- Image courtesy of shutterstock.com
I’ve referred to the folks who write the headlines as the Star’s Creative Headline Writing Team and even held a “Worst Star Headline of the Year” contest. The paper’s headlines have gotten better since then, but today they slipped back into their old bad ways, with an assist from reporter Alexis Huicochea.
Here’s the headline blasted from the top right hand of today’s front page: Ground is familiar at TUSD’s $92K event. A snark followed by a misstatement. It’s a twofer.
First the misstatement. It wasn’t a $92,000 event. The consultants were hired for a variety of duties. The Tuesday event was one of them. That’s in the contract language. I’m sure the contract is available to the Star. I’ve read it.
I can’t really blame the headline writers, since Huicochea included the same twofer in her opening sentence:
A team of outside consultants, brought in at a cost of $92,500 yesterday, didn’t tell Tucson Unified School District leaders anything they didn’t already know or that hasn’t been said before:
The sentence says, the consultants were “brought in at a cost of $92,500 yesterday.” Huicochea may have deniability here — she didn’t exactly say the $92K was for that event only — but good writing is about clarity, and the clear message in her opening is, TUSD spent $92,000 for eight hours work. Later she reports that the consultants will provide some school board training and compilation of the feedback as well. Even that’s incomplete. Read. The. Contract.
As for the snark. Huicochea begins her story with a “Money for nothing” snark: $92,000 to tell the participants things they already know. If Star columnist Tim Steller wrote that, I might disagree with him, but I wouldn’t think he was overstepping his bounds writing it. Steller is a columnist. His job is to opine. But Huicochea is a reporter, and her primary job is to report. That opening sentence is flat out bad reporting. First, it misstates the cost of the event. Second, it injects the reporter’s opinion before it presents an objective statement of the facts.
If I may get a little first-name-basis here: Alexis, you’ve learned the ed beat pretty well and have done a reasonably good job with it. Please don’t be seduced by the siren song of front page headlines and bylines. It’s happened before. At least one reporter no longer with the Star (cough, Rob O’Dell, cough) made his name by Tucson bashing, playing fast and loose with the facts, often contradicting himself by the time he finished writing an article, and earning himself lots of screaming, front page headlines in the process. In the past, the Star has enjoyed TUSD bashing as well. Hell, it sells papers. Your two earlier articles about Sanchez and the consultants turned a faux-scandal into the Crime of the Century. If there’s fire behind all the smoke you reported, you didn’t find it, in spite of two hair-on-fire articles. Now you’re using those overblown pieces to inflate what should be a reasonably quiet, fact-based article into another front page “shocker.”
This article appears in Feb 20-26, 2014.
I find the Tucson Weekly writing about someone else’s innacurate headlines hilarious.
Does this contract include travel and per diem or is that in addition for each trip the “team” makes to Tucson? If not included in the quoted amount, what was the cost?
How many subs were hired (and what was the cost) to cover classes for the teachers that attended yesterday–not saying this is a bad thing, but the cost of this is in addition to the 92,000 figure quoted?
What were the 5 topic/presentations that the team presented?
How were the items listed as critical selected and who selected them the entire 200 in attendance or the team?
What budget/fund is being used to pay for this activity?
This is probably an exercise that needed to be done, but the total cost was not part of the reporters article.
This criticism MIGHT be interesting if either the Arizona Star OR TUSD were worth defending. Neither is….and now add a third one.
The Arizona Daily Star should be changed to: The Arizona Daily Scat.
TUSD isn’t worth defending?? Really? We’re the 3rd largest employer in Tucson and we educate the majority of our city’s students. TUSD is essential to our community’s economic growth. Thank you to the 200+ people who participated in our strategic planning session yesterday. Starting Monday, we invite you to visit our website to watch the presentations, grapple with the questions we worked through and provide input as well. We will be collecting community feedback for two weeks. I must believe the majority of Tucson wants our district to succeed, and wants our children to learn. Working against this is simply unthinkable.
