MUSD board approves use of Ak-Chin grant money

The board room in the Maricopa Unified School District office was filled with students and parents during the early portions of Wednesday’s school board meeting as the Rotary Club of Maricopa recognized three students for their academic success.

The Rotary Club recognized Jesus Orci Vega, a senior at Maricopa High School, Samuel Coles, a Desert Winds Middle School student, and Charity Campbell, an eighth-grader at Maricopa Wells Middle School as the October Students of the Month.

Jordann Hink, a 12th-grade CAVIT Cosmo Program Level II student, also was recognized as a Student of the Month, but did not attend the meeting.

But the main action of the meeting came later as governing board members approved a Memorandum of Understanding with the Ak-Chin Indian Community.

The memorandum deals with the use of a $2.6 million grant the Ak-Chin community announced in May it planned to give the district. The tribal community also announced during that time it planned to give the city of Maricopa a $7.4 million grant for the operation of a new aquatic and recreation complex.

“I’m very excited to have this on the agenda,” Superintendent Steve Chestnut told the board. “We are really looking forward to full implementation of this grant.”

The memorandum lists nine projects the grant money will be used for during the 2013-2014 and 2014-2015 school years.

One project aims to improve math achievement by hiring five additional math teachers throughout Maricopa High School, Maricopa Wells and Desert Winds middle schools. The district already hired those teachers prior to the approval of the memorandum, Chestnut said.

The grant also allows the district to replace 275 student computers throughout the district, and purchase 15 iPads to be used in special education and preschool classrooms.

“It’s a wonderful, an amazing addition to our district that we’re able to launch several of these projects,” he said.

Chestnut said the grant will not be used to fund cut programs or teaching positions. The math teachers, for example, provide additional services to students.

“We cut a million dollars out of the budget this year,” he said. “It would have been nice to restore some general education teaching positions, lower class size and that kind of thing. When you have a grant, that’s not a good practice to get into because then when the grant goes away, can you continue those programs? Sometimes you can’t.”

Board member Scott Bartle said he hoped the district would be able to fund the installation of wireless technology at all nine schools within the first year, instead of over two years as the memorandum states. That would help student success, he said.

To do that, Bartle said the district could hold off on using funds for Project Eight, which gives a modest salary increase to teachers and employees, and use that money to fully install the wireless technology in one year. Then, the district could provide double the salary increase to employees and teachers in the second year.

***ADVERTISEMENT***The move would essentially swap the two budgeted items.

Chestnut said there might be a way for the district to fully fund wireless technology in one year, and still give teachers the salary increase in the first year. One possible scenario is for the district to front fund the wireless technology installation using its own money. He said he would bring the board a revised timeline with suggestions at another meeting.

The board unanimously approved the memorandum. Now, the memorandum needs to be approved by the city council and the Ak-Chin community.