Superintendent H.T. Sanchez was awarded nearly $15,000 in performance pay by the Tucson Unified School District Governing Board on Tuesday night.
The bonus is based on Sanchez achieving five sets of goals over the last year in the areas of communication, curriculum, diversity, facilities and finance.
Each category was worth a maximum of $3,120, for a total of $15,600. The board determined he achieved 95.5 percent of his goals overall, for a payout of $14,898.
Sanchez pledged to donate his bonus to Camp Cooper, which provides camping experiences in the desert to elementary and middle school students from across the region.
A presentation by Sanchez and his team showed he achieved 100 percent of the goals in the areas of facilities and finance but fell short in communication, curriculum and diversity.
As far as communication is concerned, Sanchez and his staff were tasked with promoting the districtβs goals among staff. Specifically, a survey was created to increase awareness of district initiatives, with the hope that 70 percent of staff would complete it. The district, however, did not attain 70 percent participation, and the survey revealed low awareness of district goals.
Poor timing contributed to the low participation, said Stephanie Boe, TUSD spokeswoman. The survey was conducted in May and the school year ended the week of May 23. In the future the survey will be administered at a different time of year, Boe said.
In the area of curriculum, the district set out to ensure all third-year teachers and beyond meet the needs of every learner by delivering curriculum that engages students. At least 96 percent of those teachers must be proficient in using effective questioning and discussion techniques.
However, only 93.2 percent of teachers were proficient in that area.
Also, all designated support personnel were required to attend bi-weekly professional development sessions. They were then required to conduct a self-assessment. About a handful of employees failed to meet the standards. The final area where Sanchez failed to achieve 100 percent of his goals was diversity.
The district was tasked with piloting after-school language programs at five elementary campuses. Only three of the five have implemented their identified language and culture programs: Fruchthendler with Korean, Roberts-Naylor with Spanish and Soleng Tom with Chinese.
Wright Elementary will implement an Arabic program next school year. Maxwell will offer an Arabic program but no instructor has been hired. The instructor at Wright may split time between the two campuses.
Some board members have expressed concerns about whether the standards are high enough.
For example, rather than seeking to increase the number of students enrolled in TUSD, Sanchez is working to maintain the existing population or ensure the attrition rate stays level.
The academic achievement goals require at most 40 to 60 percent of students to pass district-developed math and English tests, even though traditionally a student earning a 60 percent on a test would receive a letter grade of D.
TUSD data shows more than half of the students who were tested failed to make the grade but Sanchez was awarded 100 percent credit for that goal.
Board members Michael Hicks and Mark Stegeman voted against awarding the bonus while board President Adelita Grijalva, clerk Kristel Foster and member Cam Juarez supported it.
Math meterials approved
In other business, TUSD students will soon have access to updated math materials after the governing board approved the adoption of K-12 textbooks.
While such an undertaking would normally cost millions of dollars, TUSD proposed the use of free research-based online materials that were created in part by the New York State Education Department.
The Eureka Math curriculumβs lessons and assessments are aligned with Arizonaβs new standards.
