A Scottsdale, Arizona, School Board President connected to a Google Drive dossier of parents and their children has been demoted to board member. While the Scottsdale Police Department (SPD) “determined that no criminal conduct has been committed,” the Scottsdale Unified School District is now conducting its own internal investigation.
On Nov. 9, a report surfaced that Scottsdale Unified School District (SUSD) Governing Board President Jann-Michael Greenburg had been connected to a Google Drive dossier filled with photos and personal information of about 47 people, primarily parents who were openly critical of school board policies. information discovered in the Google Drive included background checks, divorce papers, photos of license plates, mortgage documents, trade certifications, screenshots of Facebook posts, and photos of some of their children.
It has been alleged that Mark Greenburg, Jann-Michael’s father, created the digital dossier.
“ District has retained an independent forensic investigation firm to conduct and analyze district data stored on our servers to determine if District resources were misused in the creation, maintenance, or modification of an unauthorized Google Drive,” Lori Bird, General Counsel Scottsdale Unified School District told Pezou. “Once the investigation is completed the independent firm will provide their analysis and conclusions to me. information will be made public to the extent allowed by law.”
SPD detectives also briefed the FBI, the Arizona Attorney General’s Office, and the Maricopa County Attorney’s Office so they could determine “if any criminal acts might fall under their respective jurisdictions.”
On behalf of Arizona Attorney General Mark Brnovich, Katie Connor said they can offer “no comment at this time.”
While the active link to the Google Drive became private around 11 a.m. on Nov. 9—shortly after the Greenburgs were contacted by local media— Pezou has obtained videos and screenshots of documents and images found in the Google Drive. During the course of its investigation, Pezou has also uncovered credible evidence that seems to discredit Jann-Michael’s claim he had no knowledge of the Google Drive.
Google Drive Dossier Contents
One video shows Mark Greenburg wearing motorcycle apparel and a bodycam, standing in front of a bathroom mirror. When Mark goes into the kitchen, Jann-Michael can be seen eating at the counter. From the conversation, Jann-Michael appears to know where his father is going. As he is leaving, Mark tells his son they will “talk later.”
video then shows Mark at Coronado High School taking photos of parents who had to wait outside to give public comments one at a time at an Aug. 24 school board meeting. Mark is then approached by three women.
“ lengths you have to go to to not be recognized,” Mark jokes with the women. “It’s like wearing an aquarium on your head.” He adds that “[the parents] don’t like having their picture taken.”
One of the women (wearing sunglasses and a mask) warns Mark that while standing in line she overheard a woman named Amanda Ray saying she had already complained to the police about him. “She’s worried about you being here and that you have threatened her in the past,” the woman tells Mark.
“She doesn’t know that it’s me though,” Mark tells her. “She was, like, one of the first cars here and I pulled my motorcycle directly facing her car. But she has no idea I have a motorcycle, and I covered up my license plate. She’s just a lunatic.”
woman has been identified as SUSD parent Jill Lassen. About an hour into public comments at the Nov. 30 SUSD School Board meeting, Lassen was critical of the parents who exposed the dossier story to the media and of the school board for not protecting “one of your own.”
“Thank you so much for doing this,” Mark tells Lassen before leaving the school property. “This is not fun. But I’ll tell you, I mean it. It’s not about Jann-Michael. If the District falls into their hands it will be the end.”
A graphic of Amanda Wray, which appears to have been created by “Mark Greenburg” and shared with “Jann-Michael,” was discovered in the Google Drive. Wray’s photo was superimposed with information gathered on her in an effort to slander her name in the public.
Another screenshot of the same image at a different time shows “Mark Greenburg” has removed, “Jann-Michael Greenburg” as an “Editor.”
In another video, Mark Greenburg is heard reading comments posted in a private Facebook group called “SUSD Community Advocacy Network” (CAN). Jann-Michael can be heard talking with his father about the posts. Mark cites a comment by Tracey Davis, who said “the women in this community are sick and tired of being bullied.” Greenburg then reads the response by someone with the screen name of Carrie Carrie, who said “he seems mentally ill and probably shouldn’t be around children. People like him and Mark Allen [sic] Greenburg hiding their attacks behind the first amendment is scary.”
n Greenburg reads from a post by Edmond Richard.
“ existence of Mike Norton and Mark Greenburg and others simply shows the issue is not a one-time event,” Greenburg reads aloud. n there is a pause. “I really want Edmund to die,” Greenburg says. “I’ll be so happy, I’ll have a [expletive] party.”
A third video shows Mark Greenburg scrolling through more posts from the private CAN Facebook page. Again, Jann-Michael can be heard in the background talking to his father about the posts.
“I’m making a movie,” Mark tells his son, “a screen movie for you.”
Victims Respond
“This is unacceptable,” Amy Carney told Pezou. “In the drive, there are body cam videos from the board president’s father, taken on school property, as well as video of Mr. Greenburg stating that he hopes a dad in our district dies and that he’ll throw an effing party when he does, which are absolutely not open source or public documents. It’s unfortunate that bodycam footage and other personal videos found on the drive are considered open source by the Scottsdale Police.”
Carney, a mother of six, is running for a seat on the SUSD Governing Board in the November 2022 midterms. Carney was also one of the 47 people on whom a file was kept in the Google Drive dossier.
Shiry Sapir is another SUSD parent on file in the dossier.
“I expected to be in there because I am running for Superintendent of Public Instruction and I’m running to head the Department of Education in Arizona,” Sapir told Pezou. “But the rest are non-political opponents so I’m not sure what his intent was. That’s what we’re trying to figure out. What was his intent in filing all of this information on parents?”
In the wake of the extended school lockdowns due to COVID -19, Sapir pulled her children out of the public school system last year, saying she “didn’t trust the public schools anymore because of the curriculum that they have.”
