TUSD’s Superintendent H.T. Sanchez has a new contract that extends his stay through 2018. His supporters are cheering because it means continuity of leadership, something the district hasn’t had in ages, from someone they believe is a competent, steady hand at the helm. His detractors are booing, saying he’s an overpaid, under-competent superintendent, and the sooner we get rid of him the better. I’m planning to get into the actual salary and bonus issues eventually, but it’ll take me awhile, so if you’re not interested in my views on Sanchez, superintendents and school districts, you can save yourself some time by skipping down to the paragraph that begins, “Let’s look at Sanchez’s contract, salary and benefits.” Meanwhile . . .
Most of the discussion over Sanchez comes down to one question: Is he good or bad for TUSD? If you’re one of those people who think he’s a bad superintendent who is destroying the district with his ego and ineptitude, then you’re right to think he should go, the sooner the better. If he’s as bad as you say, he’s being paid too much even if he’s working for free.
I don’t share that view. I think Sanchez is basically competent and knowledgable, and I think he’s decisive enough to take steps that can help move the district forward. I give him generally positive marks for the job he’s done at TUSD. He’s far from perfect. He has some ego and control issues that bother me, and he’s certainly made mistakes, some of which I’ve written about here. Recently, I’m disturbed about the district’s continually declining enrollment, and I wish Sanchez could figure out some way to turn the numbers around, but I also know this isn’t a new issue. If enrollment levels were steady or increasing before he came, TUSD schools would have been full, and the issue of school closures that rocked the district before Sanchez arrived never would have come up. I also hate the idea of substitute teachers being outsourced to a private company, because I don’t like seeing public services privatized. I think the district is balancing the budget on the backs of its substitutes, who make poor salaries at best and apparently are paid less at TUSD than neighboring districts. This could end up hurting the district in the long run by making it even harder to find the substitutes it needs to function. But if it’s really a million-dollar-plus budget issue that’s being considered as the district struggles to balance its budget, it’s as much a problem of the state’s underfunding our schools as it is a problem caused by Sanchez.
So, since I have those and other concerns, if I see multiple problems with Sanchez himself and things he’s done since he’s been at TUSD, why do I support him?
I taught under a number of superintendents during my thirty year tenure as a public high school teacher in the Portland, Oregon, area, and none of them made the kinds of dramatic changes that turned schools or students around. I no more believe in the magic superintendent who can turn educational darkness into light than I believe in magic “education reform” schools which take low performing student bodies and turn them into Harvard material. Both myths are destructive to our system of education. We absolutely need to pursue excellence every way we can, but we also need to understand that miracles are rare; otherwise they wouldn’t be called miracles. If we expect miracles from teachers, schools and superintendents, almost all of them, even the best, will come up short.
If there is someone out there who has the skills to make TUSD a dramatically better place than it is now, I say, offer that superintendent a million dollars a year to come here, and maybe throw in a free house and a car. No price would be too great to pay for a leader who could make our students shine, guaranteeing them an education so stellar, they would outstrip their peers anywhere in the country. But, much as I scour the news looking for examples of these kind of game changers, I just can’t seem to find them.
Well, that’s not entirely true. I can think of two superintendents who looked like they succeeded beyond most superintendent’s, and district’s, wildest dreams.
One was Superintendent Beverly Hall in Atlanta, Georgia. Students’ test scores went up so dramatically under her tenure, she was named 2009 National Superintendent of the Year by the American Association of School Administrators. The problem is, the Atlanta test cheating scandal under her watch was the biggest ever uncovered, and some people are serving time for their part in the test manipulation.
The other was Superintendent Michelle Rhee in Washington, DC, whose style and successes were so spectacular, she made magazine covers and went on all kinds of TV shows touting her accomplishments. The problem is, Rhee is a borderline sociopath who lied about her accomplishments as a teacher, and when it was found that some of the D.C. schools with the greatest increases in test scores most likely cheated, she wasn’t interested in investigating the allegations. She left D.C. and went on to found Students First, an “education reform”/privatization organization that got millions in funding from the usual privatization sources, but she had to leave her own organization recently because she was such a polarizing figure.
