At last night’s TUSD Governing Board meeting an effort by Dr. Mark Stegeman to stop the steady movement of money away from classrooms and into district administrative offices by district was rebuffed in a 3-2 vote. Stegeman proposed setting a floor, a bare minimum, on dollars in the classroom.
Stegeman has for weeks argued that the Board should set floors on the share of money that TUSD spends in the classroom, which is below the share spent by local districts and far below the share spent by other large districts statewide. In fiscal year 2010-11, the last year for which the calculation is available, TUSD spent 50.4% in the classroom, while other large districts spent 56-60%. Michael Hicks expressed support for Stegeman’s proposal saying that they were going to ensure that the measure was aimed at administrators and not counselors and librarians.
Stegeman showed the board a graph showing the decline in TUSD’s classroom spending over time.
Cuevas preempted Stegeman’s proposal to raise TUSD’s share of classroom spending to 55% over three years by moving a proposal asking staff for information by November 27. Stegeman sought to add the floors on classroom spending as an amendment to Cuevas’s resolution, but this failed 2-3, with Hicks and Stegeman voting yes. Cuevas’s resolution then passed 5-0.
“The action by Cuevas to study to death the truly irresponsible way TUSD underfunds its classrooms instead of supporting the proposal by Dr. Stegeman to set a minimum percentage of TUSD’s resources that go into the classroom was proof (if any more was needed) that Cuevas is little more than a tool of the superintendent. Under Pedicone’s watch the percent of TUSD resources that goes into administration has increased while the percentage that actually goes to educate students has fallen off a cliff,” said Rich Kronberg, a long time educator. “Pedicone continues his shameless hiring of his out-of-work administrative buddies while TUSD begs parents to provide supplies and material for its classes. All votes for Cuevas and Sugiyama are votes to preserve the tragic status quo. Voters should be aware that Dr. Stegeman is the only incumbent running for re-election who has consistently championed meeting the needs of the classroom. Among the other candidates, only John Hunnicutt has addressed this issue at Governing Board meetings.”
Robert O’Toole, the Vice Chair of the Audit Committee, reported to the Board the Committee’s concern that no inventory of the district’s computers and other physical assets, as required by federal law, had occurred last year. The Director of Operations, Candy Egbert, said that she did not know when an inventory had last been conducted. Stegeman said that he knew that annual inventories were occurring when he was on the Audit Committee, before joining the Board, though there had been concerns about their adequacy. Egbert said that the District was preparing to conduct an inventory.
O’Toole repeated the Audit Committee’s longstanding recommendation that the district hire an internal auditor and that this position would more than pay for itself. Finally, O’Toole reported the Audit Committee’s concern with the state of implementation of the Lawson ERP software and the district’s inability to generate adequate financial reports while that implementation is incomplete. O’Toole and Stegeman both recommended that the district return to the practice of providing monthly budget reports to the Board.
The Board unanimously passed a resolution, offered by Stegeman, emphasizing the Board’s commitment to laws and policies against retaliation.
Cuevas introduced a resolution to authorize the superintendent and Board president to call a Board meeting at any time and place “as necessary,” but this died without support from any other member. Last year, in an attempt to prevent the selection of moderate candidates to the Selection Panel Committee to replace deceased Board member Judy Burns, Cuevas called a meeting at a time when he knew his opposing Board members were unavailable to attend. In the end, he was unable to get the Selection Panel candidate he and Pedicone preferred and the stunt cost him public support.
On the heels of their endorsement by the Arizona administrators union as administration rubber stamps, Alex Sugiyama and Miguel Cuevas rubber stamped a veto on another proposal by Dr. Mark Stegeman to recognize the efforts of district volunteers on a monthly basis. Cuevas and Sugiyama opposed without explanation the innocuous proposal by Stegeman; it passed the board 3-2.
According to district insiders, volunteers are generally discouraged by the district, which prefers to utilize unionized employees to maintain the status quo. Last year, Board candidate John Hunnicutt, through Tucsonans United for Sound Districts, worked with legislators to create incentives for districts to utilize trained and screened volunteers. The proposal died before getting to the floor for a vote, due in part to the opposition by the union.
The Board approved by identical 4-1 votes three contracts for different classes of administrative employees, for fiscal year 2012-13, more than three months into the fiscal year. Stegeman dissented, saying that the Board had received the contracts only a few hours before; Pedicone said that they were nearly identical to last year’s contracts.
Hicks raised concerns about the budget for field trips in a grants approval, and a long discussion ensued, but the Board eventually approved the grant unanimously.