Key Points:

• 1,500 demand Sen. Carine Werner’s resignation from school board

• Werner made disparaging comments about the weight of a district staffer

• Werner has also supported book bans by LGBTQ and Black authors

More than 1,500 people are demanding the resignation of a state senator and Scottsdale Unified School District Governing Board member after she allegedly made disparaging comments about the weight of a district staffer during an official meeting. 

More than 50 community members attended the board’s Sept. 9 meeting, calling for Sen. Carine Werner, R-Scottsdale, to resign from her seat on the board. 

At the board’s previous meeting on Aug. 5, Werner, who attended virtually, was allegedly heard complaining during a presentation from the district’s Nutritional Services Director, Patti Bilbrey. 

Werner appeared to have called Bilbrey “morbidly obese” and “Chubs” during Bilbrey’s presentation, causing uproar from many parents, teachers and community members. 

“It was deplorable. We couldn’t believe she called a beloved district employee ‘Chubs’ during a presentation in which she was speaking about how we can feed kids during the summer,” said Shea Najafi, a parent who attended the Sept. 9 meeting. 

Bilbrey was informing the board about a summer meals program with Scottsdale Community College that provided over 235,000 free summer meals to children experiencing food insecurity. 

Werner didn’t attend the latest meeting, in-person or virtually. She also didn’t respond to a request for comment from the Arizona Capitol Times. 

Several attendees said Werner has told others that she was misinterpreted and wasn’t commenting about Bilbrey, but many of them don’t believe her.

“It’s really simple. Make a public apology and move on,” said Eric Kurland, a former teacher in the district and a former Democratic candidate for the state Legislature. 

More than 1,500 people have signed a petition calling for Werner’s resignation from the school board. Najafi said petition organizers could consider a recall campaign if they get around 4,000 signatures. 

A recall campaign requires 25% of all votes cast at the last election for the office held by the elected official, according to the Secretary of State’s Office. 

“We’re not going to close the petition. We’re going to continue to get signatures,” Najafi said.

For many parents who attended the meeting this week, Werner’s hot mic incident was the latest of several that they have objected to. Werner has supported book bans by LGBTQ and Black authors and also advocated for conservative nonprofit PragerU curriculum in Scottsdale schools.

Community members also said they opposed Werner’s support for an Arizona Department of Education tip line, called the Empower Hotline, which is used to report teachers instructing “inappropriate lessons that detract from teaching academic standards.”

Najafi said she also had an issue with Werner being the chairwoman of the Senate Education Committee.

Scottsdale Unified School District Governing Board Vice President Mike Sharkey said he consulted with legal counsel to determine if the board could censure a board member, but was informed the board couldn’t proceed with an action item like that. 

“I do not condone the conduct of the board member given what I heard at the board meeting on Aug. 5. I know what I heard, but only the speaker can know why she said what she said. This behavior does not reflect the board member ethics as adopted in policy … nor is it representative of SUSD’s core values,” Sharkey said.