So my criteria for a good school superintendent don’t include the ability to take a large, urban, majority-minority district and move it ahead by leaps and bounds. I want someone who has a reasonable vision for the district and is taking strong steps—even willing to risk mistakes—to move the district in the right direction. By my lights, Sanchez fits that description. I criticize him for his missteps, but I put them into the larger context of the problems facing the district and the overall leadership he’s provided.
With all that in mind . . .
Let’s look at Sanchez’s contract, salary and benefits. His first year’s base pay was $210,000. His base pay is now $240,000 [Update: It looks like the Board’s decision to raise his base from $210,000 to $240,000 isn’t allowed, meaning his current base pay is $210,000], and it will top out at $280,000 in the final year of his new contract. The former superintendent, John Pedicone, had a base salary of $215,000. I’m not sure whether superintendent salaries should be that high. I do know that the average superintendent salary for districts with over 25,000 students is about $212,000, so if the TUSD board wanted to hold onto Sanchez, or any new superintendent, it had to offer a comparable salary or he’d be out the door as soon as he got a significantly better offer. I can do enough math to figure out that, with about 50,000 students in the district, Sanchez is getting a little under $5 per student. Using that per-head formula, Vail’s Superintendent Calvin Baker should be getting around $60,000 for his 12,500 students, as should Marana Superintendent Doug Wilson. Obviously I’m not being fair to the other superintendents, but it puts Sanchez’s salary as superintendent of one of the two biggest districts in the state in perspective. In Mesa, the other large district, the superintendent’s salary was $180,000 in 2014, but you have to add to that his “$900 monthly car allowance, $10,000 annually into a deferred compensation plan, $12,000 annually for a tax-deferred annuity and $5,000 a year for memberships to civic and professional groups.” Sanchez’s salary is the higher of the two, but not wildly higher.
Which brings us to the issue of bonuses. Sanchez gets about $12,000 in performance-based compensation each year if he meets his goals which, not surprisingly, the board always says he does. Sanchez detractors complain that, while the previous two superintendents donated their bonuses to the TUSD Educational Enrichment Foundation, Sanchez kept his. Fair enough. It’s his bonus, and he decided to keep it. Fault him for selfishness if you wish, but it’s his money.
Sanchez was also given a big stick-around incentive. If he lasted three years, he was promised an extra $124,000. Excessive? Maybe. But the board wanted some continuity in leadership which it hadn’t had in a long time, so it decided to give him a healthy incentive to stay. Detractors have said he’d stick around until the three years were up, then take the money and run. It looks like they were wrong, since he’s committed to three more years. That doesn’t mean he’s guaranteed to stay—if he wants out of his contract, he can get out of it—but it looks like Sanchez is planning a commitment to the district beyond his substantial one-time reward. [Based on some information I just read, he’s being offered a $25,000 bonus for each of the last two years of the new contract he completes.]
Which brings us full circle. If you don’t want Sanchez to stay, you’re gnashing your teeth right now. There’s nothing you’d like better than the twofold pleasure of saying, “See, I told you he’d leave after three years,” then watching him go. But if you want Sanchez to stay, you get the twofold pleasure of saying, “See, I told you he wasn’t just hanging around for the bonus,” then seeing him sit in the superintendent’s chair for a few more years.
This article appears in Jun 4-10, 2015.
What good would have come from having TUSD go through a superintendent search yet again when Sanchez has only been in office for two school years? The Board indicated the direction they wanted to take when they made Sanchez the sole finalist for his job back in the summer of 2013. He surely would have left at some point during the next school year if they hadn’t extended his contract and TUSD would have faced another time of change and potential turbulence.
If the public in TUSD is unhappy with the leadership of their superintendent, they can indicate their displeasure by voting three incumbent Board members out of office in 2016. Sanchez is doing the work that the Board majority has directed him to do. The move by the Board to extend his contract and raise his pay with one year left on his original deal was standard operating procedure for school boards in large urban districts.
Sanchez is not someone I would want to work for. He is arrogant, entitled, thin-skinned, impulsive and ignores facts that contradict his strongly-held opinions. TUSD strikes me as a place where open, honest dialogue is discouraged because Sanchez sees any question about his decisions as a sign of disloyalty. Other writers have documented the names of dozens of administrators and teachers he and his minions have run off because they were not seen as team players.
