Higley Schools Blog

If your kids will attend the new Centennial School be sure not to miss the meeting tonight 7:00 at the District Offices.  Here is a recent article on the subject.

Another teacher has been placed on leave by the district. See articles on it here and here. Let’s hope this turns out to be a tempest in a teapot and not something more serious.

A reader wrote in to point out this article that came out just after the election on a new evaluation tool being used to evaluate the performance of the district superintendent.  What do you think?

No not victory for me, but victory for the school district. It looks like the all-important budget override passed! In addition, two candidates that I was really pulling for, Paul Howell and Greg Land, were voted on to the school board. I am thrilled about it all.

Thanks to all of you who voted for me. I was just edged out by Paul, Greg, and incumbent Denise Standage.

Higley USD - school board
4-year term
100.0% of Precincts Reporting
(12 of 12 Precincts)

And more thanks for your Yes votes on the budget override. That is huge. Nearly 16,000 votes were cast and it won by only 200! Awesome stuff. Here is that results page.

100.0% of Precincts Reporting
(12 of 12 Precincts)

With the Budget override passing and Paul and Greg getting elected this is a great day for HUSD.

If you had been meaning to tell your neighbors that they should vote Yes on the Higley Schools budget increase/override or if you had intended to recommend a governing board candidate (like me for instance) now is the time to do it. The election is upon us. While some people have voted already, the majority of voters will be casting their ballots tomorrow so make those calls and send those emails today. HUSD and all of our children could really use your help.

I’ll plan to try keep you updated on the results as they come in tomorrow throughout the day.

I decided to post the pool of questions in the queue for tonight’s HUSD governing board candidate forum and my initial thoughts. The forum will be held at the Higley High School center for the performing arts at 7:00 pm.

There are a few odd questions this time around that had me scratching my head at first. I discovered a few days ago that most or all of the questions were written by students so that helped explain things a bit. Here are the questions we received and some of my thoughts in response:

1) As of October 21st, Higley is still trying to hire a high school math teacher and has multiple openings for special education teachers. How will you specifically address the problem of not just finding qualified candidates for these positions, but hiring great teachers and retaining them in HUSD?

It is not the job of the school board to find, interview, and make offers to teachers and staff members. There are plenty of full-time administrators with nice big salaries that we pay to do that. As I understand it, the governing board approves or disapproves the candidates that the administration presents for hiring. I do think it is the job of the board to represent the desires and interests of the public and oversee the administrators in the job they are doing. I believe that by demanding that the top administration create an enticing work environment at HUSD we will be better able to attract and retain top quality teachers. Continue reading ‘Tonight’s HUSD governing board candidate forum preview’ »

Apparently a bunch of Higley teachers emailed Emily over at the AZ Republic after the last article on the override. Here is the follow up article. They reportedly were unhappy that the AZ Republic hadn’t done more to endorse this important measure.

As I have mentioned in the past, it is crucial to the health of Higley Schools and thus to the home values in the HUSD boundaries that this continuation of the Budget override on the ballot Nov. 4 passes. Tell everyone you know in our district to vote YES on the Higley Schools budget increase.

Emily Gersema put up a short article over at the AZ Republic site on the budget override that appears on the ballot this election season.

If you are wondering… VOTE YES! It will not change your taxes now (since it has been in place already for years) but it will help us improve Higley Schools and that in turn will increase your home values.

Here is the link to the article with pictures and all. I think Hayley did a very nice job on this.

Here are some quotes she got from me:

“A high level of distrust” between parents, teachers and administrators comes from a lack of communication, Johnston said.

“I think the administration has done an atrocious job at marketing itself to teachers and families,” Johnston said. “It’s created an utter lack of communication between families, teachers and administration, and caused a tremendous problem and culture of distrust.”

Johnston said teachers and families don’t feel supported by district administration, and they need to feel that their opinions matter. He said some parents feel their concerns are being dismissed.

“The way you make parents happy is to listen to them,” Johnston said. “Parents are the customers. An unhappy customer will be 10 times more vocal and will have more memory of their bad customer service.”

I went to the work study session portion of the board meeting last night and the board decided to wait until the new board in in place before voting on the raise Superintendent Lutrey will receive.  With 3 of the 5 seats on the board up for grabs I can’t blame them.

