Stunned Tucson Unified School District employees are still reeling from the news that long time administrator Jim Fish has left for the higher ground of Colorado, as the exodus from the District continues. Also, preliminary fifth-day data shows that it is not only administrators that are fleeing the district; TUSD’s enrollment has dropped about 250 students from last year.
The turmoil is expected to be played out at tonight’s Governing Board meeting due to a number of controversial agenda items, including a review of the superintendent’s goals.
Each year, the superintendent is tasked with creating goals he must meet in order to secure his sizeable bonus. On the Board’s agenda is the Reconsideration of the Superintendent’s Goals for 2014-2015, requested by Board member Michael Hicks, who was concerned, according to sources that the goals created by Sanchez are lacking. The goals created by Sanchez and supported by the majority of the Board are vague and there is no way for them to be measured in any real meaningful way.
The minimum classroom spending agenda item, requested by Board member Mark Stegeman has become an even more pressing issue this past year, as Sanchez has systematically increased administrative costs.
According to Stegeman, in his constituent newsletter released on Monday, “Various external auditors have long advised TUSD to hire an internal auditor, who reports directly to the governing board. A staff-drafted proposal will come to the board for study on Tuesday, but it differs from the external recommendations and would make the auditor insufficiently independent.”
In advocating for an internal auditor, Stegeman argues that for “over six years, TUSD’s Board-appointed audit committee has called for an internal auditor that reports directly to the governing board. Two different external audits, one commissioned by Fagen and the recent efficiency audit, have called for the same thing. Unfortunately, it has been hard to find three votes on the board to implement these recommendations.”
Stegeman says that he cannot support the proposal the staff is expected to recommend on Tuesday. He writes, “The board will engage the issue once again on Tuesday, when it will discuss and conceivably act on a staff generated policy proposal. I cannot support the policy as drafted, which says “For the purposes of day-to-day function and supervision, the internal auditor shall report to the Superintendent or designee.”
According to Stegeman, Sanchez is proposing that the auditor report to Sanchez, but Stegeman notes that a recent efficiency audit said the “internal audit function should report directly to the TUSD governing board so that it is independent of the organization it is auditing.” Stegemen believes that the board should be solely responsible for hiring the auditor, with the aid of a board-appointed ad hoc committee.
In his letter, Stegeman confirms and explains what has been rumored for weeks; under Adelita Grijalva the controversial Mexican American Studies classes, which were designed to indoctrinate rather than education, are coming back in a through a different vehicle. The proposal to lease the school to Prescott College was scheduled for tonight’s meeting, but was pulled from the agenda after the public expressed concerns.
Stegeman explained the situation to constituents in his newsletter:
Connected proposals to lease a site to Prescott College and to restart Mexican American Studies for high school credit.
Summary: A small private college, which has been teaching a course that (by its own description) replicates one of the suspended MAS courses, wants to lease part of the closed Menlo Park site to teach similar courses to TUSD juniors and seniors for dual enrollment credit. Courses taught during the school day would be taught at TUSD high schools. The college also wants to offer adult education and other courses that would compete with a PCC campus less than half a mile away.
Prescott College, a small private school, is proposing to lease part of TUSD’s closed Menlo Park school site.
The proposed lease will come to the board on Tuesday. Based on its own documents and statements at a neighborhood meeting on July 24, the college intends to offer classes to (at least) two markets.
First, Prescott plans to offer adult education classes, including possibly “GED classes, language classes, and writing classes.” Such classes would compete with a Pima Community College (PCC) campus less than half a mile away. I doubt that the TUSD board would lease a site to a private school that would compete with a TUSD school three blocks away, and I think that we should show similar respect for our community partners.
I do not know whether staff has asked PCC for its views on bringing Prescott College into the neighborhood.
Second, Prescott plans to offer dual enrollment courses to TUSD high school students, for high school and college credit. Dual enrollment courses offered during the school day would be taught in TUSD high schools.
Prescott College’s institutional tagline is “For the Liberal Arts, the Environment, & Social Justice,” and it already offers – elsewhere in Tucson – a Chicano literature course that it describes as “a replication of the former MAS course taught at Tucson Unified School District before the implementation of HB2281 and the elimination of the MAS program.” Former MAS teacher Curtis Acosta has been teaching this course to Prescott College students.
At the neighborhood meeting, Mr. Acosta and other representatives from Prescott College made it clear that it expects to partner with TUSD to offer the Chicano literature and similar courses to high school juniors and seniors for dual-enrollment credit.
TUSD staff at the meeting expressed no doubts or concerns about these plans. Any such dual enrollment classes would require explicit approval by the board: A.R.S. 15-701.01 requires that “The governing board shall determine if the subject matter of the community college or university [dual enrollment] course is appropriate to the specific requirement the pupil intends it to fulfill…:”
In summary, the lease and anticipated agreements would provide a mechanism for reintroducing the MAS courses at TUSD high schools, except that the teachers would now be paid by Prescott College.
The TUSD Board suspended the old MAS courses mainly because, in 2011, an administrative law judge rejected TUSD’s appeal and supported the Arizona Department of Education’s (ADE) finding that the courses violated Arizona’s “Ethnic Studies” law. I am not sure whether simply transferring the teaching of the courses to a teacher employed by a private college allows TUSD to circumvent that law.
A third issue is that the Menlo Park neighborhood has, so far, expressed mixed feelings about the proposal.
Some local residents have expressed support but others have said that different uses of the site could serve the neighborhood better.
Prescott College is only offering to lease part of the Menlo Park site, and according to Stegeman, “its use may limit options for leasing the rest of the site,” as well.
“Prescott appears confident that the board will approve the lease,” wrote Stegeman. “The college’s current office on Speedway Boulevard has for weeks displayed a banner announcing that “We are moving.”
Jim Fish is expected to take a job with Celina Fagen, the former TUSD superintendent who has hailed for her work at her district in Colorado. According to sources, Fagen was run off by operatives of Grijalva, who warned her that if she did not cooperate with their plans for Mexican American Studies and the USP (desegregation plan) she would be a short term employee. Fagen made herself a short term employee and unexpectedly took the job in Colorado.
Fagen was replaced by John Pedicone. Pedicone was replaced by Sanchez. One long time employee of the district said of the superintendent shuffle, “Dr. Pedicone didn’t do anything, but he didn’t screw things up either. Sanchez only screws things up. You know its bad when Fish, who would have done anything for the District, heads for higher ground.”