Even given those facts, this move by the TUSD Board to extend their superintendent’s contract was consistent with the original deal they made with him. They are happy with the work he has done and their votes are the only ones that matter right now. It will be more clear by November of 2016 if they made the right call yesterday and their constituents will have the final word, as they always do.
It is disrespectful to teachers and staff members who have had minimal pay increases over the last decade for Mr. Sanchez to receive this kind of compensation. Why is the Board so generous to Mr. Sanchez and so stingy with the folks working in the trenches every day? People don’t send their kids to TUSD because of HT Sanchez. They send their kids to local schools where they know and trust the teachers and the principals. Therein lies the value in the district. Those very people who serve children throughout the district have been overworked, under-resourced, and underpaid. The TUSD Board needs to value the people who spend their careers there, not just the superintendents who learn their trade, build their resumes, and pad their bank accounts at Tucsonans’ expense.
Wow David everything that I read about this says he is getting more than that. Of course Sanchez met his goals , he set them , and they did nothing to address the problems TUSD has. Teacher evaluations are more stringent than what Sanchez received. Sanchez is not worth this much , nor are his cabinet. As for someone that could do a better job, in the interest of not saying anyone can, I’d like to say that there are a few school administrators out there that I know could do a much better job , and for much less money. It is horrifying that the board majority would increase out of classroom spending like this when teachers and students are hurting so much. I’ve seen what you’ve written about charter school , and how much those administrators are over paid, and I agree, but why cant you see the criminality in what just happened. Schools having to have GO FUND ME accounts to save programs, while fat cats like Sanchez and his administration get huge pay increases sickens everyone. Lets talk about the board for a minute , refusing to give other board members the contracts for review is unethical , and illegal, discussing these contracts without all board members involved is a violation of open meeting laws, giving a contractor a bonus of state tax provided funding is illegal, state funding can not be given as a gift, and saying he is considered an employee by Grijalva so he deserves this , well she just incriminated herself . Juarez saying that the other board members received and studied the contracts weeks before the vote , and Hicks and Stegeman could get them?, he just incriminated himself. I have made phone calls and these violations are indeed illegal. I have received so many calls and messages about this today that I can barely keep up. Every person that I spoke to today remarked about the need to find a new place for their child’s education. TUSD’s fall is emanate . I must say David that if you can continue to support Sanchez and Grijalva after this , you have lost all credibility on this mater, how can you support this , being a former teacher, cant you see the damage that was just done. I have heard the word RECALL so often today , and it is time for that to happen. I will support any effort . It is time to call state officials about this. I encourage everyone to call the Attorney General, this needs to end now. David , why haven’t you talked about Grijalva not submitting her campaign finance reports, she has been violating the law for six months now , again what is she hiding, someone breaking state finance laws, like this , should not be making financial decisions of this caliber . I know you love Grijalva , but lets some honest reporting here , do a story about that. By the way I’ve done some research for you the county elections board has confirmed that Grijalva is indeed in violation of the law I question Ms Tolesen , as an attorney she knows what just happened is illegal , and yet she supports it, maybe its time for the state bar association to look at this. If you care about your children , if you care about the teachers that educate them then don’t let this continue, speak out and stop it now.
The Romans said, “Aut disce aut discede,” which means “Either learn or leave.” Like his moves or not, Supt. Sanchez is learning – learning how to navigate at many levels with difficult problems – some quite recent and others just old, old grievances that never seem to go away. Dr. Elizabeth Celania-Fagen came on board in 2008, and must have taken a little look before quickly choosing to leave in 2010 following a successful campaign within a national search. Nearby in Sunnyside Schools, Manuel Isquierdo ran into a buzz saw of his own making due to “personal indiscretions, concerns over management, and wasteful spending,” as quoted in local paper (ADS). I think Supt. Sanchez still has the stature as well as the opportunity to stay interested, focused, energized and resourceful in order to do some good for the decent people and the great kids we have here in Tucson — as long as he keeps learning.
Epitomizes the problems with the school systems in the State/USA. Entitled, not objectively measure, too much spent on administrative overheads and non-teaching costs. Benefits not in line with the average taxpayers that fund the budgets and insular arrogant Boards that give in too easily to hold their power.
Anyone like Safier coming from the socialist republic of Portland has little to teach us.
