Focus on TUSD - October 2006

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Please tell us about the wonderful things happening in your school. It's easy! Just submit a Focus Online Submission Form and the Communications & Media Relations Department will do the rest.

If you'd like your story included in the November Focus, send your submission by noon, Nov. 6, 2006.

Board President Notes
Although the TUSD Focus has been on hiatus, your Governing Board has not. I am pleased and honored to represent the TUSD Governing Board as its Board President. During the first nine months of 2006 the Governing Board diligently has been working on many issues confronting the District to improve the provision of education in order to increase the academic achievement of all our students. To set the foundation on which the District will base the implementation of TUSD's mission statement, "… to assure that each pre-K through 12th-grade student receives an engaging, rigorous and comprehensive education," the Board continued its Strategic Planning process, using the initial six areas developed in February 2005:

• increasing student achievement,
• addressing increasing diversity in our student population,
• improving internal and external communication,
• balancing the budget,
• addressing parent/student choice of schools,
• and improving and increasing collaboration among the district's stakeholder groups.

On April 11, 2006, the Board adopted its Strategic Goals.

Some highlights of other developments since the beginning of the year are:

• On Feb. 14, 2006, the Superintendent informed the Board that the practice of dual principalships would be discontinued for the 2006-2007 school year. The eight schools that had been assigned four principals for 2005-2006 - Carrillo Intermediate School, Borton Elementary School, Van Horne Elementary School, Richey K-8 School, Drachman Primary Magnet School, Holladay Intermediate School, Wrightstown Elementary School and Jefferson Park Elementary School - have each been assigned its own principal since the beginning of the 2006-2007 school year.
• Also on Feb. 14, the Board took action on a class-size proposal for the 2006-2007 school year and approved the ratio of 18:1 for all kindergarten classes and for first grades in 41 schools, and instructed staff to develop a long-range plan for reducing class size in all schools.
• On July 11, the Board approved the Fiscal Year 2006-2007 budget for TUSD along with authorizing the sale of $10 million in Bonds in an August Bond offering.
• 2006-2007 was declared The Year of the Classroom and began with a kickoff address by Gov. Janet Napolitano at the Back to School Conference for all TUSD employees at the Tucson Convention Center.
• In November, TUSD will participate with several other Pima County school districts in an election to form a Joint Technological Education District, which will offer important technical/vocational learning options and expanded career opportunities to its students.

From my perspective as a TUSD Pueblo High School alumnus, it is indeed an exciting road ahead and one that promises an even better Tucson Unified School District.

--Adelita Grijalva, Board President

From the Superintendent
What Is This Professional Development Thing?

I recently read an article by one of my favorite columnists, Dale Dauten. He calls himself the Corporate Curmudgeon and he writes about better business practices. In a recent article published in the Arizona Daily Star, Dauten describes a paradox he calls the "dirty car folly." It goes like this: For an entrepreneur it would seem if you see a lot of dirty cars around, it would make sense to consider starting a carwash business. The paradox is the distinct possibility that these drivers aren't interested in having their cars washed and that's why their cars are dirty! The counter-intuitive approach could be to look for areas where all the cars are clean. That's where you'll find drivers that will use a handy carwash.

In TUSD we allocate a lot of resources to the further development and education of our staff at all levels. For teachers in particular, the challenges of high expectations, the changing demographics, and the array of new practices to address these challenges explain why teaching professionals need to have access to professional learning opportunities. The paradox in our situation is that before a teacher can improve how they teach, they must first learn how to learn. They need, as Dale Dauten explained, to "learn from their students - learn what needs to be learned, and how and when." This is the new paradigm shift we have been addressing in our professional development activities. It is no longer about teaching; it is about learning. Dale Dauten again: "Only when every attempt to teach is an experiment does real learning take place. They learn and (teachers) learn from watching them learn."

I salute all the principals, assistant principals, instructional coaches, counselors, librarians, special education teachers, and our classroom parapros and educational support staff who are engaged in professional and personal development programs and activities that open up the doors of learning for themselves and, therefore, to their students.

It is an exciting journey loaded with many, sometimes paradoxical, challenges and I believe we can meet all of them by working together for kids.

--Roger F. Pfeuffer, Superintendent