Focus on TUSD - August 2007

Department News

Thanks to all who helped get our school facilities ready for the start of the year!
TUSD employees who helped move furniture in the District before school started were:
Property & Furniture Control: Daniel Armenta, Roberto Alvarez, Oscar Corral, Pedro Munoz, Theresa Hurley, Pat Kirkpatrick, Mike Lewis, Ruben Montejano and Rey Bussari.
Transportation Summer Help: Rosalba Ayon and Aldaberto "Guedo" Godoy.

Property Control, the Furniture Shop, some ICS, some roving custodians and some grounds maintenance employees worked additional hours during the last two weeks to make sure that the renovated areas of Pueblo Magnet High School were ready for teachers and students to return to school.
Property & Furniture Control: Daniel Armenta, Roberto Alvarez, Oscar Corral, Pedro Munoz, Theresa Hurley, Pat Kirkpatrick, Mike Lewis, Ruben Montejano, Richard Llamas and Rey Bussari.
Roving Custodians: Johnny Sanchez, Charles Chavez, Frank Martinez, John Cruz, Armando Reyes, George Dobson, Rosa Peters, Reynaldo Contreras, Fred Melendez, Jonathan Esquivel, Thomas Wilson, John Granillo, Richard Arand and Ray Borquez.
ICS: David Aquino, Cal Rushing, Debbie Shoemaker, Wayne Womeldorf, Jesus Navarro and Mario Favela.
Roving Grounds: Howard "Red" Crawford.

Welcome back from Human Resources
The Human Resources Department welcomes all new and returning staff for the new school year.
TUSD has recruited some of the nation's best talent for our school. The Human Resources Department hosted recruitment fairs including the new Teacher Pool process, the New Teacher Round Up and the Last Call Job Fair.

During the summer, Payroll was transferred from the Human Resources Department to the Financial Services Department. Payroll is now in the Hugh Summers Building (Building B), at 1010 E. 10th St., just inside the entrance off of Fremont Street.

Health Insurance Open Enrollment
It's time for health insurance open enrollment. If you plan to change your insurance elections, you must submit your form to the Benefits Office no later than noon Friday, Aug. 31. Here are some of the employee benefits that TUSD offers:

• District paid HMO health insurance for full-time benefit eligible employees (The District paid amount is prorated for less than full-time employees).
• A new health insurance plan called "High Deductible Health Plan" (HDHP). This plan carries an optional "Health Savings Account" (HSA) for employees looking for a medical savings tool and do not have high medical costs.
• The Aetna HMO costs have been reduced this year. This means less out-of-pocket premium costs for employees.

Summer institutes focus on artistry and student learning
It has been an exciting and active summer for the Fine and Performing Arts Department and the Opening Minds Through the Arts (OMA) program. In late May and late July, 213 teachers, arts integration specialists, principals, assistant principals and band and orchestra teachers participated in two one-week Fine Arts Summer Institutes and OMA Teaching Artist Summer Institutes.

Participants strengthened their skills in planning and executing collaboratively-created arts integration lessons for their students while honing their own skills and artistry. Joining these educators were 38 new OMA teaching artists and 34 returning teaching artists during the concurrently running Teaching Artist Summer Institute, affording opportunities for collaborative teams at OMA schools to enrich their connections and plans for the new year.

Guest presenters inspired and challenged all of us to deepen our thinking about the power of the arts and their integration with curriculum standards while addressing the theme of this year's Institutes, "Unlock Your Artistry: Keys to Successful Learning." Bobbi McKean, associate professor at the University Of Arizona School Of Theatre Arts, guided participants through the process of art integration highlighting five important keys to involve in the process of arts infused integration.

Covering topics based on the elements of observation, understanding, application, artistry and response, McKean challenged us to go deeply into the work of inter-curricular and multi-arts integration, while focusing on artistry and learning for the students.

Dr. Peter Loel Boonshaft, Professor of Music, Director of Bands and Graduate Conductors at Hofstra University in Hampstead, New York, excited and motivated the Band and Orchestra teachers with his passionate and student centered approach to teaching music and directing bands and orchestras. He will return to the District for further presentations in September during a Band and Orchestra Staff gathering.

OMA continues to expand in the elementary and middle schools. This year, 19,000 students in 39 elementary schools and four middle schools will benefit from the renewal, training and planning the staff received during this summer's Institutes. Their lives were enriched due to the dedication of an incredibly talented and caring staff, and the time spent focused on the appreciation of the quality that arts and arts integration bring to our and our students' lives.

A hearty thank you to the members of the OMA Design Team and the staff of the Fine and Performing Arts Department for offering such rich professional development opportunities, and more are coming throughout the year. For more information, call Wamer at 225-4708.

-- By Rick Wamer
OMA Program Coodinator

Technology Department upgrades improve delivery of services
Mojave student record software upgraded
Over the summer, the Technology Department's Mojave Team extensively upgraded Mojave, the District's student record management system that was developed in-house by our programmers.

During the past year, the Mojave Team rewrote the core of the software, particularly in the enrollment area, allowing users, for example, to:

• Enroll a student in multiple schools simultaneously.
• Enroll students in JTED classes.
• Add a student to Mojave without enrolling them at a school.
• Add addresses for students' contacts.
• Validate an address to ensure that it is legitimate.
• View a student's photograph as part of the student's demographic information.
• Add and remove blocks on-the-fly in the Student window.

The Mojave Team is, front row, from the left, Rob Hugo, Griffith Thomas, Doug Myer, Karen Jones, and back row, Maura Padia, Vikki Gibbons, Yolanda Perez, Richard House, Michelle Fowler and Jessica Coltrin.

Online technology service updated
District staff can now check Technology Services Intranet home page for service updates in the Service Updates area, which is updated frequently with news about computer network and phone service for schools and departments. Staff members will also find information about scheduled maintenance and other reminders there.

TUSD employees, who are signed onto a computer on the District Intranet, should type serviceupdates in the address area of Internet Explorer and click ENTER to go directly to the Technology Services intranet home page.

"Exploring Our Technology Resources" workshop at conference
Participants in the Back-to-School Conference learned about new Mojave enhancements; computing best practices; computer tips, tricks, and troubleshooting; combating computer security threats; and how to use technical support services.

Staff presenters were John Bratcher, Jackie DuPont, Vikki Gibbons, Paul Marcek, Rusty Martin, Donna Mattix, Keith Mooney and Thomas Purtell.

Site-Based Absence Time Entry available
Authorized school and department administrative staff members who use PeopleSoft, the District's human resources software, can now do site-based absence time entries, allowing them to enter employee absence data directly into PeopleSoft each pay period. Currently, central department employees perform their own absence time entry in PeopleSoft.

Technology Services is now providing absence time entry training for school administrative staff. After Labor Day, Technology Services will pilot site-based absence time entry at 20 schools so that school staff will be trained to do their own absence time entry by the end of the 2007 calendar year. Site-based users are also now using PeopleSoft to print their own absence sheets.

-- By Jim Sattler
TS Technical Writer