“a” asked some questions a few comments above this. Here are some answers.
The $92,000 figure is the overall cost for all the work by the consultants, according to the contract, including travel, a staff leadership strategic plan retreat and board training. It’s a “not to exceed” contract, and it is not simply for the one day event as was stated or implied in the Star article.
I’m sure subs were hired for teachers, and I imagine that was separate from the contract. It’s typical for teachers to get subs for days like this, and the meeting would have been incomplete without teacher involvement.
I mention the 5 topics in an earlier post. You can look them up.
I don’t know the line item from the budget paying for the consultants.
Thanks for calling ADS and Alexis on a poor job. My first impression was that the story was entirely misleading about what TUSD will get for $92,000. My second impression was the snark factor. It seems pretty early in the process to imply that the money was wasted by speakers who said nothing everyone did not already know.
If it turns out to be a waste of time and money, then by all means, Alexis should say so. At this point, she looks clueless.
I am happy to see Sanchez reaching out to the community. Who knows? This could be the start of some important relationships that pay off in ways that make $92,000 look like a great investment.
“….TUSD isn’t worth defending?? Really? We’re the 3rd largest employer in Tucson and we educate the majority of our city’s students. TUSD is essential to our community’s economic growth….”
Kristel: You need a reality check: 2013 AIMS Math:
High School Percent Pass
Rincon 37
Tuscon 43
Pueblo Magnet 26
Sahuaro 56
Sabino 76
Santa Rita 29
Catalina 29
Cholla 33
University 100
The Board needs to be reconstituted in November 2014. Hicks and Grijalva must go!!!!
Francis Patrick Saitta, Ph.D.
520-624-0156
Candidate for the TUSD School Board.
Community Education through: Student Success and Achievement via Behavioral and Academic Standards supported by a Competent and Dedicated School Board/Faculty/Staff/Administration and a modernized computer based Classroom Infrastructure.
Let’s remove the two Board members and replace them with conscientious/experienced EDUCATORS; Let’s cure the Administrative “BLOAT” at TUSD and use the Money to expand Computer Labs with the incorporation of supportive computer tutorial/interactive software. Let’s ensure that Students are being taught properly by utilizing Standardized Assessment Examinations at each Grade Level. Let’s ensure that Faculty/Staff/Administration retention and promotion are based on MERIT only.
45 Years of Teaching/Research Experience: from Kindergarten to Graduate Level Courses. Peace Corps Volunteer: Lesotho, Southern Africa: 1979-1981
____________________________________________________________
Editor: The Online Science Digest
http://www.sciencedigest.org fsaitta@sciencedigest.org
http://www.ratemyprofessors.com/ShowRating…
EDUCATION
1992-1996 Johns Hopkins University: Postdoctoral Research Fellow in Immunology and Infectious Disease (HIV/AIDS)
1970-1972 University of Texas at Austin: Postdoctoral Fellow in Population Genetics
1970 Ph.D., Biological Sciences (Genetics), University of Rhode Island Kingston, RI.
1968 M.Sc., Genetics, University of Maryland, College Park, MD.
1966 B.Sc., Secondary Education/Biology, Bloomsburg University, Bloomsburg, PA.
SECONDARY CERTIFICATIONS
Pennsylvania: Biology and General Science; Arizona: Biology, General Science, Mathematics, CTE Biomedical Sciences, and Structures English Immersion
ACADEMIC ACTIVITIES
Geometry: Tucson High School; Algebra 1 and 2, Algebra 2 Honors: Rincon High School
Adjunct Instructor; Biology/Math; Pima Community College. Courses: Introductory Biology (Biology 100); Wildlife of North America (Biology 115); Genetics, Biotechnology and Human Affairs (Biology 135), Elementary Algebra (Math 92), and Intermediate Algebra (Math 122)
Francis, what an unusual position you take for someone who wants voters to give him authority to make policy for TUSD. Rat T said TUSD is not worth defending and you agree with that? You appear to criticize Kristel for stating that TUSD is important to the community and worth fighting for. If you are implying that her statement means she thinks that TUSD is doing great and needs no improvement, then you are misleading and way off base. We don’t need another member of the governing board like that. She said nothing of the sort.
