On Tuesday, the Tucson Unified School District Governing Board was scheduled to consider spending more money on yet another trip. At the same time, parent after parent came forward to tell the Board about the needs of their kids and the failures of the District.
Sylvia Campoy, the plaintiffs’ representative for Latino families in the desegregation case stated, “The year before last Utterback had as many as fourteen teacher vacancies, which were filled by substitutes -some changing every few weeks- as well some that were “long term.” Most, if not all, of the substitutes were not highly qualified certificated teachers. The District filled many of the vacancies last year under pressure to comply with a specific stipulation which required the District to fill all of its vacancies within its magnet schools. By the end of the 2015-16 school year, most of the teachers that had been hired left Utterback. This school year, the school has been absent its principal and an interim principal was assigned. Also training in the area of discipline has not been thorough and confusion across the District about what principals and teachers are to do in response to specific violations is greatly inconsistent. Utterback has had a multitude of issues with which to deal and it seems that there has been little to no support from the administration.”
The administration has not only failed the teachers in terms of training and support. Superintendent H.T. Sanchez’s decision, with the support of Adelita Grijalva, Cam Juarez, and Kristel Foster, to hoard Prop 301 monies and give a fraction of the Prop 123 monies to teachers, has left many educators looking for greener grass.
“My daughter was getting a D in Social Studies,” stated a father of an Utterback Middle School student. “I asked her bring her book home, so we could work on it together . She said, ‘I can’t bring a books home there is only a classroom set of books. I told my daughter to take a picture of the front and the back of the book and I bought a copy of the book for her to use at home. She’s gone from a D to a B in Social Studies. In Math they don’t have a book.” The father asked why his son, a student at University High, had the materials he needed, but the students at Utterback went without.
It’s a good question. It is an especially poignant question in light of the District’s discriminatory history. It was an especially aggravating question when considering the Board’s travel agenda item.
Unfortunately it was not a surprising question when one considers the Board’s past behavior.
Just last April, Grijalva, Juarez, and Foster spent a little over $9000 in Boston – at a Westin no less. Their single occupancy rooms cost approximately $230 a night.
District policy requires that personnel share rooms whenever possible. If they don’t share rooms, they have to pay the difference between what their private rooms cost the District and what their room would have cost, if they had shared.
Rich Kronberg, a retired teacher and long time public education activist stated, “This is but one more example that the majority of the TUSD Board has failed students. The highest priority should be given to providing students what they need to learn: quality teachers, safe and secure classrooms, and necessary books and supplies. In every single one of these categories the majority has failed to do what it takes to make sure students have what they need to learn up to their potential. There is absolutely no evidence that sending school board members to conferences has helped a single student to improve their learning. Anyone can make pretty speeches, but you see the Board majority’s real priorities in the way they allocate resources. The proof is there for anyone willing to look at the way the TUSD Board spends its money that trips and Board perks are more important than student learning.”
Given the fact that Grijalva, Juarez, and Foster have approved extravagant administration salaries and bonuses, it is no surprise that money is no object. What is surprising is that a District, which is under desegregation order, would be so oblivious to such blatant inequities.
University High students have what they need according to the father, while kids at Utterback go without. Surely the inequity cannot be a matter of money. The $9000 spent in Boston could have purchased 180 books @ $50 each.
So what can it be? What could prevent the District from equipping kids with the materials they need? Who knows? What we do know is that not everyone on the Board is reckless with money.
“I never spend that much per night at economics conferences. Economics conferences negotiate for better rates. Economics conferences also do not bring in headline speakers like Dan Rather or Magic Johnson,” said Board member Mark Stegeman. “So school board members do learn something useful at the NSBA conferences: how to have fun at public expense.”