I agree with you mostly about Sanchez’s performance. Not amazing, but mostly capable. The problem for me is the salary and bonuses. If we’re going to start using national averages as a measuring stick for superintendent salaries, then we should start doing the same for teachers? For some reason people ignore this (it’s the magical superintendent thinking). We have schools in this community that either can’t fill critical positions, and when they can, they experience unacceptable levels of turnover. I’ve never heard anyone mention longevity stipends to keep teachers in the classroom and at sites, yet our district is giving the superintendent a six figure bonus just for sticking around for three years.
Stability is critically important, but it’s most important at the classroom and school level. What is TUSD doing to address this?
We have plenty of teachers who have stuck it out for almost a decade without a legitimate raise, and when they sort of got one, they gave them $500 while they gave the administrators a 2.5% raise.
These are structural issues in the way we shape compensation that speak volumes about who is seen as important and valued by our district. What we have here is a top-down model that values administration above all else. I’m not saying administrators don’t deserve to get paid what they are (although it’s definitely debatable), but those salaries and bonuses are paid for on the backs of students, teachers, and schools. This type of compensation shouldn’t exist at that level until teachers are paid a reasonable living wage and until our schools and their programs are adequately funded.
It would be nice if someone mentioned this every once in a while.
Radical chicano revolutionaries, a murdering terrorist, a morbidly obese racist and a documented liar and bigot as the henchman. This IS TUSD.
Tucson, meet your future.
Shame on the voters that let this happen. A recall is in order.
I want to point out that as much as I think the teachers should have gotten a tremendous raise, many of the people in schools who supported principals and the the people who supported the superintendent( too much admin. some say,)are not there. What I see that has been done in admin. is a great reduction in staff and what the principals(and admin. in general) are doing is nothing short of amazing. Support personnel has taken a huge hit. I guess I am amazed about the pay criticism when our country supports huge pay for CEOs. Dr. Sanchez ‘s pay is chicken feed compared to many company heads that would be comparable in size . And this is a ‘company’ that is working for our children. I think that is very important compared to what some CEOs do. Also he demonstrated competency and improvement. We want him to stay and not be part of the revolving door.
So everyone in the district does more with less help than ever before and works very hard. Remember these are children not commodities to sell at a discount. I too don’t think Dr. Sanchez is perfect but he does have a positive vision for TUSD which I have read many many times and he seems to be fulfilling it. I do know he has put out to teachers questionnaires about many problems in the district and utilizes their input. Recently I learned he had one on what do they think would help stop children from leaving. The staff I talk do think he does a good job and feel respected by him. They feel a lack of support from the community and the mindset towards public education funding. This district has and has had big problems and huge groups creating problems as long as I have been in Tucson. The continuity is very important and it seems to be moving in a very positive direction in many ways.
David, I don’t understand your comments about balancing the budget with substitutes and I do know a reason why they outsource for them. They have not been able to fill the substitute need for years and years. I have no idea if this has improved since the outsourcing but I do know it was a problem that internally they could not solve. They have substitutes in classrooms because of the teacher shortage which is throughout our state as well as many others. They advertize all vacancies. So maybe I do not understand what you mean when you say balancing the budget with substitutes. Teacher pay is not just bad in Tucson, and I am sure the pay is one of the reasons for so many vacancies. I know principals are very happy if they can fill them instead of having substitutes.
I find the fairness issues raised above off base. Salaries aren’t base on fairness but on market value. Teachers are free to pursue higher salaries elsewhere, whether in other districts or elsewhere in either the public or private sector. So is Sanchez. If salaries are so low here, why aren’t teachers fleeing to greener pastures? You have to pay the superintendent a competitive salary or he’ll leave.
I don’t know of any one thing Sanchez has accomplished, but any one who can stick it out in the insanely politicized environment that is TUSD, and maintain their sanity, deserves a bonus.
Principals, teachers and students doing more with less is not a positive outcome. It’s making lemonade from lemons. Denying medical benefits to long term subs is also not a winning strategy. Good subs are enormously important to a school. Over 30 new administrators hired last year and 13+ so far this year. It’s not only students who are bailing out.
