The TUSD Governing Board voted to begin the process of closing schools. The district had wanted to close up to 30 schools, but despite the Superintendet’s desperate arguments, the Board voted to begin by closing 10 schools.
Pedicone argued vehemently against saving more schools and cutting administration. He cited the need for the district to keep the public relations staff in response to Board member Adelita Grijalva’s complaint that they closed 9 schools and saw no real savings. “We are going to cut administration, but we are not going to do it in a way that hurts the district. We are going to cut operations,” said Pedicone. “In order to cut what we need, we must look at M&O.”
Pedicone argued that the one thing he keeps hearing is the need to “brand the district” and said that they cannot do that if they lose the public relations staff.
Board member Stegeman called for caution. “As soon as a school gets on that list it causes panic in a community,” said Stegeman.
TUSD would prefer to close 25 schools. However Stegeman argued “that it is not about creating a dream district by closing 25 schools, if we jump off the cliff and close 30% of our schools and get it wrong that is not good. I can’t support that.”
Cuevas said, “we are facing major layoffs. We are not in the same area of picking off low hanging fruit,” referring to the closure of nine schools last year. “We need to set a path forward with this district. Twenty-five or thirty schools is way too much for my liking, but we have to do what we have to do. When we conduct this consolidation, we will improve the academic performance. ” The district is proposing to focus on closing failing schools for closure, rather than improve those schools. Cuevas argued that the district will then have more money to spend on fewer schools.
The district receives more money per student that nearly any other district in the state.
“Kudos to the TUSD Governing Board for not going along with the superintendent’s plan to, once again, make needless sacrifices in order to protect underworked and overpaid administrators. The Governing Board did the right thing in limiting the number of school closures and establishing a coherent framework for making the closures. Dr. Pedicone seems more concerned with creating a “brand” for TUSD than in the substance of that brand. Here’s a news flash for Dr. Pedicone: TUSD already has been branded as the district where administrators are more important than teachers, students or families. This brand is one of TUSD’s biggest problem,” said Ric Kronberg, co=founder of TU4SD, a public school advocay group. “The only way to change this brand is by actually focusing on the needs of all the students, their families and their teachers.”
Sugiyama said that the Board needed more information. “I would like the administration put together more information.” He favored incorporating the union’s recommendation on school closure criteria.
The Board voted on the criteria to apply to school closures. “Although they are still counting votes it appears that Dr Pedicone is still attempting to rush the school closure through,” said Governing Board candidate John Hunnicutt. “I found it interesting that Dr Pedicone said they would make cuts to balance with the closed schools. However, he said most reductions would be made in maintenance and operations still protecting the bloated administrative staff.”