Higley Schools Blog

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’ »