Focus on TUSD - August 2007

Board President's Message
Welcome back to the new school year! We hope you had a restful summer, are refreshed and are ready to begin educating our students. Through the summer, the Governing Board continued to move forward to address the special challenges facing Tucson Unified School District for 2007-08 and beyond.

The search for a successor to Superintendent Roger Pfeuffer, who will retire on June 30, 2008, moves forward. The award of the request for proposal for Professional Services to Conduct a Superintendent's Search is scheduled for action at the Aug. 28 Special Board meeting. The Board hopes to have the search completed this spring and a new Superintendent of Tucson Unified School District appointed by April 2008. Although the hiring of the Superintendent is the specific duty of the Governing Board, as authorized by Arizona Revised Statute, all stakeholders in the TUSD community will be consulted during the search process.

The Aug. 14 Regular School Board meeting began with a bang! The Board was encouraged to see almost 5 percent of TEA's membership take an active role relating to the negotiation process. Those TEA members present called for a public discussion of the Board's opening offer for salaries. With so much interest, and in response to those members' request, it may indeed be time for TEA and the Board to make their negotiations public. For example, at the Board meeting, one TEA union boss alleged that the Board engaged in "criminal" activity with regard to the "Governor's money" in 2006.

In an open dialogue we could discuss whether it was really "criminal" for TUSD to spend the "Governor's money" in the exact way that the Arizona Attorney General advised us [Opinion No. I07-003]. Further, a public negotiation process would provide a place to have a transparent conversation as it relates to the "insurance money" issue. In early May 2007, the School Board actually approached union leaders to work out a way for the district to pay for the insurance benefits our employees had received. We had hoped employees would not have to pay the money back. The unions did not accept the proposals and the district was forced to collect for the insurance benefits employees had enjoyed. Otherwise we would have been in violation of A.R.S. Const. Art. IX, §7 (2007), the giving away of taxpayer money. That truly would have been "criminal."

In any case, the Board does value its employees, students and parents. One charge that TEA made against the Board at the Aug. 14 meeting is true. The Board did choose to fund several student-centered initiatives this year including the lowering of class size and the funding of OMA (Opening Minds Through the Arts), which is a proven method for raising the test scores of all students in the program. In light of the fact that teachers have received increases, on average, of over $7,000 over the past previous three years as well as benefit increases of nearly $2,500, the Board thought it was time to focus some discussion and dollars on students in this budget year. However, the Board is working hard to cut our budget elsewhere in order to have room to negotiate up from our opening proposal. We look forward to TEA's salary proposal so that we can come to a swift conclusion of these negotiations. A timely agreement may allow us to make any salary increases for this year retroactive to July 1.

Formation of a TUSD Governing Board Audit Committee was approved through actions at Board meetings during the summer, and applications from community members were solicited. At the Aug. 14 Board meeting, these applicants were appointed to serve on the Committee for two years: Clifford Altfeld, Lea Marquez Peterson, Sandra Parker, Loretta Peto, and Mark Stegeman. The Committee was created to conduct effective financial/budgeting oversight and achieve greater transparency for the District. It will meet on a quarterly basis and report semi-annually or as needed to the full Board.

Approval of a Scope of Services for a Management Audit of TUSD and to issue a Request for Proposal from companies to perform the management audit was passed by the Board at the Aug. 14 meeting. A proposed timeline sets March 2008 for a report of the results to be presented to the Board.

The Board continues to focus on providing the means for TUSD students to achieve at the highest academic levels. Thank you for your continued support and assistance in our efforts to accomplish these goals.

--Joel T. Ireland
Governing Board President