During the Tucson Unified School District’s first desegregation forum on Monday, Nov. 26, at Tucson Magnet High School, there were three speakers, all women, who stood out to the Range: Tanya Alvarez, Kim Dominguez and TUSD governing board member Adelita Grijalva. Above and below are clips of their testimony to U.S. District Court-appointed desegregation special master Willis Hawley.
Hawley was appointed by U.S. District Court Judge David Bury last summer to bring together all parties involved in Tucson Unified School District’s 30-plus year-old desegregation legal case in order to create a new Unitary Status Plan proposal to present to Bury next month. The parties involved include the Mexican American Legal and Education Defense Fund representing the Latino plaintiffs, Tucson attorney Ruben Salter representing the African-American plaintiffs, a representative from TUSD law firm (DeConcini McDonald Yetwin & Lacy), and representatives from the U.S. Department of Justice.
The plan is being made available for public review at each TUSD school and online at tucsonusp.com. The final forum before the special master is tonight, Wednesday, Nov. 28, at Palo Verde High School. The public comment period closes today. A revised plan with any changes will be filed with the court by Hawley on Dec. 10, and all parties involved in the negotiations have until Dec. 14 to file any objections to the changes.
This article appears in Nov 29 – Dec 5, 2012.
watched 2 of 3 videos. What does this have to do with the deseg order? I only hear bring back MAS? I don’t have a problem with MAS as elective courses. God knows I took AP Spanish, Trig, Calc etc in lieu of basket weaving, power lifting, advanced team sports etc. I have a 15 month old son who would have been going to Sewell. Since Sewell is closing my best alternative is probably not TUSD but Sonoran Science, Catalina Foothills, or Vail. Effectively you’ve now lost the dollars that my child would have brought to the district although I suppose you still have my tax base from my home I would guess most of those dollars will be leaving to open enrollment. I wonder how many other parents are thinking the same thing as me? If you close a school in an area where the parents have means those parents will “vote with their feet” and remove their children from your school system effectively creating a deeper monetary crunch. Maybe I’m crazy but I would guess there are many parents now looking at leaving TUSD.
TUSD can’t easily handle the number of students who are going to be displaced from possibly 16 school closures. They admit that they didn’t handle well the 9 schools that they closed two years ago, so this will probably be worse. Sewell was over capacity with portables, and it is the only ADE Grade B school now being looked at for closing as Hollinger won’t be considered for closure.
A lot of parents are ready to bolt to charter schools should Sewell close. Parents want to send their kids to Sewell from failing schools, not the other way around.
Well, with all these school closings, I guess that will also reduce the administrative payroll as well. That should help the budget enormously.