TUSD – teaching children to hate America. Don’t believe me? Just look at the picture used by the ADS where a teacher is showing the kiddies a book of people carrying the mexican flag confronting the evil, white, border patrol.
http://tucson.com/news/local/education/tusd-schools-stripped-of-magnet-label/article_7001c7e0-c393-57aa-9a2f-259f1b1f2024.html#utm_source=tucson&utm_campaign=most-popular-tabs-2&utm_medium=direct
How is TUSD any different than ISIS? Thank you Bill Ayers, best buds of H.T. Sanchez, Adelita and Raul Grijalva.
You could have easily predicted that no matter what you said about the salary, the geniuses would be out. The same bunch who claim “market forces” can solve any education issues, cry when you have to pay a “market forced” salary. Education success is a complex issue with many variables. Teaching large numbers of diverse students will always have some issues. Self proclaimed geniuses who claim a simple solution are to be dismissed. The fact is there are hundreds of successes everyday in local public schools. If TUSD could just weed out the low performers and pressure for parent “donations” to teacher improvement funds, like BASIS, I am sure everything would be perfect. By the way tons of tax dollars go to BASIS. Ask them for their salaries and their profit figures. Good luck.
From an article about the Mesa Superintendent’s 2012 contract renewal:
“Mesa Public Schools Superintendent Michael Cowan has a new three-year contract but did not negotiate a raise with the district governing board for the coming school year.
‘I did not feel it was an appropriate time,’ said Cowan, who has been on the job three years and earns $180,000 annually. ‘I would much rather focus on additional compensation for employees.’
[…]
Cowan also said he does not intend to take $10,807 in additional performance-based pay that is available should he reach certain goals set for him by the board.”
The complete story is available here:
http://www.azcentral.com/community/mesa/20120507mesa-superintendent-new-contract
Let me begin by saying that I am an old soldier. In my Army, we, the officers, ate last, we were up earlier and went to bed later – only after our troops were taken care of. If HT were a true leader, he would take a large chunk of his salary and give it to his teachers. His salary is above average to live comfortably in Tucson, his teachers are below average.
As long as he gets bonuses as enrollment shrinks and dissatisfaction grows, it will not change. TUSD is headed for the bottom.
…and David cites the two locations that have drastically improved test scores. They both lied and cheated to accomplish little. If we spent billions more to graduate highly educated students where would they work? Not here. That’s for sure.
I’m on the side of everyone who says teachers and other staff deserve more money. Salaries are disgraceful. But there are about 3,000 teachers in TUSD. So let’s see what would happen if Sanchez cut his salary in half and said, “Put the rest into teacher salaries.” Half of, say, $240,000 is $120,000. Divide that by 3,000 teachers, and you get $40 per teacher, $3.33 per month.
Sanchez’s salary is irrelevant in the discussion of district salaries. Blame the state, not Sanchez’s high living for the shamefully low salaries which are driving good teachers out of the profession, or to states where the salaries are closer to a living wage for someone with a Bachelors degree, usually some graduate work and degrees as well, and a teaching certificate.
No, sorry Dave, the blame goes to the Board. Mr. Ellegood’s comment is instructive. Mr. Sanchez receives a salary based on national norms, yet everyone else receives low Arizona/Pima County wages.
A career teacher’s salary grows by only $14,500 over 30 years, assuming one moves a step every year, (which has not happened in at least eight years). So over a career a teacher increases their pay, by the same amount of money that Mr. Sanchez receives as a one year bonus.
If we can blame the state for poor funding for teachers, how do we rationalize a bonus bonanza for a superintendent and his cabinet? Tuesday night 10 administrators in the cabinet received $8,000 expense accounts and $10,000 bonuses.
It’s wrong and the blame clearly lies with the governing board.
Mismanagement has kept teachers salaries low. That includes top heavy admin with national average type wages. Tucson is a low wage town until it comes to government and education administrators. Those board members that drafted/saw the pay plan in advance need to be held accountable.
I didn’t see how the vote went, but I guess if they got four it didn’t matter. The fix was in. Can Gov Ducey cut his pay?
Pima Mujer, I still maintain, those are two separate issues. You have every right, and some good reason, to complain about administrator salaries and perks, and we’re both right that teacher salaries are shamefully low. But look at what it would take to give meaningful raises to TUSD’s approximately 3,000 teachers. I think teachers with zero to five years of experience should be making $2,000 more a year, minimum. Teachers with the most experience should get something like a $5,000 to $10,000 raise, and that would still mean their salaries would be far too low for that much experience and education. Then I would give the teachers in the middle a balance between the two raises. A back-of-the-envelope estimate tells me, those raises would cost TUSD in the neighborhood of $14 million. And that doesn’t include a penny for support staff, who also deserve raises. The raises and bonuses you mention for administrators, deserved or undeserved, are small ball compared to raising the salaries of the rest of the staff.
