Kudos to the Catalina Unified School District Governing Board.
They do something that’s kind of rare in local politics and ask the chief executive to set out their goals and plans for the next year.
Then the district publicizes it for the public to witness.
Superintendent Denise Bartlett will present her 365-day plan Tuesday at the board meeting. It reminds me of that famous West Wing episode “Let Bartlet be Bartlet.” She of the double-T Bartletts.
Now, admittedly, some of her outline falls under the category of “I’m being superintendent. Get off me.” It’s normal stuff that a superintendent does on the job.
For instance, she will “Monitor, evaluate, and support implementation of Collaborative Inquiry Teams for school improvement.”
Whenever some administrator says their goal is to “monitor,” it means “I’m working. Don’t bother me.”
If Dylan or Maria ask me what I’m doing on a given day and my answer is “Monitoring the news,” that means “No. You aren’t getting a column.”
Same goes with “I will continue to …” It just means they’re going to keep doing what they are doing.
But Bartlett has some heavy lifting ahead of her, as she plans to implement changes in a program meant to improve the success and retention of new teachers.
It’s basically a big plan to use data to measure how well these teachers are progressing.
Keeping new teachers is a real challenge for all school districts and to put a specific plan into action means Bartlett is setting herself up for success or failure. Failure isn’t necessarily horrible if it leads to lessons learned that improve teacher retention later.
There’s a big difference between what she’s doing and “monitoring teacher retention.”
Good on Bartlett for not just accepting losing teachers as a fact of life, like some other districts do.
She also says she’ll ride herd over changes in how science, social studies and English Language Arts are taught.
That’s not monitoring. That’s tracking.
A climate survey is in the works, too. No, not that climate.
No CO2 will be emitted during this information gathering process.
Bartlett is referring to the working conditions across the district.
This also a bit brave, because bosses usually like to do one-way appraisals: “Worker, why do you suck? Why are you lucky to have a job?”
Asking workers why the bosses might suck is tempting a degree of fate other institutions aren’t often interested in doing. If they sucked, they wouldn’t be bosses, now would they?
There’s more to the report but that’s a primer on her plans for the year ahead.
Green and yellow
The Tucson Unified School District is set to purchase 10 electric buses with associated charging stations for the cool price of $6.4 million to be paid for by a federal grant and other sources.
As far s TUSD is concerned, it’s free and green. Let the Neo-Marxism begin!
Tucson Electric Power and investment tax credits will provide rebates of up to $1.6 million. While the federal grant will come from the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency.
District officials will ask the governing board Tuesday to accept the money and issue bonds – essentially IOUs to bond holders – to cover the upfront cost of $2.4 million.
The rebates only kick in if the charging stations are up and running by Dec. 31, 2025.
The board will also vote on approving a new sick leave buy-back policy.
The policy will allow employees with at least three years on the job to sell sick time in excess of 10 days at the 66 cents on the dollar for what they would be paid if they had taken the time.
However, there’s a caveat. To get the full benefit, the employee must work seven specific days: three prescribed by the school, three professional learning days and the last day of school.
Workers who show up just five of the seven days set aside will get 40 cents on the dollar of sick time bought back.
Less than that, employees are not eligible.
The plan is expected to cost the district no more than $1.7 million.
Final labor agreements with teachers, counselors, psychologists, administrators, white collar workers, research project managers and food service workers will also be up for a vote. As will contracts with the American Federation of State, County and Municipal Employees and the Communications Workers of America. Even non-bargaining workers get a deal.
It’s eight separate actions to re-up the major agreements that keep the district running.
The contracts are pretty much the same as the former deals.
The big difference is a change providing 30 days of paid time off for workers not eligible for coverage under the Family Medical Leave Act. Teachers will also get a new salary schedule that climbs all the way to $88,000 in annual salary for those breathing truly rarefied air. Those halfway up the step schedule would make $65,900.
Boardmembers will also vote on a new policy forbidding photographs or video recordings of anyone on a school’s grounds without the permission of the building administrator.
The exceptions are for the news media and parents legally on the grounds for a school event open to visitors.
Recordings made for district publications, newsletters or dissemination in the news media are also allowed.
What about old-school note taking?
We’ll see how this plays out vis-à-vis amendment numero uno.
Money for math
The Vail Unified School District Governing Board will discuss a suicide prevention plan. No further information was provided.
Really? No further information on suicide prevention? It precisely meets the definition of a life-and-death issue.
Changes to the district’s policy on property rentals are being fleshed out some. I guess that’s important.
Anyone more than 90 days delinquent on a payment will be denied further use of all Vail facilities until the amount is paid.
Then, the delinquent party will be denied the use of Vail property for an additional three months. That’ll show ’em.
Students in the Flowing Wells Unified School District would get $100 in cold, hard cash for completing accelerated Math 7, grade-8 algebra. Honors students in geometry and pre-calculus would also be eligible.
Students who complete Advanced Placement calculus would get the money and some would get $2,500 scholarships.
The David Lowell Foundation is providing the money for these incentives, should the district’s board approve the pilot program.
The governing board will also vote on the fiscal year 2025 capital plan, which assumes zero enrollment growth and is not asking the Arizona School Facilities Board for any new school construction.
New policies involving staff hiring, support staff leaves of absence, graduation requirements, school attendance and basic instruction will also get their second and final reading.
I bring this up to point out a quirk in how many governing bodies operate. School boards must vote on policies twice, as first and second readings.
Some cities require all ordinances be voted on twice and won’t take effect until 30 days after the second reading. It’s just something that’s sometimes done. So readers now know what “first reading” means.
The Amphitheater Unified School District will be doing a second readings on a number of policies they’ve already approved.
Then, they too will vote not to ask for a new school.
Origin story
The Rio Nuevo Facilities Board will get an update on the El Presidio redevelopment project.
Already, Rio Nuevo has put $500,000 into the streetscape at the spot of Tucson’s origin. Well, it’s European origin, anyway.
Various stakeholders – businesses, neighbors and national non-profit Project Public Spaces – have been working with Rio Nuevo for years to turn this part of downtown into something special.
The board will approve the strategic plan behind Downtown redevelopment, 25 years after voters approved the plan.
The board will also again take up discussions about a possible series of incentives for the Vertigo Winery, located near the Amtrack station. The item was up for talk during last month’s session but board members wanted to talk about it further in August.