“y really created a situation where it’s us against them, parents against the system,” Sapir said. “I’m not going to play with my kids with my enemy. It’s just not going to work this way. So until they come to the table and they are on the same team as us, I shouldn’t be sending my kids to our adversaries, and that’s how it feels. Everything we want, they deny. y have tremendous contempt for the parents. This dossier really showed that.”
This was not the first time Jann-Michael was caught expressing contempt for SUSD parents. After a parent concluded her comments at an Aug. 4 school board meeting, Jann-Michael was caught on an open mic saying “Jesus [expletive] christ, people.”
Kim Stafford is another parent on file in the dossier.
“I am the parent to whom Jann-Michael Greenburg sent a screenshot of his entire desktop,” Stafford told Pezou. “That had the open link to the Google Drive.”
Beginning of the End
According to Stafford, discovery of the Google Drive came inadvertently, after she became aware of a false accusation Jann-Michael had made about her in an email sent to Carney, whom Stafford did not know at the time. In the email, Jann-Michael alleged that Stafford sent a letter to a private high school claiming he was “a Christian-hating atheist” and that this was why she left the school district. “None of that was true,” Stafford said. Carney, SUSD School Board Vice President Julie Cieniawski, and Scottsdale Unified School District Superintendent Scott Menzel were copied on the email.
In response, Stafford sent an email to Jann-Michael and copied everyone he included in his email to Carney. She denied his allegation and demanded he retract the false charge, to correct the record with anyone else he had told, and to redact her name from public records. It was during the course of the heated email exchange that ensued that Stafford discovered a desktop screenshot at the bottom of one of the emails from Jann-Michael.
A screenshot of the desktop image shows the name of the viewing user (lower right) as “Mark Greenburg.” However, one of the opened tabs at the top of the image (upper right) is clearly that of Jann-Michael’s official SUSD email account. link to the Google Drive account can be seen in the upper-left.
Pezou also discovered that at the very end of the virtual meeting—while trying to “share content” with the other participants in the meeting—Jann-Michael Greenburg admitted that “for the public’s note that my brother originally set up my Microsoft Word, so my brother’s name is ‘Mark Greenburg.’ That is why it says Mark Greenburg as opposed to my name, Jann-Michael Greenburg. Just so that everyone knows there’s not a ghost typing for me.”
Stafford’s Discoveries
Using the open link, Stafford gained access to the Google Drive. Once inside, she discovered the files of the 47 parents. Stafford also found scanned copies of Jann-Michael’s aforementioned accusatory email—in various iterations—which had been printed on official SUSD letterhead. Stafford also found a screenshot of her Aug. 11 email to Jann-Michael, imported to the Google Drive the same day by “Mark Greenburg.”
Stafford also found a file with her name on it. Inside, she found screenshots of comments she posted on the private SUSD Open Facebook group and profile photos of her husband from her personal Facebook page. She was “horrified” to find a screenshot of a photo of her 13-year-old daughter—created, owned, and modified by “Mark Greenburg” on Aug, 3—labeled “Kim Stafford’s kid.”
“That was the single most disturbing document I saw,” Stafford confessed. “For what purpose would anybody take a screenshot of somebody’s juvenile child and put it in a Google Drive? Any parent can imagine the horror going through my brain. It made me angry and completely horrified and I still want an answer as to why they would do this.”
Asked how Mark Greenburg was able to slip into the private CAN Facebook group to spy on their conversations, Stafford said he created multiple fake profiles.
During a special Nov. 15 meeting of the SUSD School Board, Jann-Michael Greenburg was demoted from his role as president in a 4–1 vote. Greenburg was the only one to vote in his own favor. He was replaced by Board Member Patty Beckman on an interim basis until the end of Greenburg’s term.
“re appear to be bad actors involved and I am confident our law enforcement professionals will quickly resolve these issues,” Greenburg said at the meeting. “Social media in today’s political environment can cloud judgment and generate fear that can cause all of us to react hastily as I believe has occurred here. I do believe that we do not have all the facts and without all the facts we cannot make a decision that is in the best interest of the district.”
‘This is Far From Over’
While believing there are numerous “ethical lapses” with Jann-Michael’s “abuse of his position,” Stafford was not surprised to find that Scottsdale Police Department determined there was no criminal activity. However, she would be “surprised if the internal investigation does not turn up any sort of violation of policy.”
“How could a governing board member have copies of un-redacted district communications in a non-district Google Drive that he doesn’t own that was shared with non-district personnel and open to anyone with the link?” Stafford asked rhetorically.
“We’re all very upset,” Sapir said. “He knows who we are and we know who he is. We’re not afraid of him. He’s an elected official. He is accountable to us, not the other way around.”
“ question that needs to be addressed is what was the Greenburgs’ intent with collecting information on parents in the district?” Carney said. “This is far from over, as the parents and community members of Scottsdale Unified will continue to seek the resignation of Jann-Michael Greenburg as long as he sits on the board despite SPD closing its investigation.”
Since the story first broke, Jann-Michael’s website related to his position on the school board has gone dark, as did his Twitter account and his personal Facebook page.
While Jann-Michael filed his Statement of Interest on March 18 as a candidate to seek reelection in 2022, Pezou discovered Jann-Michael also filed (pdf) to seek an “At Large” position for the Maricopa County College District on Nov. 3.
Pezou also reached out to Jann-Michael Greenburg, New Interim SUSD School Board President Patty Beckman, SUSD Board Vice President Julie Cieniawski, Scottsdale Unified School District Superintendent Scott A. Menzel, and the Maricopa County Attorney’s Office.
Pezou : Arizona School Board President Demoted, Under Investigation Over Google Drive Dossier of Parents and Children