The principal of TUSD’s nationally recognized University High School submitted her resignation effective at the end of the school year this week. According to district insiders, the exodus from University High is just beginning.
As awareness of Special Master Willis Hawley’s proposed changes for the District grows and a day after news was delivered that UHS would not be getting a middle school, teachers and administrators began making solid plans to leave.
Abel Morado, the district’s administrator of high schools, delivered the news this week to stunned staff. Morado told staff that administrators who had previously retired and were now back at work would have to reapply for their positions next year as part of Hawley’s anticipated personnel shakeup.
Hawley offered his recommendations on UHS, and personnel, among other issues to federal Judge Bury last week in a final draft of the proposed settlement agreement. Hawley argued strenuously against the District’s objections to sweeping proposals.
The Special Master, assigned to oversee the development of a new desegregation plan, has focused much of his attention on UHS. He proposes to create “new and/or amended admissions and testing criteria, policies, and application form(s) for University High School” and order reports “of all students who applied to University High School for the school year covered by the Annual Report showing whether or not they were admitted and if they enrolled, disaggregated by race, ethnicity, and ELL status.”
The report will then advise whether the District is doing enough to recruit students.
He is asking the court to order the District to “review and revise the process and procedures that it uses to select students for admission to UHS to ensure that multiple measures for admission are used and that all students have an equitable opportunity to enroll at University High School” by April 1, 2013.
“In conducting this review, the District shall consult with an expert regarding the use of multiple measures (e.g., essays; characteristics of the student’s school; student’s background, including race, ethnicity and socioeconomic status) for admission to similar programs and shall review best practices used by other school districts in admitting students to similar programs. The District shall consult with the Plaintiffs and the Special Master during the drafting and prior to implementation of the revised admissions procedures.”
Although the District offered objections to recommendation on the grounds that it left the Governing Board out of the equation, Special Master Hawley advised the court to sustain his recommendations claiming that “Not every matter that would be dealt with in admission procedures would necessarily go to the Board. When Board policies require certain policies be approved, nothing in this provision of the Plan negates such action.”
However according to District insiders all admission policies are a matter for the Governing Board, whose job is expressly to set the policy.
District insiders say that with the decision by Elizabeth Moll signals a growing realization by staff that things will not remain as they have been. The new Governing Board members have begun a campaign to remove Superintendent Pedicone and replace him with an administrator who shares their ideology.
It appears as if everyone is in a hurry to implement the changes. According to the proposed settlement agreement, Hawley is requiring the District to “pilot these admissions procedures for transfer students seeking to enter UHS during the 2013-2014 school year and shall implement the amended procedures for all incoming students in the 2014-2015 school year.”
According to district insiders the principal at Sahuaro High School also handed in his retirement paperwork along with Moll. Some say there is a chance that both administrators will reconsider their decisions. One district insider said, “If I had been the head of one of the most successful schools in the country, and saw this train wreck coming, I would want to get out while on top too.”
Rich Kronberg, an education expert who grew up in the South Bronx and graduated from Bronx High School of Science, which is similar to UHS said his experience at one of the oldest exam schools in the country “had a great and positive impact on my entire life.”
“Exam schools…such as University High School…are, according to the Fordham Foundation’s Chester Finn, the best value public schools have to offer,” said Kronberg. “They have served the needs of intellectually gifted, highly motivated students for many years. TUSD has precious little to keep students like these in TUSD. They would transfer to high achieving charters and other districts in a heartbeat if the curriculum was watered down to accommodate students who could not pass the entrance exam. Recently, the 300 semi-finalists in the Intel Science Search were named. Two were from Arizona, both public high school students from the Phoenix area. Students who attend exam schools in other states are significantly overrepresented in this group. There are 15 semi-finalists from just two exam schools in NYC, 6 more from a single exam school in Virginia, and 7 more from one school in North Carolina. The students who attend exam schools often come from poor families who believe their children also have a right to an education that allows them to grow to their potential. If Judge Bury approves Hawley’s plan he would be denying intellectually gifted poor students in Tucson the educational opportunities their counterparts in other states enjoy. He would be driving these students to places where they can achieve up to their abilities. That would be only accelerate the exodus of families who care about education from TUSD.”