Maintenance & Operations Budget: Accountability Questions

As a TUSD Governing Board Member, I would ask:

·      The Revenue Control Limit (RCL)

o   How Daily Route Miles and the Teacher Experience Index are employed in calculating the M&O budget.

o   What system does TUSD use to ensure that the extra monies TUSD receives from the State on behalf of individual children (for impairments, etc.) actually benefit from those individual children (see A.R.S. § 15-943)?

o   What systems has TUSD put in place to recruit students to the district?

o   What system does TUSD have in place to recruit teachers whose average years of experience exceed the State of Arizona average (as referenced in A.R.S. § 941)?

·      The Transportation Revenue Control Limit (A.R.S. §§ 15-945, -946).

o   How can we better utilize funds to transport students? 

o   How to ensure that only eligible students follow eligible route miles.

·      Capital Outlay Revenue Limit (CORL)

o   How can TUSD close outdated buildings to save money, as recommended in the Gibson Efficiency Audit, rather than increase the budget by override?

o   If override makes the most sense, how can TUSD better use funds to prevent issues and invest in updated technologies?

o   How to increase salaries by lowering fixed costs.

o   Partnering with the University of Arizona to more effectively use of funds to train teachers, not administrators.

·      Desegregation

o   Ensuring that all funds are spent on desegregation efforts—not just on paper, but in reality, as evidenced by the student achievement rates of black and Latino students in TUSD.

·      Dropout prevention

o   Response to intervention—what system does TUSD have in place to ensure that each student is receiving the assistance he or she needs to achieve at his or her highest potential?

o   What research-based strategies has TUSD employed to ensure that all students graduate with an appropriate (tailored), high quality education?

o   Prop 202—how does TUSD use 50% of the fund to increase teacher salaries?  Drop-out prevention?  Reading programs and the like?  How can these funds be better utilized?

·      Additions to the Budget (Tuition, Budget Balance Carryover).

o   Classroom Site Fund (Prop 301)

§  How to ensure that teachers receive 100% of Prop 301 monies. 

o   Government sponsored projects—how many federal and state projects has TUSD applied to complete?  What additional projects or applications are planned?

o   How has TUSD reduced food costs?

o   How has TUSD ensured that the local community takes advantage of the extracurricular tax credit?

o   How can community schools be better utilized to serve the local community?

o   Has the board eliminated the use of hard copies?  Have they reduced their office staff to one person?  

o   Does the district have a sufficient or excessive cash balance?

Community Support Draft Statement

Though I am a political new-comer, I have garnered a great deal of support in the community, and I am working on building more every day.  I have taken advantage of the many free resources that technology provides, including Facebook, Twitter, and the ability to host my own blog and website.  Thus far, I have raised over a thousand dollars (in just over a month), but I understand that this race will require more.  So, I have enlisted the services of a campaign manager who will help to focus my campaign the way the Gibson efficiency audit will help to focus the TUSD school board.  Also, as a result of the years I spent teaching, I have many friends who teach in TUSD.  They have helped me to learn more about TUSD and other local districts, garner support among teachers and other school staff, and focus my preparations for this school board race.  Last, I am prepared to spend my own money, as necessary.  However, the position I seek is a volunteer one, and I do not believe that it should be necessary to spend exorbitant sums to better direct a school district.  In fact, doing the opposite might better show one’s capacity to spend and save wisely.  Even so, I understand that politics is what it is.  Thus, I will continue to fundraise, network, and spread my name in an effort to improve Tucson’s public schools.

Personal Statement Draft 2

I am bicultural and bilingual, and I have an M.S.Ed. from the University of Pennsylvania and more than ten years of teaching experience in the United States and abroad (in Italy, Spain, and Colombia).  I have taught elementary, middle, and high school English (and other subjects) in private, public, and charter schools, both online and on site.  I have been Principal, Curriculum Writer, and Education Consultant, and I have earned more than 100 credits studying education and leadership at the graduate and doctoral levels.  Now, I am a third-year law student at the University of Arizona, James E. Rogers College of Law; a 38(d) Certified Limited-Practice Student in the Pima County Juvenile Courts who represents children involved in dependencies with the State; and a Family Law Clerk for a private law firm.  I have learned the benefits of hard work, I know how to study, and I love learning—in short, I am committed to education, both my own and other’s.  As such, I will read the material and do whatever work necessary to succeed as a TUSD school board member and to, ultimately, raise achievement levels in TUSD. 

Currently, each of the school members seem to have the best intentions: to help improve the public schools in TUSD.  However, academic achievement rates in TUSD have stagnated over the years, and the Unitary Status Plan remains unfulfilled.  The problem is not evil intentions or even ineptitude; it is simpler than that—I noticed as an audience member in several TUSD school board meetings.  What I noticed is that most of the governing board members were not prepared or not paying attention.  As such, the bulk of the time in meetings is spent discussing irrelevant issues, things that have little to no impact on improving student achievement rates in the District.  The result is that achievement rates do not change.  TUSD deserves board members who will focus, who will put in the time necessary to read and understand materials provided before each vote, and who will also set an agenda that ensures that they are governing TUSD effectively, not riding along enjoying the status quo. 

To be prepared, I would request that the board be provided all materials with plenty of time to review them, and I would take active part in making requests to set the agenda.  The job of the school board, as a whole, is to ensure that the superintendent performs well.  That has not been the case thus far.  I am willing and prepared to ask the questions that focus everyone on the duties that first, improve student achievement and second, improve the efficiency and effectiveness of TUSD's schools.