Board Report

A Message from the Board President
New Schools Named to Honor TUSD Educators
View from the SAC
Board Honors Students, Educators and Heroes
Extended Year Opportunity Schools Update
Report from the School-Community Partnership Council
Preliminary Budget Presentation
New Administrative Appointments
Spotlight on Excellence
Movie Ticket Winner

A Message from the Board President

It is my pleasure to announce the naming of TUSD's two new elementary schools after Henry "Hank" Oyama and Laura Nobles Banks. Roger Pfeuffer, and all the staff and community members who participated in the naming process, are to be commended for the fair and thorough procedures they established to accomplish this momentous task.

Also to be commended are Shirley Kiser and members of the 4th R Board of Directors for their successful community forum on volunteerism, held March 21 with cosponsors KVOA-TV 4 and the Arizona Daily Star. The forum brought together more than 130 teachers, students, administrators, parents and business people to discuss key issues in operating volunteer programs in the schools.

Initial recommendations will be compiled into a final report, which will be available for review by forum participants as well as the 4th R Steering Committee in June before being presented to Dr. Paz.

Volunteer efforts by parents and other community members are becoming increasingly critical to the success of TUSD in these times of uncertain state budgetary allocations. Although not yet finalized, a preliminary budget for the 2002-03 academic year was outlined by Dr. Paz at the April 16 special Governing Board meeting (see article).

State legislators are still balancing their budget, so our negotiations and budget process are stalemated until the legislative work is completed. The only TUSD budget item approved to date is the employee health insurance coverage, at an estimated cost of $804,000.

Teachers, as we all know, are the heart of our educational community and deserve our utmost appreciation, particularly as we celebrate Teacher Appreciation Week May 5-11.

Finally, on behalf of the entire Governing Board, I would like to extend my best wishes to the nearly 200 members of our TUSD community who will retire at the end of this academic year.

We thank you for your many years of dedicated service to our students and educational community, and look forward to celebrating with you at the 2002 Retirement Reception, to be held from 4-6 p.m. Wednesday, May 15, at the Carpenter's Union Hall, 606 S. Plumer.

This is the final Board Report for the academic year. Enjoy the summer!

Mary Belle McCorkle, Ed.D.

More articles in this month's report...