Still on the fence about who you want to support in the Tucson Unified School District governing board race? Tonight there’s likely a final candidates forum, Monday, Oct. 20, from 6 to 8 p.m. at the YWCA, 525 N. Bonita Ave., co-sponsored by Voices for Education, Menlo Park Neighborhood Association, Brichta Neighborhood Association and Legislative District 3 Democrats.
If you’ve been paying attention to the back and forth politics involved in the race that David Safier has steadfastly blogged these past few months, like the latest on financial transparency and Michael Hicks’ bankruptcy, then perhaps there’s a chance this forum could actually be interesting.
Frankly, with so many candidates, most of the time is spent listening to candidates who have to consider either not running again next election season or making a pledge to go to more school board meetings to actually learn something about the district they want to represent. This way they will actually answer questions with more than just “smaller classrooms,” and “diversity for everyone.”
Besides that, Miguel Cuevas, a former governing board member who wants to return, sent out the following press release calling for TUSD Superintendent H.T. Sanchez’s resignation and saying he’ll call for it if elected.
IF elected:
Former TUSD Board Member Miguel Cuevas calls for TUSD Superintendent Resignation
After lengthy discussions with current and former TUSD employees and community members, Former TUSD Board Chairperson Miguel Cuevas is calling for action regarding TUSD leadership.
“If I return to the TUSD Board, I will call for Superintendent HT Sanchez’ resignation. The majority of the current TUSD Board is not holding Superintendent Sanchez accountable for multiple instances of abuse of power.” states Cuevas. “Superintendent Sanchez knowingly recommended hiring the current TUSD Board Chairperson’s mother-in-law without disclosing the relationship prior to the Board vote, he recommended hiring a consultant that he used as a reference in his personal resume and with whom he had multiple discussions prior to the bid being awarded. Dr. Sanchez continues to mismanage TUSD’s budget by overspending despite numerous warnings of the potential grave
consequences by TUSD financial officers. Additionally, there are multiple accusations of mistreatment of TUSD employees by the superintendent.”While Miguel is concerned about the high turnover of TUSD Superintendents, he is more concerned about the stability of the district if Dr. Sanchez continues to lead it. He will recommend policies and procedures to fully investigate the backgrounds of potential Superintendent candidates through additional employee involvement, visitation of the candidates’ current employers and the implementation of a citizens advisory committee. These procedures are not part of the current Superintendent search process.
This article appears in Oct 16-22, 2014.
Don’t you think TUSD school board members priority would be making the schools better? Why did Adelita pull her daughter out of a D rated TUSD school that she engineered? Do a little research and stop pandering to the party.
Last year I did not sign my contract as a special education teacher due to the amount of testing and TUSD policies on “opting out.” I wrote a professional informative letter of resignation to HT and received in return a very nice email of, “Thanks for serving and continue to advocate for our kids.” In response, I have been very vocal within my circle of teacher friends with resources full of information. My concern is that I’m not seeing much from The Weekly that is resourceful or informative when it comes to CCSS and the abuse of standardized testing in relationship to teacher turnover. HT has increased the teacher responsibilities with testing and added them to the teacher evaluations. Who is writing about the important facts that in my opinion should be considered in the board elections. For example, How much money are we spending on tests? or how many days are spent in science and social studies classrooms on reading and writing to prepare for tests? Perhaps these links will entice your readers to catch-up before they vote on some of the important issues of education.
http://dianeravitch.net/2014/10/20/peter-greene-why-performance-incentives-make-no-sense-in-the-public-sector/
http://dianeravitch.net/2014/10/16/testing-education-leaders-really-dont-get-it/
This is more of the same from the Tucson Weekly’s defenders of the TUSD status quo. In one sense, I agree with Herreras and Safier. If you like what TUSD has been doing, then vote for Adelita Grijalva and Jen Darland. They are the candidates urging more of the same.
If you think TUSD has consistently failed students for years and years, vote for other candidates. If you think TUSD has screwed up priorities, vote for other candidates. If you think it is an accident of nature that hundreds of kids leave TUSD every single year for other districts and charter schools, vote for Grijalva and Darling. If you think this exodus from TUSD was the direct result of a culture that prioritizes the personal and political needs of TUSD’s appointed and elected leadership over the learning needs of students, vote for other candidates.
Examine the Arizona Auditor General’s annual report on school district spending. It is online. If you think spending only 49.2% of TUSD’s funding in the classroom is okay, vote for Grijalva and Darling. If you think it is okay to spend more than 10% of TUSD’s funding on administration, vote for Grijalva and Darling. If you think TUSD needs to spend significantly more money in the classroom, vote for other candidates. If you think TUSD should get rid of a large percentage of its central administrators and focus on student learning, vote for other candidates. Do your own research.