Arizona AG Brnovich investigating Scottsdale school district parent ‘dossier’

An online collection of private parental data said to be curated by the former Scottsdale Unified School District board president’s family is now facing a third investigation; this time by Arizona’s legal arm.

Attorney General Mark Brnovich sent the SUSD’s governing board a request to meet regarding former president Jann-Michael Greenburg’s involvement with an online repository containing video, screenshots, mortgage information and other sensitive data belonging to activist parents.

“It has been reported that the ... external drive was available or could be accessed by other board members, which may circumvent Arizona open meeting laws,” Brnovich’s Deputy Attorney General Michael Catlett said Wednesday in an email. “Whether any public monies were improperly used in the creation and/or maintenance of this dossier is also of serious concern.”

Brnovich’s office also requested the FBI open a case on the matter.

“Parents have a First Amendment right to assemble and speak in order to question the decisions public officials are making, especially when it involves the well-being of their children,” Brnovich wrote.

The announcement came two days after Steve Gaynor, a Republican candidate for Arizona governor in 2022, wrote Brnovich requesting as much.

Greenburg was ousted Monday from his position as school board president but refused to resign from the board as other members urged. Greenburg’s father, Michael, allegedly began collecting sensitive data on parents once they began protesting at SUSD board meetings over the district’s COVID-19 mitigation measures.

In the Google Drive location were videos of parents and their children, mortgage information belonging to parents, some parents’ professional certifications and screenshots of social media comments that parents had made. The drive was made private soon after the Scottsdale Independent published a story about it.

In addition to Brnovich’s attention, the matter is under investigation by the Scottsdale Police Department and the school district.