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November 2004
Please tell us about the wonderful things happening in your
school. It's easy! Just submit a media
tip sheet online and the Public Relations department will
do the rest.
At its last meeting on Nov. 9 the Board focused on student
issues including a presentation by the America-Israel Friendship
League ambassadors and their Israeli visitors, a report from
the Student Advisory Council, an update on enrollment and
recruitment at TUSD magnet schools, and a briefing on the
status of the new Davidson Elementary School. The student
matters are always the most gratifying aspects of the Board's
work.
Thank You for Passing TUSD's Bond
Since we talked last, the voters in TUSD have made several
important decisions about our future. We are extremely excited
that a majority showed great confidence in the District by
approving a $235 million bond in the Nov. 2 election. The
money will be used for district improvements such as increased
student safety, improved athletic facilities, and building
upgrades.
On a related note, the Board has recently appointed four
new members to the Bond Oversight Committee. The appointees
now include: Larry Finuf, the president of Wells Fargo Bank
in Tucson; Gary Hardy, recent winner of the Roy P. Drachman
Community Achievement Award and local realtor; Laura Pendleton-Miller,
a UHS parent and independent financial consultant; and, Patricia
Taylor, an active community member and retired Raytheon employee.
We plan to add additional members to the committee and continue
to look particularly for TUSD parents with diverse backgrounds
and viewpoints to serve. I encourage you to call the Board
office at 225-6070 if you have a recommendation for an appointment.
Welcome New Board Member
The Board is also thrilled to welcome our newest
member, Alex Rodriguez. Alex is currently a business development
manager at Raytheon and formerly served as a policy analyst
at the Pentagon. He is quickly integrating himself into life
as a Board member by meeting with current Board members, Superintendent
Pfeuffer, and Board office staff. He plans to attend a new
Board member orientation in the beginning of December.
Roskruge Bilingual Magnet School Cafeteria Named
for Julia S. Lopez
Finally, an item of particular interest to me since
I live in the Roskruge neighborhood is the naming of the Roskruge
Bilingual Magnet School cafeteria in honor of longtime district
employee Julia S. Lopez. Ms. Lopez served the children at
Roskruge for over 30 years as a cafeteria monitor and has
actively participated in the school's PTA and other endeavors
while four of her children and 12 grandchildren attended the
school. Congratulations to Julia and her entire family.
December Board Meeting to Honor Dr. McCorkle
I encourage you all to attend the December 14th meeting
when the district will honor Dr. Mary Belle McCorkle as she
retires from 12 years of service on the Board. Mary Belle
has devoted her entire life to TUSD and the education of its
children. However, we are not saying good-bye but just hail
and farewell to this pillar of education in Tucson.
Joel T. Ireland
The
month of November has been a mixture of progress and disappointment
for TUSD. Voters on Nov. 2 approved a $235 million bond program
designed to fix physical plant problems and create needed
additions. I'd like to thank the voters for their support.
The disappointment was that those voters also defeated two
budget increase questions, one for maintenance and operations
(for programs and positions to staff them) and one for capital
expenditures (for equipment, furniture and computers).
After some analysis of the election, I feel there were several
reasons for voters passing the bond and not the two budget
increases. As a colleague said to me recently, "I've never
learned much from an election I won." And he's right. It's
in the analysis of your defeats and your setbacks that you
learn the most. So, we go on, unable to do some of the programs
such as class size reduction and Opening Minds Through the
Arts (OMA), or additional counselors and librarians, but we
will have a significant remodeling and building program that
will ensure our facilities for the future.
I look forward to the challenges of increasing student achievement,
developing classroom, school, and district leadership skills
for our employees, reforming our high schools into smaller
learning communities, and redefining parent involvement in
our schools and with their children. So, while the blessings
have been mixed, the challenges and the excitement of successfully
meeting those challenges remains.
May this holiday season bring excitement and the blessing
of peace to you all.
