Higley district official verifies doctorate

Joyce Lutrey showed proof Friday that she does indeed have a doctorate, one day after a parent who wants the Higley superintendent to step down questioned the leader’s degree in a public meeting.

Higley superintendent under fire for performance

Parents demand that Higley superintendent resign

Higley principal appointment draws parents wrath

Lutrey, superintendent of the Higley Unified School District, received her doctor of education degree in educational leadership on April 27 from Eastern Michigan University, verified Pamela Young, the university’s director of communications.

Lutrey said if the parents would have just asked, she would have told them this.

Lutrey showed the East Valley Tribune on Friday her commencement program, her photo prints of her actually receiving the degree, and most importantly, her degree.

Lutrey said only after her dissertation defense on March 7 did people start calling her doctor. She said her staff gave her new business cards, a new identification badge and a name plate for board meetings, all with the new title.

That’s also when the biography on the district’s Web site was changed, which now says she has a doctorate. Before that date, Lutrey said the bio said she still needed to defend her dissertation.

Lutrey’s dissertation topic was, “An Examination of the Relationship of School Grade Configuration on 8th Grade Achievement in Reading, Writing and Mathematics,” Young said.

Lutrey received her master’s in middle school curriculum and instruction in August 1987, and a specialist degree in educational leadership in 1998, Young verified.

Michelle Rigby, the mom who started an online petition to oust Lutrey, brought up the doctorate question at Thursday’s packed school board meeting, where parents also complained about high teacher turnover in Higley schools. According to district officials, 80 teachers are leaving Higley this school year and 97 left last school year. Six administrators also are leaving the district this school year.

Rigby said she wanted to look into Lutrey’s degree after she discovered inconsistencies regarding Lutrey’s title online. Rigby said she called Eastern Michigan University Thursday, and was told by the records office that Lutrey’s doctorate was under review.

She also paid the $6 to get the verification from the National Student Clearinghouse, which verifies degrees. However, that process takes two to three days, so she has not yet received that verification.

Rigby said that although she now believes Lutrey has her doctorate, she still doesn’t trust her. “There’s still a lack of trust, a lack of integrity, in the district,” Rigby said.

One of the online examples of Lutrey being called Dr. Lutrey was found in a caption underneath a photo on a Chandler-Gilbert Community College Web site. The article was published Aug. 4, 2007. However, Trish Niemann, the college’s media relations and publications coordinator, said the doctor title at that time was her mistake.

Lutrey was also called a doctor in a Pinnacle One booklet dated March 23, 2007, and titled, “Program Management Services for the Sweetwater Union High School District.” Lutrey said she’s not sure why she was listed as a doctor. She said Pinnacle One is a former agent of the district on construction projects. “Dr. Joyce Lutrey” was listed as a contact for the Higley district.

Higley board clerk Venessa Whitener said she always knew Lutrey did not have a doctorate, until the March 2008 date. However, she understands how people can be confused.

“Everyone assumes that if you’re a superintendent you have a doctorate,” Whitener said.

Whitener said she has heard in the past parents complaining that Lutrey didn’t have a doctorate, and said she was taken by surprise when Rigby questioned it at the meeting.

Board member Kim Anderson, who has been Lutrey’s most vocal opponent, said she remembers people calling her Dr. Lutrey in the past.

“It happened quite a bit,” Anderson said. “Maybe people just assumed that. There’s kind of an expectation that a superintendent should have a doctorate.”

Anderson did say she questioned the doctorate, but never researched the degree.

“Whether or not any of this is true, there’s obviously the perception that something is wrong,” Anderson said. “She told me once when we were on better terms that if she’s ever hurting the students, she would leave,”

Anderson said of the superintendent. “I think it’s time for (Lutrey) to leave, because you’re ineffective.”

Lutrey signed a three-year contract last year, and said Friday she is happy in the district. She said the “unfortunate” thing about Thursday night’s meeting is the “misinformation” that was brought up.

“If the parents could have just asked me,” Lutrey said, “I could have shed some light on things.”