were the folks who went to governing board members
in an attempt once again to get us out and prove Barb and John’s worth. These people did
not care about the spirit and soul of the campus, but instead used the situation to help in
their own plight to do the least amount possible and collect a paycheck. We should have
been more aggressive at coaching these people out, it would have helped our plight to
build the community back up more quickly.

4
 References

Bolman, L. G. & Deal, T. E. (2017). Reframing organizations: Artistry, choice, and leadership
(6th ed.). Hoboken, NJ: Jossey-Bass

Garcia, J. (2013, September 16). Updated: Deer Valley placed on probation. AZPreps365.
Retrieved September 28, 2021, from https://www.azpreps365.com/articles/3122-updated-
deer-valley-placed-on-probation.