Roger Pfeuffer
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TUSD
Focuses on Multi-Cultural Students |
Ray Chavez, a doctoral candidate at Harvard University's
Graduate School of Education, is the newly appointed Executive
Director of the Multicultural Education Division. Under Ray's
leadership this new entity in TUSD will focus its energy to
combine the existing ethnic studies departments, African American,
Mexican American/Raza, Native American, and Pan Asian Studies
under one umbrella in order to maximize the rich variety of
talent, resources, and experiences within the staff to benefit
all children. While each department will continue to implement
the mandates set by its community, Chavez states, "I'm
not only picking up (the District's past and current
efforts) but also starting something new."
Chavez says the new focus "is to get the entire district
to go beyond, get beyond, the notion that diversity is tolerance.
Is that as far as we want to go?" According to Ray,
success in the world community requires a different way of
thinking and if we want our children to flourish they must
be able to communicate at a high level; achieve high levels
of math; embrace science; use and manipulate technology; and,
learn how to work and thrive in a work place that is increasingly
diverse.
These goals will be accomplished through increased curriculum
development and classroom teaching, empowerment conferences
for students and parents, student leadership conferences and
workshops, professional development opportunities, and other
programs designed to instill an academic identity, not only
in our target populations, but in all students. The Multicultural
Education Division will work closely with schools, supporting
them in the Pyramid of Intervention and in the search for
proactive solutions in serving children.
STAR-EYEWITNESS
4 STUDENT OF THE WEEK: Rhett Stoyer from the
Arizona Daily Star 11/16/04
TUSD
CHANGES PROCESS FOR SWITCHING SCHOOLS from the
Arizona Daily Star 11/11/04
HE'S
GOT LEGS: Retreat offers bugs, sun, cookies from
the Tucson Citizen 11/10/04
STEREOTYPES
COME TUMBLING DOWN from the Arizona Daily Star
11/6/04
THE
VALUE OF EXERCISE: Booth-Fickett middle schoolers lead Hudlow
youngsters' activities from the Arizona Daily
Star 11/6/04
CARMONA
ENCOURAGES STUDENTS TO EAT WELL, LEAD HEALTHY LIVES
from the Arizona Daily Star 11/5/04
800
FROM 5 SCHOOLS ATTEND SESSION from the Arizona
Daily Star 11/5/04
STAR-EYEWITNESS
4 STUDENT OF THE WEEK: Katie Alix Twilling from
the Arizona Daily Star 11/2/04
D-M
KIDS MARCH AGAINST DRUGS from the Arizona Daily
Star 11/1/04
SCHOOL'S
QUEST IS TO BOOST READING from the Arizona Daily
Star 10/25/04
MAKE
A DIFFERENCE DAY: Volunteers, donors brighten smiles at Ochoa
School from the Arizona Daily Star 10/24/04
STUDENTS
WRITE TO THANK STAR READERS from the Arizona
Daily Star 10/24/04
STAR
READERS TAKING OCHOA UNDER THEIR WING from the
Arizona Daily Star 10/22/04
2
EDUCATORS HONORED FOR WORK, DEDICATION from the
Tucson Citizen 10/21/04
DONORS
GENEROUS TO OCHOA STUDENTS from the Arizona Daily
Star 10/20/04
AUTOIMMUNE
DISEASE: Comeback kid from the Tucson Citizen
10/19/04
OCHOA'S
ALUMNI ARE MAKING A DIFFERENCE from the Arizona
Daily Star 10/17/04
C-SPAN
BUS GIVES STUDENTS ELECTION FORUM from the Tucson
Citizen 10/15/04
AT
TUCSON HIGH, A HEARTY NOD FOR KERRY from the
Arizona Daily Star 10/15/04
TUCSONANS
CAN MAKE A KID'S DAY AT OCHOA from the Arizona
Daily Star 10/15/04
MAKE
A DIFFERENCE DAY FOCUSES ON OCHOA SCHOOL from
the Arizona Daily Star 10/13/04
25
SIGN UP TO WORK WITH KIDS AT OCHOA from the Arizona
Daily Star 10/10/04
DRILL
TEAM: Girls with tools teaches Corbett neighborhood 8- to
15-year-olds how to work with their hands from
the Tucson Citizen 10/8/04
WALK
TO SCHOOL DAY: Steppin' out to classes from the
Tucson Citizen 10/7/04
OCHOA
3RD-GRADER HAS OWN PRIORITIES from the Arizona
Daily Star 10/6/04
OCHOA
ALREADY FEELING THE LOVE from the Arizona Daily
Star 10/3/04
TUSD-TV, the district's education channel
available on Cox and Comcast cable systems, received a $25,000
donation in August from Access Tucson to revitalize its program
services. Thanks to the donation viewers can now turn to Cox
channel 95 or Comcast channel 71 to view a blend of student
productions, local programming and shows available via satellite.