Total annual per-pupil funding in TUSD from all sources (local, state, and federal) was $8,523 per pupil for the 2011-2012 school year, according to the latest available Annual Report from the State Superintendent of Public Instruction. That was for “current expenditures,” which does NOT include several categories of capital and administrative and non-classroom services.
Even if TUSD only spent $8,000 per pupil per year, that is a LOT of money. With an average classroom of 25 students, that means there is $200,000 of potential non-capital resources in that classroom. Think about that for a moment.
If TUSD could limit administrative overhead and other programs (library, arts, etc) to 33 percent ($67,000), it could allocate $67,000 for the salary and benefits of a good teacher in the classroom of 25, and still allocate another $67,000 to pay a special education instructor to work with the IEPs in that classroom.
http://americansforprosperity.org/arizona/article/tusd-needs-to-get-more-money-into-its-classrooms/
I’m sure tax payers paid for his portrait.
Proves that there is more than enough funding for education in Arizona
David: You seem to be missing the point here. It doesn’t matter whether Sanchez and his cabinet refusing to take a raise and / or bonuses could make a material difference if the amount they refused to take were divided up and applied to teachers’ salaries throughout the district. This has to do with morale and the ability to lead. Does it make sense for Superintendents and central administrators to take raises and bonuses in a context in which the legislature is further cutting funding to an already disastrously underfunded school district? The quote from the Mesa Superintendent Cowan provided a perfect example of how a good leader handles himself in a situation like this. The behavior of the leader sends a message to the troops which either improves morale and unifies the force or degrades morale and impairs his ability to lead. It seems that Sanchez has done the latter — and in a context where morale and confidence in his leadership were already dangerously low.
Looks Like a Leadership Mistake, an excellent comment. I agree. More self sacrifice at the top of the district would send a strong, positive message to the rest of the staff. Taking the pay increases and bonuses sends a bad message.
For those who continue to print old,misleading information, this article and PowerPoint has the most accurate information regarding 2014-15. Obviously someone who has the best interest of the children and their education would not do this. This was very easy to find. The link is on this page.
http://www.tusd.k12.az.us/contents/events_…
Funding allocated per child :$3,327 For comparison: Minnesota per child: $9,905 (This year also).
Ample evidence that Dr. Sanchez is a very good leader to make such a small amount of money go so far. I think he deserves every penny he gets. He will provide much needed continuity to a district that is so torn down by information that is not true by people cheering for its failure. He has very creative, interesting ideas to continue to improve TUSD. If we want children to be successful, we must support our leaders of our schools, especially Dr. Sanchez.
Well written piece, David. Thank you. As I read your article I went back to my first thought about entering teaching after retiring from the military. It and all subsequent ones were never acted upon for two reasons; pay & aggravation. Being in the military means you don’t have to suffer fools, being out of the military means you DO. Also, I found I could make more money as an “unclassified” employee {teachers are “classifieds”, “unclassifieds” are the “all others”} with far less aggravation. If anything our federal Dept of Ed could use the civil service pay scale to establish a base pay for teachers anywhere federal money is used with COLA adjustments for higher cost areas. At all pay levels even superintendents would be on the same pay scale.
There is a downside to all this hoopla over administration compensation and that is the voters who feel their tax dollars are being squandered and refuse to vote more taxes to the districts. Whether true or not the perception is based on what people BELIEVE to be true and no amount of your bashing of politicians will change how far too many feel.
No matter, this is one of your better pieces and I hope you will continue with the same quality.
TW Readers- take great caution when reading about TUSD through Safier’s perspective.
