The future of Catalina Magnet High School Principal Linda Patterson could be decided Tuesday when the Tucson Unified School District’s governing board votes on whether to issue a notice of intent to dismiss her.

A notice is required before a certified administrator can be dismissed.

Patterson, principal for two years at the midtown high school, has been at the helm as Catalina has gone through some tumultuous times.

• In August, the school reported nearly $30,000 (more than $14,000 in cash and $15,000 in checks) missing from the school vault. The funds had been collected during registration and were for extracurricular activity fees, yearbooks and locker rentals.

The thief never was found. Patterson and school finance manager Teresa Herlein received letters of direction for their failure to correctly monitor school funds.

A letter of direction is not discipline, said TUSD spokeswoman Chyrl Hill Lander, but guidance and instruction on how to correct behavior. It does not go into an employee’s personnel file.

The Catalina money had been left at the school over the weekend, but the district requires that large amounts of money be deposited each day.

• The school’s aviation program, which has been one of the main classes that attracts students, came under fire early this year when it was discovered that the company contracted by the district to teach students how to fly, Arizona Aero-Tech, had paid more than $44,000 in fines to the Federal Aviation Administration for safety problems. The district later canceled the contract.

• Last month, one leader of the school’s highly decorated Junior ROTC program was reprimanded and another was given “direction” for violating district and Air Force policies dealing with discipline of cadets.

The practice of forcing cadets to do push-ups and other physical activities as discipline was terminated.

Patterson, whose salary is $90,268, has been on personal leave since March 27. Lander said she did not know the reason for the leave.

Patterson declined to talk to a Citizen reporter Monday.

She was an assistant principal at Mazama High School in Klamath Falls, Ore. before being hired as Catalina’s principal on July 2, 2007.

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IF YOU GO

What: Tucson Unified School District governing board meeting

When: 7:45 p.m. Tuesday. It will be preceded by a 5:30 p.m. closed, executive session.

Where: District headquarters, 1010 E. 10th St.

Info: 225-6437

High school students seeking a nomination to a U.S. service academy should attend U.S. Rep. Gabrielle Giffords’ third Academy Day on Saturday.

The congresswoman, as well as representatives from the Air Force, Coast Guard, Merchant Marine, military and naval academies, will be on hand to answer questions from students and their parents.

Representatives from the University of Arizona ROTC also will be there.

Students must apply for nomination in the congressional district where they reside, according to a news release from Giffords’ office.

If the applicants meet the high standards required by the academies, they will be offered an interview with Giffords’ academy nominating committee.

Final decisions on admissions are made by the academies.

The event will be held from 1 to 3 p.m. at Rincon High School’s Little Theater, 421 N. Arcadia Ave.

District near top, but 1995 grad rates cited as too low

A national report on high school graduation rates puts Tucson Unified School District near the top of major districts studied across the country, with a 23 percentage point increase over a 10-year period.

But the report, which TUSD officials called “flawed,” has the district graduating only about half its seniors in 1995.

David Scott, the district’s director of accountability and research, said the graduation rate in 1995 was about 70 percent and 10 years later it was at about 84 percent, about a 14 percent increase.

The current graduation rate is about the same, he said.

Some of the increase from 1995 to 2005 comes from more students actually graduating after four years and some comes from better tracking of students who leave one school to go to another, he said.

The report by America’s Promise Alliance said nationwide from 1995 to 2005, the graduation rate rose on average 4.8 percentage points, from 65.8 percent to 70.6 percent.

“TUSD’s trend is upward, but this report overstates it because it doesn’t account for demographic shifts in local areas,” Scott said.

“If you are in an extremely homogenous community, the numbers probably are fairly accurate,” he said. “But if you are in an urban district where there is a lot of mobility – people moving in and out of school – and have a bump in enrollment like TUSD did during that period, it throws the report’s index way off.”

Officials from the alliance could not be reached for comment late Tuesday when discrepancies between the report and TUSD figures came to light.

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America’s Promise

Read the report: www.americaspromise.org/uploadedFiles/AmericasPromiseAlliance/Dropout_Crisis/Cities_In_Crisis_Report_2009.pdf

At St. Augustine Catholic High, one of the smallest high schools in Tucson, they know God works in mysterious ways – and that he answers prayers.

But a $5 million gift from a donor who wishes to remain anonymous was pretty surprising.

Half of it, which the school at 8800 E. 22nd St. already has, will go to build a gymnasium center, said Teresa L. Baker, director of development.

The other half of the $5 million, to be given in $500,000 increments in the next five years, she said, will go to enhance programs and infrastructure.

The school, which has 125 students, will have a groundbreaking and blessing ceremony at 11:30 a.m. Friday with Bishop Gerald Kicanas presiding.

