TUSD board split on district goals

Having previously been criticized for failing to include measurable goals in his annual objectives, TUSD Superintendent H.T. Sanchez did just that for the current school year.

At least one Governing Board member, however, feels the expectations set in the document are too low in two of the district’s most critical areas — enrollment and student achievement.

Sanchez is eligible for a bonus of $15,600 — 6 percent of his base salary — should he achieve 100 percent of the goals.

Rather than seeking to increase the number of students enrolled in Tucson’s largest district, Sanchez is working to maintain the existing population or ensure that TUSD does not lose more students than it normally has in the past.

In academic achievement, the expectation is that students score between 40 to 60 percent correct on district-created math and English language arts tests, allowing Sanchez to collect performance pay even if more than 13,000 students do not make the grade.

“I feel his priorities are lax,” said TUSD board member Michael Hicks. “I believe his goal should be bringing more kids back into the district, and if we had higher achievement, the students would come.”

Hicks, along with board member Mark Stegeman, voted against the superintendent’s goals.

For Sanchez, however, the bar is not set low, it’s set at a reasonable and attainable level.

“We had a conversation, and it was really more along the lines of what’s practical and what’s real,” Sanchez said of the goals he developed with input from the board.

In decreasing student loss, students are essentially being gained, Sanchez said.

“When I first came in, we were losing 1,500 kids; now we’re right around 550,” he said. “The work is, get to a point where there is no student loss and then let’s set goals for there to be increases in total enrollment.”

While Sanchez recognizes much of that work falls on his shoulders, he says he cannot do it without the help of the board.

“There was an acknowledgment that the board can do equal good or equal damage with what they do and what they say and how they react and how they respond,” he said.

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The formula used to determine whether Sanchez met his goal boils down to losing fewer students than the average of the previous two years.

Sanchez feels the student academic achievement goals, which at most require 40 to 60 percent of students to pass the district-developed math and English tests, are also justifiable, even though traditionally a student earning a 60 percent on a test would receive a letter grade of D.

“It’s not a softball test,” Sanchez said of the district-developed assessment. “It’s tied to the AzMERIT — with that level of rigor — and that’s where we begin. It’s a starting point, not an ending point.”

The tests are being administered in the first, second and third quarters with 20 to 40 percent of second- through 10th-graders expected to pass initially, 30 to 50 percent passing midway, and 40 to 60 percent passing by the final administration.

Given that education officials have warned families that in the initial years student scores on the state test would be low, Sanchez feels the metrics are realistic. He is also taking into account, as the state does, those students who may not pass the test, but show tremendous growth.

The reason the scores are not based on the state assessment, as has been the case in the past, is because the results are not being released before the superintendent’s evaluation has to be conducted.

If the results can be made available in a more timely fashion in the future, the goals would be adjusted, Sanchez said. He expects the percentage of students required to pass to rise with time on not only his evaluation, but for teacher evaluations as well, which contain the same criteria.

When looked at comprehensively, board president Adelita Grijalva feels the superintendent’s goals reflect what the district needs.

“Ideally, we want 100 percent of our students to be passing and we want 1,500 more students,” she said. “But the goals we approved will be hard to meet. It will not be easy for the superintendent or the district.”

The goals incorporated into the 20-plus page document focus on communication, curriculum, diversity, facilities and finance.

Within that, Sanchez is calling for a successful bond election in November 2016, assuming the board approves the package he plans to bring forth by the end of this school year.

As part of that, TUSD has committed to effectively communicating and educating stakeholders on the finances of the district.