Parents tell Yuma board they cannot find complaint forms online and allege classroom mistreatment

YUMA, Ariz. — At the public‑comment portion of Tuesday's Yuma Elementary District 1 board meeting, parents urged the board to make complaint forms and parent‑engagement resources easier to find online and raised a specific allegation about teacher conduct at a district elementary school.

One speaker told the board there was no clear place on the district site for parents to file complaints or to participate in Title I engagement and asked why that information is not available online. A different parent said she had difficulty locating nondiscrimination complaint forms and requested the board add an accessible tab for grievance procedures and downloadable forms.

"If you guys don't make those forms easily available for parents, we're not gonna be able to voice our problems," one commenter said, asking staff to provide a timeline for when forms will be posted.

A second public commenter, who identified herself as Rosario Alvarez, made a separate, detailed allegation about classroom conduct. Alvarez told the board she had recordings of a first‑grade teacher she said repeatedly yelled at and belittled students and said her earlier attempts to resolve the matter through the teacher, principal and superintendent did not produce a timely response. "I have recordings where this teacher is yelling in the classroom and belittling," Alvarez said. "I tried going the chain of command and I got nobody that got back to me."

Board members reminded callers that the open‑meeting rules prevent back‑and‑forth during "call to the public," but several trustees instructed staff to follow up. The board president asked a board member (Mr. Palmer) to contact Alvarez and collect details so the district can investigate.

District staff repeated standard guidance for complaints during public comment: parents should first contact the school, then the superintendent or the board if necessary, and formal charges against employees should follow the process identified in board policy KEB. The board pledged to review website layout and to consider adding parent‑resource links to the district home page so that forms and policies are easier to find.

Next steps: the board directed staff to follow up with the parent who alleged mistreatment and to provide information about where and when complaint forms will be posted. The item was listed for later website‑layout discussion on a future agenda.