Please contribute and let the public know what you stand for. But try your best to make sense when you do it.
Thank you for clarifying your position, Mr. Saitta. I didn’t even have to even scroll down through the pompous resume to scratch you off my list of candidates to support.
Kristel succinctly pointed out three indisputable facts in her post: Tucson Unified School District is one of our city’s largest employers, they educate the majority of our area students, and the schools are the foundation of our economic growth.
The TUSD bashing is counterproductive, divisive, and more importantly — not at all beneficial to the kids in Tucson public schools. Mr. Saitta, your post leads me to think that you’ll approach the board position as an adult political sport. We’ve had enough of that, and it hasn’t worked. Time to vote for people with a new approach.
Apparently all it takes to pull the wool over Safier’s eyes is a personal phone call from the superintendent. Here’s what we know:
-Dr. Sanchez has a relationship with Cathy Mincberg–enough of one to have her listed as the first reference on his resume, yet he only describes her as a “professional acquaintance.” Is that common? Why would he call her that? For people applying for a superintendency to put acquaintances on their resume? I would advise whomever was applying to put the person who knew them the best and was their best professional reference first on their resume.
-The reference page on Dr. Sanchez’s resume on the TUSD website has mysteriously disappeared.
-Emails were exchanged between Cathy Mincberg and Dr. Sanchez prior to his becoming superintendent that discussed hiring her.
-Dr. Sanchez has worked closely with Cathy Mincberg for a while now.
-The governing board, at the request of Dr. Sanchez, raised the no-bid threshold to $100,000 just days before awarding the contract to Mincberg’s company.
-Youssef Awwad and Dr. Sanchez lied to the press about the process of selecting Mincberg’s company as a paid consultant for TUSD. Mr. Awwad claimed he found them through an internet search, during which he apparently also found McKinsey & Bain as potential bidders (even though there was no chance of them taking the bid seriously). Dr. Sanchez claims he never said a single thing to Mr. Awwad about it. This sounds like a giant pile of Texas sized steer poop.
-The contract itself isn’t itemized, is extremely vague, and basically gives Mincberg’s company complete free license to determine what the money will be spent on. This is highly problematic. Lawyers, for example, bill their hours so their clients know exactly how much time is spent on what.
-There has been silence from 1010 about all of the details in this matter. Ironically enough, one of their speakers discussed why it’s important to be open and honest with the public whether good, bad, or ugly. Why aren’t they following their own consultant’s advice?
-Members of the governing board were stone-walled when trying to get documents related to the contract procurement and had to go to the local press to get them. This is highly irregular.
-This meeting could have ABSOLUTELY been done with the same degree of quality, if not better, with local folks headlining the event at a much lower cost. Why did TUSD need to spend $92,500 on these particular individuals to do what was done yesterday? This may be the most frustrating part. That money could have been spent on students and a great meeting could have taken place at the same time. Sounds pretty strategic.
-This meeting, with video and live stream, also amounts to free advertising for Mincberg’s company on TUSD’s dime.
That’s just some of the stuff that’s out there and it’s ridiculous and simplistic to say if there was fire behind the smoke Alexis would have found it. Sometimes people actively work to manipulate the press and to prevent them from access to stories. Sometimes they call local bloggers and have a conversation with them to smooth them over. These were taxpayer funds procured and spent in a highly irregular manner and the public has a right to know and hear from its officials about why all that happened. If the story continues to be a “weird coincidence” then you lose a certain level of trust with folks who believe in things like logic.
Nobody is saying they don’t support Dr. Sanchez or TUSD, but we want to be able to trust our public officials and we want them to own up to mistakes instead of lying about them. Just because you’re enamored by them and they call you on the phone doesn’t mean you shouldn’t be vigilant about the way you cover education in the community.
