Goddard retains governing board presidency

The Maricopa Unified School District governing board voted unanimously at its meeting last night to retain Geoff Goddard in his role as president of the group.

Current vice president Tracy Davis also will remain in that position by a 3-2 vote of the board. Both Goddard and Davis will serve as officers until December.

School improvement site goals
Following a 90-minute executive session, the meeting resumed with a presentation by Director of Multiple Projects Lynnette Michalski on school improvement goals selected by each school site.

At last summer’s retreat, the leadership team agreed on four major goals for the district. Those goals are:

· MUSD’s community actively promotes a shared philosophy, vision, and mission that supports a culture of excellence
· High quality professional development is aligned to curriculum instruction driven by student data
· Superior student achievement
· Excellent communication

All nine schools selected excellent communication as a site goal. Other site goals included increased friendliness and helpfulness of office staff, staff friendliness, support of the district’s mission and philosophy, utilization of the six pillars of character, being schools of excellence, additional Galileo testing training and increased, quality professional development.

Galileo testing
Michalski also reviewed the results of the first round of Galileo online testing. The testing “went well,” she said, citing the increased benefit of data being immediately available to teachers. A second testing round will be done in early February.

“If we’re going to progress as a district, we really need to dig in and get our students reading at grade level by third grade,” said Superintendent Jeff Kleck, regarding the Galileo results.

Override continuation
Director of Business Services Aron Rausch reviewed the continuation of the override, which will be on the March 9 ballot.

Originally passed in May 2005, the override seeks to maintain funding at the existing levy of $63.40 per year on a home with a $100,000 assessed value. The override, if not continued, is reduced by one third each year for two years and then expires in 2012-2013.

An override levies no new taxes and is different from a bond, which is used to build structures with capital funds.

According to Rausch, the override will be used to add staff due to growth and to reduce class size. It would also pay for all-day kindergarten, if not funded by the state, support staff, technology, sports, extracurricular activities, the gifted program, music, physical education and art education.

“We have been very financially prudent; we have not been frivolous,” said Kleck, regarding the district. 

Without a successful override, according to board member TimWhite, “We’re not going to be able to do the class sizes you want, and we’re not going to be doing all-day kindergarten.”

The district will be hosting community forums in the near future to explain and promote the override election.

School news
Pima Butte Elementary School will be cutting hair, on both faces and heads, on March 3 at 8:30 a.m. during the Locks of Love and Bald for Bucks sessions in support of the cancer society.

Team Chances was at Santa Rosa Elementary School this week to present 41 students with Nike running shoes as a reward for their participation in an exercise program.

Santa Cruz Elementary will be honoring its Terrific Kids at the halftime of one of the Maricopa High School basketball games.

Nine teachers at Saddleback Elementary are presently going through the process to receive national board certification.

MHS Athletic Director Shannon Hull reported that the search for a new head football coach is underway, and 73 applications have been received to date. A selection committee will be formed to review possible candidates.

The district is hosting a brief calendar survey regarding school breaks, early release days, parent conferences and teacher professional development days for next year. The survey is located on the main page of the district Web site, and both parents and community members are encouraged to complete it. 

Jan. 27 is the next regularly scheduled MUSD governing board meeting at the district office administration building at 6 p.m.

Photo by Joyce Hollis