The first phase of the 20,000-square-foot, $3 million center – which will use $2.5 million of the gift and $500,000 raised through private donations last year – will be a regulation-size basketball court, bleachers, lockers, shower facilities, trainer’s room, public restrooms, storage areas and a concession area and kitchen, Baker said. It is expected to be done in November.

The second phase, to start the end of 2010, will have a dance studio, weight room, theater, conference room and commercial kitchen, she said.

The donor “is not Catholic and has no children at the school, but believes the strength of any community is in its citizens, that quality education is important and that God needs to be part of the package,” Baker said.

While school officials knew about the gift last year, they waited for the groundbreaking to announce it.

The donor “thinks sometimes it just takes one person to make a statement like this to prompt others to do the same,” Baker said. “Also, we underestimate that God has a plan and can bring people together to make things happen.”

“This is a phenomenal amount of money for a small Catholic high school, but it will help the East Side as well,” she said. “The gym will open up lots of potential for lots of community involvement on this side of town and we’re willing to share the space.”

Three elementary schools in outlying districts of the Tucson area have been named A+ Schools of Excellence by the Arizona Educational Foundation.

Fourteen other schools in the state received the honor, which is based on student focus and support; active teaching and learning; curriculum; leadership; community and parent involvement; and assessment data.

The schools are:

• Quail Run Elementary in Marana Unified School District. The principal is Pennie Harcus.

• Sopori Elementary in Amado in Sahuarita Unified School District. The principal is Desiree Raulston.

• Sycamore Elementary in Corona de Tucson in Vail Unified School District. The principal is Ken Graff.

The A+ Program strives to create a comprehensive framework of successful programs for other schools throughout the state and nation to follow, foundation officials said in a news release.

The rigorous process of being considered for the award includes site visits and applications that involve a school’s administration and faculty, and also students and the surrounding community.

Once the schools are selected, Arizona Educational Foundation officials create a list of A+ Best Practices that can be used by anyone.

The list can be seen at www.azedfoundation.org.

Issue: Ensuring equal opportunituy for children whose first language is not English

On Monday, the U.S. Supreme Court will hear arguments in the English-language learning case Horne vs Flores.

A lawsuit was filed in 1992 on behalf of Miriam Flores, a third-grader from Nogales who is now in her early 20s. Her parents said she was not learning properly in a classroom where the teacher taught only in English.

In 2000, U.S. District Judge Alfredo Marquez ruled in favor of the family and the Arizona Center for Law in the Public Interest, which filed a class-action lawsuit.

The state and the plaintiff have argued over what that means in terms of what the state must do to adequately create and fund a program for English-language learners. The plaintiffs before the Supreme Court, state lawmakers and the state secretary of education, have appealed, seeking to be freed of federal court oversight of ELL programs. Arguments will be presented by lawyers Ken Starr and David Cantelme, representing the lawmakers. A decision is expected later this year.

District chief makes pledge, but discusses tough budget realities

TUSD Superintendent Elizabeth Celania-Fagen talks to parents and teachers about the budget for the coming school year on Thursday at Rincon/University High Schools.

When Elizabeth Celania-Fagen took over as superintendent of Tucson Unified School District in July, she probably didn’t expect to worry that her first budget would be shorted $20 million to $45 million by the state.

She had hoped that deep cuts just before she took the job would be the end of it, Fagen told an audience of about 220 at a “Parent-to-Parent” meeting at Rincon/University High Schools on Thursday night.

“I’m the mother of a 3 1/2-year-old who will be going to kindergarten next year and I want it to be a full-day kindergarten,” she said. “I want her school to have fine arts and wellness . . . and interscholastics when she’s old enough.”

But for 2010, it doesn’t look good, Fagen said at the start of the two-hour event, which consisted mainly of her responding nonstop to questions.

Still, she promised that TUSD would not lose sight of the “wonderful things” it is doing and said central administration cuts would be done at a higher percentage than cuts to schools.

Questions from the audience, written on cards and delivered to the auditorium stage, ranged from what would happen to the International Baccalaureate program at Cholla High Magnet School if many of its relatively new teachers were not rehired to why TUSD didn’t close schools last year to save money.

There were questions about a four-day school week, saving fine arts, summer school, schools without principals and contracting services including transportation and food preparation.

Dustin Nevels, 15, a freshman at Catalina Magnet High School who wore a T-shirt that said “Catalina Trojans Marching Pride 2008,” said he came to the meeting to show his concern for the band. “The school site council is considering cutting it,” he said.

Fagen couldn’t answer questions about some specific programs. She said site councils had until the end of the month to send in suggestions for what they want to keep at their schools next year, based on a point system linked to the number of students the schools would have.