What specific outcome criteria is used by Safier for him to give Sanchez “a pass” on both his salary and his renewed contract through 2018? He minimizes any mistakes that Sanchez has made and glamorizes the fact that Sanchez will remain with TUSD until 2018. We really need more than a warm body to lead the District. I just read the Three Sonorans’ post from the anonymous administrators, teachers and parents and it is actually on target in reflecting what most are thinking in TUSD. I admire their courage and their perseverance. The word “stability” has been distorted by Adelita Grijalva, and now by Safier. She has used it since her campaign to justify the hiring and retention of someone who had 4 months of interim superintendent experience at the time of his hire as TUSD superintendent. Safier has bought her line of “stability”- believing that retaining “the same” is somehow better than getting someone more competent. (After reading the post on Three Sonorans, I verified that Sanchez was interim superintendent for 4 short months by researching Sanchez’ work history.)
Competent stability within TUSD would be great but it is nowhere to be found. What we have is a superintendent who still needs training wheels. It is “on the job training” at its most inferior because there is NO training. Sanchez has no one to learn from within TUSD because when administrators have advised him not to do what he is about to do, he has taken great exception to their advice. He has punished them in various covert ways for their attempts to assist him. In all cases, they were right and Sanchez was wrong. Going to his good ol’ buds through his Texan connections has only proven to be tragic. So to whom does he turn? Most on his staff are at the same rookie level as he is and those on the Board to whom he speaks are have no public school administration background whatsoever. But Safier sees only the superficial Sanchez and hears only the cheering from the Sanchez pep-squad.
What Sanchez does know is how to manipulate people, how to turn on his charm to exploit them for what he needs, to lie, lie and then lie some more. He is a consummate politician; the very worst kind. There is no depth below the Sanchez hype and spin and at some point, his incompetence will result in real catastrophe for TUSD. We are well on our way.
Some of the best, brightest, competent and committed administrators have left TUSD simply because they could not deal with the current repressive environment. Sanchez’ spin on this is that “his” administrators are gold and being sought after by several school districts. He is dead wrong. All of the individuals who have left- wanted to leave and they sought the opportunity to get away from the stifling administration that is now in place.
I am a site administrator and have many, many years of teaching experience. In speaking with a top level central administrator only three weeks ago, the person described the current TUSD environment as one filled with fear, favoritism and fraud (meaning both pretentious and unethical; perhaps illegal). We agreed that, as a whole, both central and site administrators are fearful of speaking up during meetings. In some cases, doing so has exiled and/or “frozen out” some administrators. Site administrators have literally been told to pack up their belongings and leave their school, without respectful notice and sound justification. Essentially, they were paid to go home. Rather than suffer further humiliation, they resigned from TUSD. (These are people who have been most successful as site administrators and have continued to do so in other school districts after their departure from TUSD.) What kind of messages do you think these actions convey? But do we hear about any of this in Safier’s posts? No.
Sanchez’ favoritism drips off of him. He particularly likes the principal at Fruchthendler, for example. She was allocated an additional kindergarten teacher, while other schools with the same number of kindergarten students were ignored. Did it make any difference that Sanchez’ daughter was a kindergarten student at the school and that his wife practically lives at the school? What do you, the reader, think? And when it came time to support the cockeyed idea of the Fruchthendler/Sabino grade shifting; dreamt up by the Fruchthendler principal- of course, Sanchez was right there with her, willing to take it all the way to federal court (literally).
Take a look at the Sanchez “leadership” crew:
Adrian Vega was a high school principal in Sanchez’ former school district. Sanchez elevated his Texan friend to Deputy Superintendent. They are very close friends, having intentionally moved to rental homes within the same Fruchthendler neighborhood. Vega is best known for screaming at people and generally mistreating them. Allegations of sexual harassment resulted in warning him to cease any such inappropriate sexual conduct. In the two years as Deputy not one single notable accomplishment can be pointed in his direction- except having Sanchez’ back. Other than that, he is known for nothing. He is a rookie.
Ana Gallegos was promoted from a Title I Director to an Assistant Superintendent right at the same time Sanchez swept the Title I money from direct Title I services to haphazardly lowering class size. Fast climb. She is a rookie.
Eugene Butler was promoted from a director position at the middle school level by Sanchez to an interim position and then promoted again to Assistant Superintendent by Sanchez. Fast climb. He is best known for screaming, cussing, using vulgarities and bragging that he is looking to get another job in Florida. He is a rookie.
Karla Soto was promoted from Finance Director to CFO, on the heels of the former CFO leaving- Yousef Awaad. She is best known for saying yes to Sanchez; a dangerous word in her line of business; especially with his propensity to spend money. She is in over her head.