Seventeen schools recently earned a total
of $25,200 for demonstrating conservation, improving efficiency,
and using renewable resources from July 1, 2003 through June
30, 2004 through the district's Resources Efficiency
Awareness Program, also known as REAP. The following is a
list of the winning schools and the monetary award they received:
Hohokam, $5,000; Utterback,
$4,000; Ford, $3,000; Blenman,
Carson, and Santa Rita,
$2,000 each; Johnson, Ochoa,
Hughes, Manzo, Holladay,
Sewell, Davis, Robins,
Wakefield, Soleng Tom, Ford,
and Cavett, $600 each.
Karissa Richardson, third-grade teacher
at Collier, and Collier parent Leah Mercer
have been awarded a grant by the Tucson Water Gardeners Association
to build a pond complete with fish, water, and plants. The
pond will give students the opportunity to study an ecosystem
including observation of evaporation through hands-on measurement.
Collier received $468 at the pond's groundbreaking on Nov.
1 and will receive further funding, up to $1500, as the project
continues.
Three TUSD teachers are among the seven finalists in Pima
County for the 2005 Rodel Exemplary Teacher Award. They are:
Sam Cooper, Cragin; Nancy Tomlinson,
Cragin; and, McClaire Brown, Blenman. The
finalists will be featured throughout the month in the Arizona
Daily Star.
The UA/Circle K Outstanding High School Teacher of the Year
Award finalists were announced earlier this month naming Gary
Slagel, Pueblo, John Willy, Tucson
High, and Emil Lamanda, Santa Rita, among
those chosen. The finalists will attend a UA basketball game
and be featured on KOLD 13 news.
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| Snapshots from the district's Student Teacher and Nurses Reception on Nov. 16 at Pima Community College. |
The San Xavier Kiwanis club recognized the following four
students as Student of the Month for October: Randi
Stevens, Pueblo; Andrea Federico,
Project MORE; Robert Encinas, Cholla; and,
Samantha Gallego, Tucson High. The winners
were taken to breakfast at the Royal Sun Inn, presented with
a plaque and are eligible to be chosen as student of the year
in May.
Tully's Cristina Giron-Molina was the only
student out of over 400 participants from Arizona to be named
a winner in an international poster contest sponsored by the
Mexican Consulate. Students were required to incorporate Mexican
colors, food, tradition, or culture into their artwork. As
winner, Cristina was awarded a week-long trip to Mexico City
for herself and a family member.
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Interim
Superintendent Roger Pfeuffer presents Tolson student
Jose Paredes with a backpack of books and school supplies,
a gift certificate to Blockbuster Video, and a radio.
Jose was the school's 40,000 book recipient through the
Reading Is Fundamental program, which distributes one
free book and pencil three times per year to each student.
Begun by Barbara Casanova and Ella Gomez in 1990, the
program is sponsored by Albertsons, the Coca-Cola Company,
and other major corporations. |
Volunteer Coordinator Workshop: The Office
of Grants Accountability will hold a volunteer coordinator
workshop geared to help schools develop a strong volunteer
program from 2 p.m. to 3:30 p.m. on Thursday, Dec. 2 at Lawrence
Intermediate, 4850 W. Jeffrey Rd. Sites are encouraged to
send a two-person team including both a certified and classified
staff member to the event. Participants will receive a volunteer
coordinator resource notebook, Reading Seed tutor training
materials, the book Training the Reading Team, and activities
for building an effective volunteer tutoring program. To register
please contact Abby Dominguez at 225-6430 or by email.