I then went to a “meet and greet” sponsored by the folks at ChangeInHUSD and met with more former and current HUSD employees and their spouses about the upcoming election.  The reports are pretty much what I always hear from insiders: Employee morale is low, leadership and vision are severely lacking, there is no consistency in programs, support for teachers and staff is erratic at best, money is being wasted because of the general chaos, etc.   Yet the promising signs were there as well: There are a ton of talented people who would prefer to work at HUSD rather than commuting to other districts — they are just hoping the district can pull its crap together finally and give them a reason to come back.

Change in HUSD is coming but it will come a lot faster if you can tell your friends to vote for Geoff Johnston (me), Greg Land, and Paul Howell.  Plus be sure you tell everyone you know to vote yes on the HUSD budget increase or the new board will have its hands tied financially from the get-go.

With a new board that demands far greater accountability from district management and the budget override being renewed, I believe HUSD can turn around very quickly.

Congratulations to HUSD for achieving AYP.  Here is the quote from the AZ Republic:

The Arizona Department of Education released results this week showing whether districts and their individual schools have achieved Annual Yearly Progress - the federal measurement of a school’s improvement.

Federal officials determine whether a school made AYP based on student achievement on the state’s standardized test, Arizona’s Instrument to Measure Standards.

In the Gilbert area, Higley Unified School District’s two high schools and seven elementary and middle schools all achieved federal AYP for the 2007-08 school year, when more than 9,400 students attended the district.

See the entire article here.

Yep, you got it — the fine folks over at the Arizona Republic recommended Geoff Johnston for the board. They also recommended Denise Standage and Greg Land. Here is the link to the article and the paragraph about me:

The same goes for Johnston, a political newcomer and concerned parent who wants to make a difference by tapping parent and teacher groups to improve communication. He understands that boosting parent satisfaction starts at the top and trickles down to teachers, students and parents.

It is an interesting mix they recommend. It sounds like they would like to see some differing or even opposing views on the board and that is why they are recommending the incumbent, Standage. See my opinions on the candidates here.

The following is a guest post from governing board candidate Greg Land. As I mentioned in my post on the candidates, I am pulling for Greg to be elected the HUSD board. - Geoff

Friends and neighbors,

I am hoping everyone is planning on voting in this upcoming election on November 4, 2008. There will be a lot of important issues on the ballot, turnout is predicted to be high and lines could be long. It is important to be informed on all the issues you are voting on and I would not want anyone to feel rushed for any reason, including if they stood in line longer than they had planned on. I have gathered the following important links and information for voter registration, early voting and identification requirements at the polls. I hope you find this helpful and please forward it to anyone you feel might be interested.

Continue reading ‘Guest post from Greg Land: Voter information and links’ »

There will be a candidate forum for the five people running for three open seats on the HUSD governing board. See here for my current take on the five candidates. The forum will be from 7:00-8:30 PM a “The Barn”, a facility off of Ranch House Road in north Power Ranch. Everyone is invited.

Here are the questions that each of the candidates will be asked tonight and some of my thoughts on the subjects:
Continue reading ‘A preview of tonight’s candidate forum’ »

There was an interesting opinion piece over at the Arizona Republic recently pointing out that the election decision that might have the most impact on the value of your home is not at the top of the ballot but near the bottom with the school board elections. Here is an excerpt:

Continue reading ‘Housing prices and school districts connected’ »

I have talked with several parents who are deeply concerned about classes in some of our schools being overcrowded. Heck, I’m a parent with such concerns. My 6th grade daughter has a math class with something like 38 students in it. In most of the schools the kindergarten classes are the major issue with more children coming in than the district expected this year. Emily over at the AZ Republic wrote an interesting article on the subject recently. Here is a link to the article and here are some excerpts:

Continue reading ‘Interesting article on oversized HUSD classrooms’ »

Meet me and all the other candidates for the HUSD Governing Board next week in the first of two forums being conducted by the Higley teachers union (aka the HEA). Here is the announcement that just came out from the HUSD listserv:

The Higley Education Association (HEA) will host two Higley School District Governing Board Candidate Forums where all five candidates running for the Board will be present. There are three seats for which the five candidates are running. To be able to make an informed decision, please attend one or both of the following forums:

September 23 - Power Ranch Clubhouse “Barn” located on Ranch Road between Germann and Pecos at 7:00 pm

October 28 - The Small Auditorium at the Higley Center for Performing Arts at 7:00 pm

Emily Gersema over at the AZ Republic wrote a very interesting article recently that is definitely worth a read. 

