Higley Schools Blog

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’ »

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.

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”’ »

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’ »

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…)