Stuart Duncan was hired by Sanchez. The verdict is still out on him. He is a rookie to TUSD.
Anna Maiden may be the very worst HR person TUSD has ever experienced. She is responsible for massive mistakes with the compression pay. It is a massive mess which has harmed several teachers. Sanchez hired her. She is the former HR Director at Sunnyside. Krystal Foster voted against her hiring. Foster is employed by Sunnyside and knew something the other Board members did not know. Maiden is not a rookie. She is a lousy HR director.
Scott Morrison was hired from the private sector by Sanchez. His experience base is in project management, client relationship management, technology implementation with positive ROI results, risk management and reengineering of system processes, in the private sector. He was hired by Sanchez to “project manage” anything and everything having to do with desegregation. He knows nothing about desegregation or public education. From that position he was promoted to Chief Technology Officer. Fast climb. He is a rookie.
Abel Morado is a recycled administrator. He is not a TUSD employee but rather a contracted employee. He is known as a get-along-go-along “company man.” He has the most TUSD experience of anyone remaining on the Sanchez central team which is alarming as hell. Does anything else need to be said? Oh, and he is the only person on the Sanchez team who was on the team when Sanchez arrived from Texas. All others were hired by Sanchez.
NOT a lot of depth. Not a lot of experience. Lots of lacking expertise and leadership. Lots of rookies. Lots of fast and furious promotions. TUSD has a so called leadership team that is comprised mostly of rookies, with serious smatterings of incompetence. Does Safier expose any of this? No!
Steve Holmes’ departure from TUSD is a loss. He contributed more to the District through his work, direction and leadership than the whole group of people above combined.
Steve Holmes recently commented that with his departure as well as that of Ignacio Ruiz, TUSD historical memory would vanish.
Reality check: Morale has hit rock bottom in TUSD. Parent and student programs have been cut by Sanchez, with no posts by TW on such topics. School budgets have been “swept,” leaving schools without the support for school improvement, which would go far in keeping students in TUSD schools. Has Safier posted on any of these things that impact students first hand? NO! (Safier will probably ask for the specifics and herein lies the problem. Safier writes what he is fed by Sanchez, Foster and Grijalva- in that order. He has no reliable contacts or sources to provide him with the facts about TUSD. Safier has done no investigative journalism with regard to Sanchez. He is seen as having been won over by Sanchez. No wonder!
TW Readers (and I am a loyal one) do yourselves a favor on this one; read Three Sonorans at http://threesonorans.com/2015/06/11/whistleblowers-the-tusd-tunnel-gets-darker-and-bleaker/#comment-94589
The schools where parents have begun to contribute money do seem to get more “favors.” I think the supposed parent groups set up 501c3’s to accept donations and then they also do the landscaping maintenance on the weekends.
I guess that just adds more to the per pupil $ number that nobody really knows the truth about.
Excellent point, David W. The family participation like you mentioned just now is de rigueur in most schools of other countries. Why? Because those school systems don’t budget money for “weeds & seeds” employees. The local school is an important part of the community unlike what people in the US could ever imagine. It is disturbing how much better the process is overseas at a lower per pupil amount than here. And make no mistake, the poorer the country the greater value an education even if the kids share books, pencils and desks. We have it so good here that the things WE complain about other countries wish they even had half our problems, such as a per pupil rate like ours. WE SHOULD BE ASHAMED!!!!!
Wheeler and Sanchez
https://arizonadailyindependent.com/2015/06/15/a-closer-look-at-az-school-leadership-costs/
TW…Thanks for the insight. Those are all things I suspected but being on the outside one can only speculate. If we don’t clean house TUSD will be lost forever. It is going to take a community that realizes the harm being done and put a stop to it.
Can’t we find a superintendent that actually cares about the schools and the students in them? If he was pressuring the board and threatening to leave so soon, he clearly doesn’t care and they should have called his bluff.
Hey David, how about you get your head out of HT’s ass and stop being a company man for the three stooges who comprise the TUSD board!
Tax payers money is being misused for this pay raise. The highest paid administrator in the state at the worst school district in the state?
And most of you want to complain about the legislature and the governor? Get your own house in order first.
From reading these comments I must assume that most of the authors are ignorant to the fact that Dr Sanchez has donated large sums of his salary to individual school programs.