Apparently current board member and board candidate Denise Standage is feeling miffed that she was not endorsed by the folks over at Change In HUSD.   (Yeah, you read right…  the incumbent candidate is irked about not being endorsed by a group called Change In HUSD…) Well more specifically, she is miffed that after she missed the appointment they went ahead and made their endorsements anyway. We get this gem of a quote from the article:
Continue reading ‘“that’s political suicide.”’ »

There are three seats up for election on the Higley school board, with the terms expiring this year for governing board members Nancy Eugenis, Ed Moore, and Denise Standage (board members Vanessa Whitener and Kim Anderson both have two years remaining on their terms). There are five candidates running for those three open spots on the HUSD; Geoff Johnston (that’s me), Paul Howell, Greg Land, Taunya Lofgreen, and Denise Standage. Another candidate, Carolyn Starr, pulled out of the race a few weeks ago. (I have been told that Carolyn sent an email around endorsing me and Greg Land in her stead, so I am grateful for that.) Here is an article on the candidates that Hayley Ringle published over at the EVTrib some time ago.

Anyway, here is my honest take on the candidates based on what I know so far: Continue reading ‘My take on the candidates for the Higley school board’ »

I had an interesting conversation with a teacher recently. In defense of the district and its current leadership this teacher mustered up a “Well, I’ve been teaching a long time and I can say that I’ve seen worse than we are experiencing here”.

Is that the best we can do? Really? We get the distinction of not being the worst district this veteran teacher has seen in decades of dedicated service as a teacher?
Continue reading ‘Editorial: “I’ve seen worse”’ »

I was very pleased to see that the folks at Change In HUSD and PAC-HUSD have endorsed me, along with Greg Land and Paul Howell, for the Higley Schools Governing Board. I think they have chosen well. (See here for my take on the candidates.) The board vote is part of the general election coming up in November. Here is the press release:

The leaders of Change in HUSD and PAC (Parent Advisory Council)-HUSD have joined forces for the purpose of endorsing 3 candidates for the November school board election. Together with a panel of parents and community members they invited candidates on Tuesday and Wednesday evenings this week to meet and answer set questions regarding issues of concern that have been expressed by parents and community members in each organization. Questions touched on treatment of teachers and staff, hiring practices, following district policies and procedures, Special Education IEP’s, why the candidate is running for HUSD school board and what goals he/she has for HUSD if elected to the board.

After careful consideration, Change in HUSD and PAC-HUSD feel that candidates Geoff Johnston, Paul Howell and Greg Land best represent the parents these organizations have been in communication with. The candidates strongly believe that morale and trust need to be re-established in the HUSD community and are prepared to work to that end. The common threads between these candidates are 1) a belief that our children deserve the best leadership possible and that leaders need to be held accountable, 2) their ability to analyze information and make fair judgments and 3) a shared pride in our community and the vision that our school district can be a premier district in the State of Arizona. “I believe Geoff Johnston, Greg Land and Paul Howell are the candidates that parents and community members have been looking for. They’re committed to bringing about the positive change that Change in HUSD and PAC-HUSD are looking for and we’re happy to stand behind them,” said Stacey Christensen of Change in HUSD. Michelle Rigby of Change in HUSD states, “I am confident that Greg Land, Paul Howell and Geoff Johnston will be able to have a great working relationship with existing board members Kim Anderson and Venessa Whitener. There are good things happening now in HUSD and I believe these candidates will expand those positive elements. Our district has a great future.”

Regretfully, incumbent Denise Standage canceled her interview due to a scheduling conflict. The interview panel felt confident in their assessment of Standage based on her voting record, interaction at public meetings, and previous conversations with members of Change in HUSD.

Following this endorsement, Change In HUSD and PAC-HUSD will be active in spreading the word about candidates Geoff Johnston, Paul Howell and Greg Land, so community members can make an informed decision. Information about the three candidates, as well as how to get involved with each candidate’s campaign will be posted on www.ChangeInHUSD.blogspot.com.

Construction on the new elementary school in Power Ranch is about to begin. Here is the district announcement if you didn’t get it:

Dear Higley Parents and Community Members,

Please join us for the Groundbreaking Ceremony for Centennial Elementary School on Monday, September 8th at 6:00 pm at Ranch House Parkway and Fenceline Parkway. Centennial school will open in August 2009 as we celebrate the 100th anniversary of our school district.

