New school superintendent adheres to “aggressive” week’s scheduling

The new Maricopa Superintendent of Schools is in town. On a week’s “vacation” from his duties as East Chicago Public Schools Superintendent in Indiana, Dr. John Flores is here to meet his new staff members as well as to learn about some of the issues he will be facing on July 1, particularly the explosive growth of the district and its need for additional schools.

If you think that he’s just dropping by to exchange pleasantries, you are making an erroneous assumption. The “Dr. John Flores Week” schedule, one that Flores himself called “aggressive,” went something like this:

On Monday he had a breakfast meeting with the Leadership Team, followed by meetings with special education staff members, then district office staff.

Individual departments met with the new superintendent on Tuesday in one-hour sessions. High school administrators, elementary principals, technology, maintenance, transportation, prevention programs, middle school administration, food services and curriculum all got their chance to meet and talk with their new leader.

Following a 7:30 a.m. Wednesday breakfast meeting with the city’s Parks, Recreation and Libraries Director Marty McDonald, Superintendent Alma Farrell and District Business Manager Paul Kasparian, Flores attended a CAVIT (Central Arizona Vocational Institute of Technology) meeting. At 10 a.m. he met with governing board members and Mike LaValle, who presented information on a Class B bonding as a budgetary measure. The City of Maricopa Educational Task Force gathered at The Duke at 1 p.m. with Flores. Then it was on the road with Mayor Kelly Anderson for a tour of Maricopa. Flores’s day ended with a budget meeting later in the afternoon.

Outgoing Superintendent Alma Farrell and incoming Superintendent Dr. John Flores.

Leaving Maricopa at 7 a.m.Thursday, Flores attended the ITV (Interactive Television) Consortium meeting in Florence followed by the Pinal County Superintendents’ meeting. Then it was back to Maricopa to meet the high school, middle school and elementary schools’ staff members.

Finally, Flores is to spend Friday, his last full day in Maricopa for a while, at the district office.

Hopefully, he will find time Saturday to visit with his daughters, who attend Arizona State University, before he flies back to Indiana on Sunday.

Dr. Flores will officially assume his new duties as Superintendent of Maricopa Unified School District #20 on July 1, following the retirement of Superintendent Farrell.