TUSD Board, Superintendent have a lovely time in Music City, students denied instruments
Residents of the Tucson Unified School District read with alarm the recent report that the district was forced to severely cut spending on Fine Arts. According to the report, “Capital funding, which covers the cost of instruments, sheet music and uniforms, was cut by 99 percent in the district,” since 2012.
As a result of the dramatic cuts, Tucson Unified’s “capital funding for fine arts was just under $2,300,” according to the report.
According to the Auditor General “between fiscal years 2001 and 2014, Arizona’s total operational spending per pupil increased 41 percent.”
So many are wondering where TUSD’s money went. After all, it does receive more money per pupil that most districts in the state due to the additional desegregation it receives.
Those additional monies are intended to supplement the students’ education rather than supplant monies intended for services the district should provide during the normal course of business. In other words, those monies are intended for special program such as cultural studies, tutoring, incentives for highly qualified teachers in targeted schools, and mentoring among a myriad of services known or thought to be crucial in improving all students’ performance and increasing access to a high quality education for all students equally.
Few would argue that music and other fine arts would not be essential elements for improving a child’s academic performance, and that too few underserved children might only have access to those opportunities in their classrooms.
Education activists say that the administration is choosing to spend large amounts of money fighting the USP, while starving fine arts.
Indeed, the Tucson Unified School District has chosen not to use those precious dollars on our precious resources. Instead the district has opted to spend an average of $55,000/month fighting the court appointed Special Master and the desegregation plaintiff representatives on nearly every conceivable issue. In the 2014-2015 school year alone, the district spent a total of $658,817.16 on outside counsel.
From challenging the Special Master on magnet designations for certain schools to paying attorneys to conduct a witch hunt in response to Governing Board member Michael Hicks’ inquiries about the administration’s treatment of the staff and parents involved in those schools, the administration has kept attorneys in the black, while keeping everyone else in the dark.
Although it has been 4 months since this school year started, the district has still not released the budget book for 2015-2016. There is one other budget document, the mandatory filing to the state due October 15. It omits many details that are in the budget book however. The filing to the state follows a format essentially dictated by the state. In many cases the categories do not give a very clear idea of how and where money is actually spent.
The budget book is the only public document that shows where TUSD plans to spend its money. Without the budget book, there’s no way to tell what is being funded and what is being cut.
What hasn’t been cut is money spent on the Board. While students do not have access to music lessons, ironically, Board members Adelita Grijalva, Krystel Foster, Cam Juarez, and Superintendent H.T. Sanchez had a lovely time in Music City. Grijalva, Foster, and Juarez charged the taxpayers $2,600 each for their trip to the National School Board Association (NSBA) annual expo and gala in Nashville. Sanchez, in need of a suite for a night, charged the taxpayers $3,000 for his Nashville visit.
In the fifth poorest metropolitan area in the country, few TUSD students even have the opportunity to visit the world famous instrument museum in Phoenix, much less a visit to Music City.
Related article: Arizona educators enjoy NSBA spending spree junket
“In Arizona, it is easy to blame the state Legislature, which has chronically underfunded public schools for this situation. But local districts also have a great responsibility to allocate resources for the benefit of students. So long as more than 1 out of every 10 dollars TUSD spends is on administration, programs will suffer. This is one example. Clearing out a dozen of the central administrators, who cost the district more than $100,000 a year in salaries and benefits, will go a long way to funding a decent music program,” stated long time educator Rich Kronberg.
“We know that music, like sports, keep kids engaged in school. It is a travesty that we are cutting the very programs that we know help develop math skills, grow creativity and fuels success are being cut while the adults squabble,” stated Hicks. “We really need to reconsider our priorities and get everyone to recommit to our students. I am afraid that we have l forgotten why we get the desegregation money and what it is supposed to do for our kids.”
TUSD parent and education activist, Betts Putnam Hidalgo stated, “The pitiful amount of money the district is putting into enrichment programs like music compared to the obscene amount it is willing to spend to fight the USP shows how skewed present day priorities are: obviously its more important to endlessly point fingers (and lose court cases) than to provide enrichment to kids that I believe adds to their achievement in concrete, if not easily measurable ways. That is not to say that fighting the USP is valid, or that the desegregation money should or could be spent on music programs: that is a decision of the plaintiffs, the Special Master, the DOJ and ultimately the Court. But the difference in the amount of money shows a difference in the amount of priority, and that is a tragedy across the district.”
Arizona State Representative Mark Finchem stated, “During our last legislative session I proposed a forensic audit that would have helped us — the Legislature and the taxpayers in TUSD footing the bill for desegregation tax dollars — better understand where all of the money is going, since it clearly isn’t going to bring about unitary status and level the playing field as much as it can be for all kids. I received harsh rebuke from the Democrat Caucus during the Appropriations Committee hearing in which they argued an audit would cost nearly $1 million to conduct. Yet that is nearly the same amount spent on outside counsel to fight with the Special Master, who is working for the best interests of the children, not the administration. Hypocrisy doesn’t even begin to describe what is going on; the misuse of local taxpayer dollars for the desegregation objective is reprehensible.”
“I’ve learned that all the while, the TUSD reserves are being spent down on what? The Governing Board now audits itself? Where is the disclosure, where is the accountability? I applaud Mr. Hicks and Dr. Stegeman for doing their job, which is to make sure there is open, transparent disclosure and accountability by the district,” stated Finchem. “The harm being done to public education by the habitual misuse of taxpayer funding is incalculable, and TUSD’s administration should be ashamed.”
Only a few weeks ago, the Board voted 3-2 to go the next NSBA conference. The Boston expo and gala will feature plenary speaker and noted educator Dan Rather.