Higley Schools Blog

Hayley Ringle recently wrote an article on the new all day gifted program HUSD is launching. Here are some excerpts:

Connor, who will be going into the fourth grade, is coming back to the Higley district to join the new all-day gifted program at Centennial Elementary School.
…

District officials are working hard to find those families who have moved out of the district for this reason. They’re also trying to get the word out to other district and nondistrict families who want their children to be a part of the new gifted program for third- to fifth-graders. An informational meeting on Tuesday brought out nearly 100 interested parents and students.

“The new program is designed for those who are among the most gifted who may have not had academic needs met and who need higher academic instruction,” said Steve Nance, Higley’s director of curriculum. “(It’s for students) who need to be with other highly gifted students throughout the day.”

Higley now has a “pullout” gifted program for students who want to take an advanced math or language arts class at their school. The children are pulled from regular classes and put into gifted classes. The new program will have third- to fifth-graders engaging in gifted classes all day at Centennial.
…

About 107 eligible third- and fourth-graders in the Higley district have been notified of the program. Students have to score well on the Cognitive Abilities Test to qualify. The number of classes and teachers needed depends on the interest, said Nancy Foote, a Higley teacher on special assignment who is so far the lone teacher identified for the new program.

Here is my take as a parent of one of those 107 kids: I was pleased that my daughter was invited but we don’t currently plan to accept the invitation. The primary reason is my kids attend Cortina and I want her to attend school with her siblings. All four will be in the same school for the next two years and I love the idea of them watching out for each other there as well as traveling to and from school together. It may be a nice thing but not quite worth it in our case from my point of view.

But if the new program brings more families with good students back to the district that is a very good thing for HUSD overall.

I’m not sure how they pulled it off but full time kindergarten is somehow back. Maybe it was enough arm twisting of state politicians.

In any case I am thrilled because we have a child starting kindergarten next school year.

I’m sure a few teachers will be very pleased to have the jobs as well.

Update: Here is the EVTrib article on the subject. It sounds like the admin just decided to bite the bullet a keep the all day kindergarten in order to stay competitive with surrounding districts.

However, Interim Superintendent Denise Birdwell said Thursday there was no way they can charge for the kindergarten program if surrounding districts are not charging for it. Kindergarten enrollment has already been down and some parents had said they would have to send their children to another district.

“To stay competitive, we are put in this position,” Birdwell said.

I suppose if kids start out of district that is potentially 12 lost years for a student. Regardless of all that — our family is very pleased with the change.

See the EV Times article on the subject here.

Here is a brief article saying HUSD could get and additional $65k of federal money.

Not much but it could potentially save a couple of jobs.

See a recent article over at AZ Central about that here.

More than 200 Mesa Public Schools teachers will be notified Monday that they won’t have jobs next school year.

Janice Ramirez, assistant superintendent for human resources for the Mesa district, let principals know Friday that 208 teachers will receive reduction in force notifications that were mailed out Friday.

Nearly every district in the valley is in the same bind. See an article on that here.

Starting Monday, Mesa Unified will hand out notices to 310 people, including more than 200 teachers. In Higley Unified, more than 60 jobs are being eliminated. Apache Junction Unified will lose 13 percent of its teachers.

The Arizona Daily Star reported Friday that Tucson Unified told more than 600 employees that their positions are being eliminated next year.

Preliminary reports from Scottsdale Unified indicate 230 staff members may lose their jobs. Queen Creek Unified School District’s meeting agenda for Tuesday includes approval of that district’s reduction-in-force list. Preliminary numbers indicate Queen Creek may have 20 to 25 teachers on the list, according to Superintendent James Murlless.

In some districts, more reduction-in-force notices may be given out than necessary, with the possibility some people may be invited back once districts finalize funding.

The latest news of budget cuts from state lawmakers includes a 5 percent across-the-board funding cut for public schools ($257 million statewide), as well as cutting early kindergarten ($11.2 million) and rolling back building maintenance grants ($7 million). The state already reduced this year’s budgets for Arizona schools by more than $100 million.

In addition, schools will likely see a 37 percent reduction in dollars from the state’s sales-tax-driven classroom site fund. That money is used to fund teacher salaries and incentive pay.

Even with federal stimulus money coming, the guidelines are so unclear at this time, districts say they cannot count on that money given their April 15 deadline.

Update: Gilbert school district plans to axe 200-250 teachers.

One notable exception is the Chandler district that seems to have avoided the mess. I don’t know where all their money is coming from but there is some consensus that the now-discontinued funding program (was it called “Career Ladder”?) Chandler got in on more than a decade ago makes a key difference.

See the AZcentral article on the job cuts here and the EVTimes article here. Here is a quote from the Republic article:

Higley Unified School District’s governing board Wednesday eliminated 38 fulltime jobs and 1 part-time position and decided that about a dozen teachers and an assistant principal will have to accept other positions if they want to stay on board next year.

Those changes are effective for the next school year.

Also, six fulltime office aides lost their jobs Monday because of an unexpected surge in spending on substitute teachers, caused by what interim Superintendent Denise Birdwell called an “exorbitant amount” of teacher absences.

There just isn’t any money for a growing district like HUSD. These cuts are pretty painful but if the funds aren’t there what can administrators do?