The part that I found to critique was the implication that the consulting firm’s speakers were there to tell the TUSD Admin anything new–I attended all day, and the role they served was to start the conversation, not to teach the district. The intent of the event was that the CONVERSATION would teach the district. Get it? It was asking for information from the broad base of the district, not the top–something this town has been calling for forever. And now that it gets it, its snark and misleading articles and just plain idiotic statements of wholehearted negativity about TUSD. Come ON people, these are our kids.
I thought the event was good, and I am saying that as someone who has gone on record disagreeing with the Supe on other issues, so I don’t qualify as “enamored”. The energy in the room from the participants was palpable, crackling, exciting. The final outcome will depend on what the consulting firm does with what was learned from the exercise and how transparently what was learned is coallated and distilled. But the conversation was excellent. I was only an observer, but from the “virtual table” that we guests created when we worked throught the questions, there was alot of dialogue and innovation. Now THATS what I want education to be about.
“Rincon 37
TUSCON 43
Pueblo Magnet 26
[etc.]”
Credibility: gone.
Betts, you can’t say that there was a lot of “innovation”, nothing has been accomplished yet. You can have a discussion about rocket packs, but it doesn’t mean that you’re an inventor doing innovative work.
And in reference to your, “The intent of the event was that the CONVERSATION would teach the district. Get it?”, uh, most of us don’t “get it” as the topics of discussions were issues that H. T. Sanchez and every other superintendent should be working on on a daily basis.
The event was mostly for H. T. Sanchez’s benefit as he doesn’t know the community and it was to help him get political support, as well as allow him to network.
The title for the Star’s article linked in this article has been changed to $92K Consultants tell TUSD nothing new, the reporter *is* qualified to say that as she presumably has heard it all with regards to TUSD.
It is very telling that H. T. Sanchez’s contract was removed from the TUSD website as it lists this Minceberg as a reference, even though H. T. apparently lied, once again, and said that he and her are only acquaintances or whatever. Sanchez forced the TUSD board to accept his candidacy . . . if he was the only candidate, and forced the TUSD school board to keep the new deal which is that Sanchez gets to approve stuff below $100,000 instead of $50,000 . . .
I hope that the AZ attorney general investigates Sanchez as him, and Grijalva, seem to have lied about how this contract was awarded and basically told the media to not worry about this “immaculate coincidence”.
I really hope you understand this, Betts, H. T. Sanchez will *damage* TUSD as he is unethical and when/if the AZ attorney general investigates, that controversy will (and maybe already has) overshadowed anything (make believe or otherwise) that Sanchez planned on doing.
With regards to the AZ Daily Star story (which has been changed to “$92K Consultants tell TUSD nothing new), the AZ Daily Star broke the story of H. T.’s relations with the consulting company, and all the available info makes it appear that H. T. has lied on several occasions, and that he has strong armed the TUSD board.
1. H. T. demands that the TUSD board only consider him for the position of superintendent, which was surprisingly agreed upon by board members under the direction of Adelita Grijalva.
2. H. T. has demanded that the board still allow him to award consulting contracts under $100,000.
3. H. T. after amending the board rules so that he can personally approve consulting contracts under $100,000, instead of under $50,000, gives the Texas education group the consulting gig a few days later.
4. H. T. removes his C.V. section which shows that his primary reference is this Minceberg person who holds a leadership position at said Texas education consulting group.
5. Adelita, without doing any apparent investigation of her own, declares that this apparent impropriety is just a “coincidence.”
Huh? H. T. Sanchez and Adelita do know that the newspapers are reporting this and that the AZ attorney general will probably investigate this?
Does H. T. even know that he works for the TUSD board, not above it?
It appears, much more likely than not, that Sanchez has *lied* to the community and TUSD board, and done so for personal gain, and hence should be fired from the superintendent position, firstly for being unethical, and secondly for obviously not giving a hoot about TUSD’s reputation and students.