Free Workshop For Educators: The National
Hearing Conservation Association and the Oregon Health and
Science University will be offering a free workshop for K-12
educators about how to prevent noise-induced hearing loss
and tinnitus. Participants will be introduced to creative
activities that can be used in the classroom to teach students
about the importance of hearing loss prevention. The workshop
will be from 4:30 p.m. to 6:30 p.m. on Thursday, Feb. 24 at
the Doubletree Hotel on Alvernon. To register or for more
information contact Linda Howarth by email or call her at
503-494-5656.
Middle And High School Teachers Wanted:
Teen Speak Out 2004 is a districtwide event in which middle
and high school students research, write about and then discuss
issues concerning the jury system in a forum setting with
school administrators, law enforcement officials and other
policymakers. The forum will take place on May 5 at Cholla.
Participating teachers will receive a detailed teacher's manual,
on-line legal resources from the American Bar Association,
a list of attorneys and program volunteers who can be classroom
speakers, and support from the Teen Speak Out staff. To learn
more or to register email Kathie Schang or call 225-4120.
Contest For Child Heroes: The H.P. Anderson,
Sr. Citizenship Award honors an Arizona child age five to
17 for performing a heroic act during 2004. The award includes
a $3,500 cash prize. To enter, parents or legal guardians
must submit a one-page essay describing the child's heroism
and stating why he or she deserves the award. In addition,
photos and letters of recommendation will be accepted. Essays
must be received by Feb. 11 to the following address: Anderson
Security Agency, 2555 W. Morningside Dr., Phoenix, AZ, 85023
or online at www.andersonsecurity.com. For more information
call (602) 331-7000.
Las Posadas Reunion: La Pilita Museum is
hosting the first annual exhibit of the memories of Las Posadas,
held by Carillo Intermediate, titled "Recuerdos de Las
Posadas," now through the end of 2004. Celebrating the
67-year tradition, the exhibit includes historical photos,
student-written informational articles, and various other
artifacts from past years of the event. The opening reception
will be held at 1 p.m. on Dec. 5 in the La Pilita Museum Gallery,
440 S. Main. For more information call Joan Daniels or Carol
Cribbet-Bell at 882-7454. Museum hours are 11 a.m. to 4 p.m.
Monday through Friday.
Learn How To Maximize Your School Health Program:
TUSD's Comprehensive Health Department is holding a workshop
titled "Coordinated Resources for Educational Wellness
Team Training" for middle and high schools that would
like to expand and strengthen their school health program.
Sites are encouraged to send a group of four to five people
from the school community who will learn to work together
to maximize resources and expertise in addressing the healthy
development of children, youth, and their families, as well
as plan and evaluate substance abuse, violence prevention,
and health promotion programs at the site. The workshop will
be from 8:30 a.m. to 4 p.m. on Dec. 8 at the Viscount Suites
Hotel, 4855 E. Broadway Blvd., and 8 a.m. to 3 p.m. on Dec.
9 in the Blue Room at the Morrow Education Center, 1010 E.
Tenth St. By participating, your site will be eligible to
apply for mini-grants through the Comprehensive Health Department.
To register email Amanda Acevedo or call her at 225-3249.
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TEOP
hosted their annual Bosses Dinner and Silent Auction on
Oct. 14. To mark TEOP's 50th anniversary, the theme was
"Let's Spin Some Time Together!", a throw-back
to the 1950's era. Deputy Superintendent Patti Lopez (left)
and courier Joaquin Guerrero were two of the many who
enjoyed dancing the twist. The event raised $2,050 in
scholarship money to be awarded to TUSD students. Thanks
to all who participated! |
Tucson Unified School District
1010 East 10th Street, Tucson, Arizona, 85719
Governing Board
Joel T. Ireland, President; Judy Burns, Clerk; Bruce Burke;
Adelita Grijalva; Mary Belle McCorkle, Ed.D.
Interim Superintendent
Roger Pfeuffer
Interim Director of Public Relations
Estella Zavala
Communications Specialist/Writer
Jennea Moore
Tucson Unified School District does not discriminate
on the basis of race, color, national origin, sex, sexual
orientation, age, religion or disability in admission or access
to, or treatment or employment, in its educational programs
or activities.
For more information contact: