The court appointed Special Master in the Tucson Unified School District desegregation case is preparing the parties for his decision to accept a proposal by the Mendoza plaintiff representatives to save the magnet status of a handful of schools. Based on their lack of magnetism, the Special Master had recommended that the schools lose the magnet label.
Hawley and the plaintiffs came under fire during an orchestrated demonstration by Board president Adelita Grijalva and Sanchez during Tuesday night’s Governing Board meeting. Governing Board member Michael Hicks told radio show host James T. Harris on Wednesday that the point of Sanchez’s seemingly staged production was to have parents of children at the schools come forward and “show their distaste for the Special Master, the courts, for the whole desegregation process, for everything.” Hicks noted that while Sanchez spent hundreds of thousands of dollars to renovate a new boardroom, Sanchez opted to hold the meeting at the old boardroom in order to ensure that more parents would come to the production.
“The Special Master and the plaintiffs are doing everything they can to make it work, and the District is not cooperating. And it is our fault,” said Hicks referring to the District. “It is the District’s fault.”
Hicks offered an example of the District’s failure. He explained that Cholla Magnet High School has openings for 19 teachers. For years the District has failed to put full time highly skilled teachers in Cholla. Cholla students, who expected the excellence normally found in magnet schools, had long term substitute teachers. There were virtually no highly skilled STEM teachers at Cholla.
“We are not supporting the schools in the manner needed to maintain their magnet status,” stated Sanchez. “It was brought up that here the Superintendent went out and put up all these flags and everything to promote the early learning centers and we don’t do any of that for our magnet schools. We don’t give them the resources to make them successful.”
Hicks has supported the effort of Mendoza plaintiffs to try to assist those schools, but Sanchez had rebuffed all efforts.
On Wednesday Sylvia Campoy released the Mendoza’s proposed plan. The plan includes greater oversight of the magnet schools to ensure that the District is acting in good faith. Her statement reads in part:
In the September 2015 Desegregation Update (attached for your reference), I stressed that the Mendoza Plaintiffs’ have demonstrated long-standing support for the magnet schools through their relentless insistence that the magnet schools be fully backed through their budget allocations to ensure that adequate and timely staffing, instructional programs, resources, etc. be in place to support success in both meeting each magnet school’s integration and academic achievement obligations. These are commitments made by the District via the Unitary Status Plan to which TUSD jointly stipulated and by each of the magnet schools via the magnet plans developed by each school. The Mendoza Plaintiffs’ position has been consistent.
The Mendoza Plaintiffs continue to be cognizant of the fact that many of the magnet schools have not been provided with sufficient support (funding, staffing, resources, etc.) to succeed as schools, in general, much less meet the obligations outlined in the Unitary Status Plan and in the January 2015 court order pertaining to the magnet schools. One such stark reality is the vacancy rate which exists for magnet schools. (Two magnet schools began the school year with vacancies for about half of their allocated staff. One magnet school experienced the 2014-15 school year with 14 long-term substitutes and now has 18 newly hired teachers. A reality, which has mostly been ignored.) Another such exemplification is the cutting of almost $1,000,000 at TUSD’s own hand of the magnet school plans which were submitted in May 2015.
In an effort to meet the Special Master’s concerns and ensure the magnet schools the resources and support they require, the Mendoza Plaintiffs have been working on a proposal that would immediately accomplish the provision of support which is drastically needed at the magnets schools. The proposal was presented to all the parties on October 6, 2015. We understand that the “devil is in the details” and the District has agreed to immediately begin working on the specifics required to make the Mendoza Proposal work. It is the hope of the Mendoza Party that TUSD will fully embrace the Mendoza Compliance Proposal; will put an aggressive plan together in response to the proposal and will, most importantly, immediately and effectively implement the plan. This is an opportunity to “walk-the-talk” of collaboration. The ball is now in TUSD’s court (figuratively and literally).
The Mendoza Plaintiffs have never lost focus of what is authentically needed to support the children they represent and have always been focused on what will best promote the opportunities and educational achievement of Latino and African American students and to that end made the following proposal which was met with large degree of support from District and the Department of Justice. It outlines the critical elements of the Mendoza Plaintiffs’ Compliance Proposal. As the parties respond to the Mendoza Proposal, of course, their input will be considered and discussions will be ongoing.
Compliance Plan Proposed by Mendoza Plaintiffs for Five Schools Special Master Specifically Referenced as Having Not Met Plan Goals (Elementary schools –Bonillas and Ochoa; Safford K-8, Utterback Middle School, and Cholla High School) – Plus Holladay Elementary
1. Push to increase integration in entering grades
2. Focus in closing academic achievement gap
3. Fill all vacancies by November 1, 2015
4. No vacancies at start of next school year
5. Implementation Committee Member to monitor
~In each school once per week
~Report to Plaintiffs and Special Master once per month
• TUSD to propose plan with the objective of having more students attending integrated schools.