At Tuesday’s Tucson Unified School District Governing Board special meeting a resolution to move forward with a national search for a new superintendent was approved. The Board approved the recruitment and hiring process when the district’s current superintendent John Pedicone refused to complete the term of his contract which was entered into just this past August.
Board members Michael Hicks and Mark Stegeman had urged the superintendent to fulfill his contract for the sake of the District’s nearly 50,000 students. However, Pedicone was unhappy with the Board and their desire to interact with the people who elected them. He cited the lack of trust by Board members to upper-level administrators.
His resignation was to be June 30, but he begrudgingly gave the district one more month, and will stay on as interim superintendent until July30. According to various sources, Adelita Grijalva had wanted to fill the spot with a Sunnyside administrator or a former administration, but has now set her sights on an administrator out of Chicago.
Although Pedicone stated that he “wouldn’t leave this district in any bad condition,” the District is expecting a large drop in enrollment next year, after large enrollment loses the past few years.
During Pedicone’s tenure the difference between TUSD’s costs and their peers increased 30 percent. Pedicone’s annual compensation is worth over $400,000. Also during his tenure, the District closed nearly 20 schools, and is planning more closures.
TUSD is only one of a very few districts in the state facing deficits, and those deficits are also driven by declines in enrollment as parents opt for more effective districts and charter schools.
However, parents are also facing fewer options. Last month the Vail School District notified TUSD area parents that at least one Vail school could no longer accommodate their children and parents would have to find alternatives. Many parents had taken advantage of open enrollment and opted to send their children to Vail’s schools rather than TUSD’s.
While Pedicone claimed an increase in school performance pointing to an increase in “B” schools, he ignored the fact that the increase in “B” schools resulted in part from a decline in “A” schools.
Last August, Pedicone pushed to have his contract extended prior to the new Board’s installation, which included an increase in his salary.