The school was designed by Gilleland Brubaker Architects and will be constructed by DL Withers Construction. The new two story design will accommodate 1250 students.

Sincerely,

Dr. Joyce Lutrey
Superintendent
Higley Unified School District

[UPDATE]

Dear Higley Parents and Community,

There is a date change for the Groundbreaking Ceremony for Centennial Elementary School. It will be Tuesday, September 9th at 6:00 pm at Ranch House Parkway and Fenceline Parkway (south of Pecos Road).

We hope you will be able to join us.

This new school will do a lot to relieve the overcrowding issue Power Ranch Elementary if currently facing.

And if you are not signed up to get the HUSD email announcements yet see here.

Hayley Ringle over at the EVTrib wrote and interesting article recently about a plot of land being considered for a future third HUSD high school.

The land is reportedly located just east of Cortina near Rittenhouse. It sounds like the idea is just in the nascent stages and there are some issues with both budget and the lot, but I thought our readers would be interested nevertheless.

So have you heard some of the horror stories I have heard from HUSD teachers?

Here are some good ones:

- One teacher told me that she was chewed out severely for speaking with a board member at all without an administrator present. Yup — apparently it was a no-no for teachers to have any direct contact with governing board members.

- Another told me that he was forced to sign off on false documents regarding the tools provided for a special needs student. He said that is a regular practice in the district.
Continue reading ‘Editorial: Teacher Morale Again, or, The Beatings Will Continue Until Morale Improves’ »

I’ve worked in plenty of companies in my day where employee morale was low. It is never a pleasant experience and in such situations people tend to jump ship when the opportunity presents itself.

I’m seeing a major morale problem at HUSD among teachers. Now admittedly I have not surveyed a lot of teachers in other districts so it is possible that low teacher morale is a problem plaguing our neighboring school districts as well, but I suspect the issue is especially bad in HUSD these days.

Here are some of the themes I have heard from our teachers:
Continue reading ‘Editorial: The HUSD problem with teacher morale’ »

Some new rules were put into place regarding volunteering parents and other adult volunteers at Higley schools. The idea is to create some kind of vetting system to protect students. After multiple problems between adults and students at HUSD high schools in recent years it is not surprising that security is being tightened. Still, the concerns expressed at recent board meetings have been that too much security would discourage parent involvement.

See the EVTribune article on the subject here. The AZ Republic article on the subject is here.

The current change is a pilot program that is scheduled to be evaluated by the new governing board in January.

I was talking with some family friends last night and the wife of the couple was warning me to be ready for total lunatics harassing me if/when I end up being elected to one of the open spots on the Higley schools governing board in November. She served on a school board for a term and said people can get crazy when it come to local politics and school district decisions. It sounded like some weird form of road rage to me — maybe “school district rage” or something.

What do you think? Are there all sorts of nutjobs out here in HUSD I would have to deal with as a board member? (Not that it will stop me from running but I don’t relish the thought either…)

A few days ago the EV Tribune ran a rather scathing editorial about the way the HUSD administration is currently handling this fiasco with using public money to conduct a poll about an election issue. The rule is that once an issue is officially on a ballot no public money may be used to research it. See here for more details on that.

Anyway, it now sounds like the administration is considering stiffing the firm they hired to conduct the survey. Here are some excerpts from that editorial:

The Higley Unified School District inappropriately, if not illegally, used a veteran political pollster to conduct a telephone survey of residents about a proposed budget override — after the school board already had committed to placing the measure before voters in the Nov. 4 general election.

Now, the district wants to compound that error by reneging on its contract to pay the pollster $10,500 for work already preformed.

…

District officials say they didn’t violate that law because the board approved a contract with pollster Bruce Merrill to conduct the survey on June 26, a week before the board decided to call the budget override election. If that interpretation is wrong, district spokeswoman Sara Bresnahan told Ringle the district will try to avoid any sanctions by refusing to pay Merrill.

What a mess.

This appears to be another in a long line of fumbles and gaffes by the HUSD administration. I’d say it really is time to start looking at changes in the leadership of the district.

