TUSD schools at risk of having their magnet status withdrawn may get a reprieve following a two-day summit between the district and the desegregation plaintiffs.
Despite a sometimes adversarial history, the parties were able to start talks about the possibility of not only giving five schools additional time to improve integration but throwing more support and resources their way.
While the district does not have a formal document in hand ensuring the schools’ labels and funding are no longer on the chopping block, TUSD Superintendent H.T. Sanchez says he is optimistic.
“We were just happy they were entertaining the conversation — it didn’t start off that way,” Sanchez said of the plaintiffs. “But then it moved to a ‘what if’ situation and that’s where we said ‘let’s put more resources, let’s look at stipends for teacher retention, let’s look at money for advertising to get more integration’ and the conversation began to roll.”
The efforts, which would benefit Bonillas, Ochoa, Safford, Utterback and Cholla, could hopefully be covered with desegregation dollars if the plaintiffs approve, Sanchez said.
“I’m hopeful that the parents and others that have cited their opinions and thoughts along with our commitment to do what we need to do is enough to get (the plaintiffs) to say ‘all right, we’ll let the two-year plans roll,’ ” Sanchez told the Arizona Daily Star Tuesday night after parents crammed into the TUSD Governing Board meeting room, pleading for their programs and funding to be protected.
“The main reason I chose to go to Safford was because they had an outstanding magnet program,” Safford K-8 student Jasmun Noriega told the board. “We love the fact that they offer classes such as Spanish, band, Arabic and PE. … People say that people who speak more than one language will be more successful in life. By taking away the funding for these classes you are decreasing students’ chances for success further on in their life.”
The seventh-grader shared that the school’s International Baccalaureate program has taught students how to communicate and learn about the world they live in, as well as problem solving and conflict resolution.
Julian Garcia, a Cholla High School senior, told the Governing Board that those affected by this situation — students — have not had a voice in the matter.
“Over the years of being an IB student I know for a fact that it has helped me, my fellow students, past students and future students grow to become better as individuals and as leaders,” Garcia said. “Not only has it helped students like myself learn important life skills like responsibility and time management, it has also made us students realize that college is a reality other than just a distant dream.”
The Latino plaintiffs in the deseg case have long advocated that magnets be fully backed financially to ensure adequate and timely staffing, instructional programs and resources are in place to help schools meet integration and academic achievement requirements given that previous studies have shown that has not been the case.
Staffing continues to be an issue today with two magnet schools beginning the year with vacancies for about half of their allocated staff, said Sylvia Campoy, a representative for the Latino plaintiffs. Last year, one magnet school had 14 long-term substitute teachers in place.
Though the district says it brought forth the recommendations that are now being considered, the Latino plaintiffs say they initiated the talks with a proposal that came together over the last few days and that TUSD has agreed to begin working on the specifics required to make it work.
As part of their compliance proposal, the Latino plaintiffs call for a push to increase integration in beginning grade levels, a focus on closing the achievement gap, filling all vacancies by Nov. 1, ensuring the schools start next year without vacancies, and weekly monitoring of the efforts.
They also asked that nearly $1 million removed from magnet school budgets while their plans were being revised be reallocated.
The schools being considered for withdrawal of magnet status are in this position because of their inability to meet integration goals, which require them to demonstrate that they are approaching the overall requirement that no single ethnicity represent more than 70 percent of a school’s student body.
By next school year the schools are expected to fully achieve the goal despite the fact that TUSD is now a majority-minority district.
Though Special Master Willis Hawley — a national desegregation expert overseeing TUSD’s efforts to bring racial balance to its schools — recommended that the schools be stripped of their magnet labels, he expressed a desire to allow them to retain some of their existing funding, although it’s not clear how much.
In addition to magnet status, the parties discussed the role of learning support coordinators, Sanchez said.
Earlier this year, TUSD paid for an analysis to determine their effectiveness and is in the process of implementing recommendations to make better use of the nearly five dozen employees that account for nearly $3 million from the desegregation budget.
The audit found that there was a lack of clarity by the LSCs as to their function and role, as well as significant variances in the time devoted to various activities. Many reported taking on responsibilities outside of their job descriptions.
Sanchez says the LSCs are crucial to the district’s focus on keeping at-risk kids in school. The plaintiffs, however, want to see these employees, many of whom were teachers, back in the classroom, Sanchez said.
Another development that occurred in the weeks leading up to the meeting is Hawley’s decision to withdraw a request that the federal court force TUSD to pilot a study comparing principals’ analysis of teacher effectiveness to that of trained, independent evaluators.
Citing a concern that the reasoning behind the pilot would be misconstrued and the fact that the magnet situation would consume a lot of time and energy, Hawley agreed to using existing data to decide whether a different teacher evaluation system is needed.
