The Deputy Superintendent of Operations of TUSD, Yousef Awwad, is leaving for higher ground joining other administrators who are fleeing the failing District. Under Superintendent H.T. Sanchez and Governing Board president, Adelita Grijalva, the Central Office administrators, are fleeing faster than new positions can be added.
Awwad is leaving for Portland, just a month after administrator Jim Fish announced he was taking a job in Colorado with former TUSD Superintendent Liz Fagen.
Luckily for the new Chief Human Resources Officer, Anna Maiden, who was a key part of the Manuel Isquierdo administration at Sunnyside Unified School District, Sanchez is able to quickly fill the vacancies with little public involvement.
Three new administrative positions were added in a 3-2 vote, after a heated discussion in which Grijalva shut down Board member Michael Hicks who was expressing his concerns. The new spots are: Director of Employment, which was filed by Sara Gamez, Director of Communications, filled by Stefanie Boe, and Director of Community Schools & Pre-K Programs, filled by Rachell Hochheim.
During the Call to the Audience portion of last night’s meeting, Lillian Fox, a retired teacher with the District, who has served as a watchdog, told the Board that Sanchez misled them when he told them that administrators’ contracts did not include substantive changes. According to Fox, the new contracts included over $26,000 in pay increases. “You were told there were no changes to the administrator contracts; one person got a $4000 salary increase, and there have been over $26,000 in increases in administrative contracts.” Fox encouraged the Board to revisit the contracts due to Sanchez’s apparent misrepresentations. Board member Mark Stegeman told his fellow Board members that he would like to review the contracts.
Also during the Call to the Audience, Ron Michaels addressed the fact that the Board would be considering hiring an internal auditor. Michael’s told the Board that the that the auditor should not be a CPA and should not report to the superintendent, as proposed by Sanchez, but should instead report to the Board. He argued that the District needed to hire a “businessman, somebody who’s been successful, and understands the political infrastructure of an organization like this. Not a numbers cruncher. Not a pencil pusher. Someone who can bring in the people to evaluate. Who can present the information to your outside accounting firm. I think you’ll find that this would give the opportunity to the Board and superintendent to separate them from those things that might become controversial, and pushed by special interest groups. Someone who will insulate them and the Board of Governors from special interests.”
Sanchez, Grijalva, and Board member Juarez grimaced during Michaels’ presentation; Stegeman smiled broadly.
Jody Gibbs, retired architect came to speak on the matter of the solar panels at Ochoa Elementary. He advised the Board that the District could have put the new solar panels in the school’s parking lot, but instead placed them “right in the middle of the soccer field. I urge your principles to take pictures and email them to you so you can actually see what’s being done.” Sanchez told the Board that the placement was deliberate because they provided cover for the kids.
The Arizona Association of Taxpayers, represented by Dick Bayse addressed the sale of Ft. Lowell School. He urged the Board to oppose the sale because “there’s not been enough discussion of the issue. The neighborhood association didn’t know about it until today. Secondly, the developer has agreed to buy the property on the condition that it gets rezoned to a more intensive use. That is benefit to the developer, if anything you should handle the rezoning and then sell it.”
Bayse continued, “According to the Star, Basis wanted to use this as a charter school. Basis charter schools are exceptional schools, some of the best in the nation. I don’t think TUSD should think of themselves as a business competing with another business called charter schools. We don’t have a position on charter schools, but TUSD should consider whether it is serving the best interest of Tucson, not competing with other businesses like charter schools. You should allow charter schools to have the first shot at it. Keep it as an educational facility for the people, for the children of Tucson. I urge you to say no to the sale and renegotiate with the charter school or some other school.”
The Board voted 3-2 to sell the school.