This is a hugely important issue so be sure you pass it on to everyone in your neighborhood as well. This November there will be a chance to vote to extend the budget override Higley schools benefit from for another seven years. It is vitally important to the health and future of Higley Unified that this override extension passes. Here is what the benefits will be:

1. The district will get significantly more state money to pay for two things — Teacher’s salaries and school maintenance.
2. Currently about 76% of override money goes to help hire and pay teachers so if this override fails we will have less to pay current teachers in HUSD and less to hire new teachers
3. The rest of the override goes to maintenance costs like sports gear, musical equipment, etc. Without the override those programs will suffer as well.

In other words, the override money gives HUSD a fighting chance to stay competitive with other districts in salaries and that helps with retention and recruiting.

Here are some important facts about the override:

- It is not a new tax or new expense to residents at all. It is simply an extension of the existing override.
- Because the override allows for 10% above the district budget to be used for salaries and maintenance the bigger the district gets the more of a difference it makes.

Here is a brief description of the override that the AZ Republic published:

Budget override

• Allows a district to spend slightly more than its state-approved budget. The amount of an override is capped through a state formula, the revenue control limit.

Increases funds for certain spending categories. For example, Higley’s override would support maintenance and operations, which mostly covers teacher salaries and classroom costs.

Sources: Arizona Association of School Business Officials, Higley Unified School District

It will likely be near the end of your ballot so after you vote for the president be sure you vote yes on the Higley override as well. (And cast a vote for Geoff Johnston for the Higley Schools Governing Board while you are at it…)

Here is the announcement from the Arizona Republic:

The Higley teachers’ association is hosting an informational session Monday about the school district’s seven-year, $4.5 million override that will appear on the November ballot.

Monday’s meeting will start at 7 p.m. at the Power Ranch Clubhouse, 4444 E. Haven Crest Drive in Gilbert, southwest of Germann and Power roads.

Questions? Call teacher association president Dan Lawrence at 480-250-8820.

The override on the November ballot is given this explanation:

Budget override

• Allows a district to spend slightly more than its state-approved budget. The amount of an override is capped through a state formula, the revenue control limit.

Increases funds for certain spending categories. For example, Higley’s override would support maintenance and operations, which mostly covers teacher salaries and classroom costs.

Sources: Arizona Association of School Business Officials, Higley Unified School District

I’ll be there tonight so I hope to meet some of you too.

In the last board meeting there was discussion about requiring a background check of some kind for some or all volunteers at HUSD. The board wanted to do more research on the pros and cons of such a policy before acting. The pros centered around greater safety for the students. AS many of you know HUSD has experienced more than its share of problems between adults and students in recent years. Some of those problems were described in this recent Arizona Republic article.

The cons the board discussed focused on the potentially high costs of background checks (at least $25 per volunteer according to estimates given there) and the risk that creating barriers to parents volunteering would do more harm than good.

The decision from that meeting was to look at setting up a pilot program and evaluate the subject after testing was in place.

Hayley Ringle from the EV Trib gave me a call a few weeks ago as she was preparing to give brief biographies of the six initial candidates vying for the three open seats in the Higley Schools governing board. Here is a link that article. She had this to say about me:

Geoff Johnston, 38, runs an internet consulting business. He has been involved in several startup businesses, and said his experience fits the Higley district with its growth environment.

“From my take, a school board isn’t all that different than a board of directors,” said Johnston, who has an MBA from San Diego State University and a bachelor’s degree in music from Brigham Young University. “I would like to see our schools getting so good that families that have left the district will come back.”

He has three children at Cortina Elementary School. Samantha is a sixth-grader, Erin is in fourth grade and Quinn is in first grade. His daughter, Josie, will be in kindergarten next year.

Yep — sounds about right. Nice work Hayley.

Last week one of the candidates, Carolyn Starr decided to pull out of the race. Here is a link to a write up on that from the Arizona Republic (combined with another very odd and sad story actually).

I haven’t see the email Carolyn sent around announcing her decision to withdraw from the election but I am told she threw her support behind me and Greg Land. I am very appreciative to her for that vote of confidence

Have you been keeping up on the latest mess the district house found itself embroiled in? Hayley Ringle has a good write up about at the East Valley Tribune.

Basically it looks like this is what happened. The district wanted to know how interested people are in renewing the existing budget override that helps pay for the HUSD expenses. So there was talk of paying for a poll in May. But district attorneys warned that any such polling must happen before the override ends up on the ballot. Any polling using public funds after that date is a violation of law. Here is how Hayley explained things next:

Continue reading ‘On the latest Higley Schools scandal: Polling when you shouldn’t be polling’ »