‘Proud mom:’ Vote ‘yes’ on the override

As a proud MUSD mom to three excelling and accelerated students, I am not going to ask for your “yes” vote for the override right away. What I ask from all of our community is to come to the table with an open mind, ask questions, engage in discussions and really understand what this funding means to our students by gathering the facts before you make your decision on how to vote.

This is not a Democrat or Republican issue. This is about a community uniting to work together to raise the bar in our schools.

My oldest is a Junior at MHS. When we moved here in fifth grade he was tested for Gifted in MUSD and passed. The Gifted program was cut from the budget during his seventh grade year. He graduated from MWMS as an Honors student with two early high school credits, an athlete, president of NJHS and the recipient of the Rotary Club scholarship. Now in his junior year at MHS, he has been a member of the Maricopa City Youth Council, on the golf, track and basketball teams and is an Honors/AP student with exceeding AIMS scores.

What will the override do for him? His Honors classes are overcrowded because there simply aren't enough Honors teachers. We are finding that the beginning level Honors courses may be offered but as the student progresses, the next level may not be available. The AP students can benefit greatly from having more choices from AP courses as that increases their ability to graduate with more college credits under their belt!

Our middle son is in eighth grade at MWMS in the highly successful 20+1 program. When it came time to make that decision about going to middle school, we were one of the first families who signed up for the new 20+1 program and it has been nothing but a blessing.

He is an honor-roll student, an athlete, is in NJHS, Student Council, an award-winning student from the Future Cities Competition and has managed to get the minimum age requirement lowered to 13 for City Youth Council and is awaiting to hear if his application was approved.

What will the override do for him? He now will be leaving the comfort of the 20+1 program as he goes to MHS. He may very well be an Honors student in some courses. This year the 20+1 program has been expanded to freshman only for their math and language arts classes. With the override, we can further expand the program which may broaden his opportunities in high school which will only increase his success there.

Our youngest is a fifth grader at Saddleback. For two years now his teachers have recommended he take the Gifted test. Although coming close to passing, he has not yet. Secretly I have to say that I am slightly thankful that he did not pass because I knew I would have a fight on my hands. As it stands now, MUSD does not have a Gifted Program. Our students are tested and that's as far as it goes.

Now the struggle lies with what to do with our Honor Roll student, who is also exceeding in some AIMS scores, for sixth grade. When it was voted to keep sixth grade in elementary schools, those students lost out on the opportunity to be in Honors classes. I believe our son will be an Honors student. This year parents have the choice to put sixth grade students into the middle schools in the 20+1 program.

How will the override help him? Hopefully the 20+1 program can be expanded into the elementary schools and even Honors courses can be offered to our sixth graders there. If he does pass the gifted test this year, he can now have the benefit of actually having a gifted program to be in!