But she said closing schools wouldn’t save as much as some might think, and that a four-day school week wouldn’t be good for parents or the community.

She said that while schools not having a principal was unusual, “I’m totally open to sites being creative” as long as they do not make suggestions that are contrary to district policy.

For example, a school that might opt not to have a librarian next year would have to find a way to keep the library accessible to students, she said.

As for Cholla’s International Baccalaureate program, “It’s in its infancy and it’s a very good program,” Fagen said. “Its teachers (some of whom received pink slips earlier this month) have had serious training. We would not put teachers in that position if they were not qualified.”

Catalina freshman Rebecca Kopec, 14, said she would take the advice of Tucson Unified School Supporters leader Ann-Eve Pedersen, who spoke at the end of the event, and write Gov. Jan Brewer.

“The governor should not be listening to what adults have to say. She should listen to what students say about losing out in this whole thing,” Kopec said.

A student who raised money on her own to go to Ghana to work at an orphanage and school is the winner of the third annual Ray Davies Student Service Award.

Natalia Hoyos, a University High School senior, also is trying to start a nonprofit organization (the Web site is www.buildingbrightfuture.org) to raise money for schools in Ghana.

This year, as a member of New Global Citizens, she is raising money for a shelter for abused women in Sierra Leon.

As the winner at Wednesday night’s event, Hoyos received a laptop computer from Pima Federal Credit Union, said event chairwoman Martha G. Taylor.

The award was begun by the Tucson Human Relations Commission to highlight community service by young people, she said.

Hoyos was among 16 seniors from local high schools nominated for the award, which is named after Davies, a retired local teacher known internationally for his unceasing advocacy of civil rights and humanitarian causes.

Taylor said second place went to Rita Oldham, a Mountain High School senior, who is a youth mentor for Youth Empowered for Success. The organization trains high school students to do community service. Oldham received $300.

For third place, there was a tie between Sienna Jeffers, a Sahuaro High School senior, and Brittany Brooke Moreno, a senior at Marana High School.

Jeffers founded the Humanitarian Club at Sahuaro to fight hatred and civil rights abuses around the world. She also created Poetry Jam, where students could voice their opinions about world and local issues.

Moreno is president of Erasing Racism And Sexism Everywhere (E.R.A.S.E.) at Marana High. In addition, she helped create the Marana Youth Leadership Program and a Taste of Marana, which brings different cultures together. Jeffers and Moreno each received $150.

Other nominees were:

• Ashley Gee, Cholla High Magnet School

• Mary Bryant, Sahuarita High School

• Hema Ruiz-Jimenez, Pueblo High Magnet School

• Nicole Marie Smith, Presidio School

• Imelda G. Cortez, Pueblo Magnet High School

• Samuel Barba, Pueblo Magnet High School

• Brittany Leigh Craber, EDGE High School

• Christine Fallon, Tanque Verde High School

• Josue Saldivar, Desert View High School

• Kathy Tran, Ironwood Ridge High School

• Kea Tabisola, Salpointe Catholic High School

• Julie Crusa, St. Augustine Catholic High School

“We were impressed and heartened by all of the applicants’ community service,” Taylor said. “Honestly, to choose one was very difficult.”

She said commission members also were impressed about all the “diverse ways the young people helped the community, the nation and the world. These kids give you faith in the future.”

The Tucson Unified School District board appointed two new elementary school principals for next school year.

Oscar Dotson was named to head Soleng Tom Elementary School. He is an assistant principal at Corbett Elementary.

Leah Dardis was appointed principal of Vesey Elementary. She is an assistant principal at that school.

The board votes on both were unanimous.

The signs that people are unhappy with more than 560 teacher layoffs next year are mounting in Tucson Unified School District.

On Tuesday morning more than 500 students at Cholla High Magnet School refused to go to classes and instead congregated outside the school at 2001 W. Starr Pass Blvd. and chanted “save our teachers.”

Across town at Van Horne Elementary, 7550 E. Pima St., parents of half the nearly 200 students at the school kept them home Tuesday.

And Tuesday night, scores of teachers and supporters are expected to be at a governing board meeting trying to speak at call to the audience.

TUSD spokeswoman Chyrl Hill Lander said the Cholla incident was “very peaceful and the kids were back in school by 10:30 a.m., about three hours after they started the sit-in.

Lander said school safety officials would be on alert for similar activities at other schools this week, but said she had not heard of anything else being planned.

She said she hopes there will not be.

“Certainly we want kids to stay in school. The administrators at Cholla encouraged students to go back in the classrooms and to write letters to the Governor instead of sitting outside and not accomplishing much,” she said.

The Cholla students not in their morning classes were marked absent, she said. The school has 1,658 students. Twenty teachers and four administrators there received layoff notices.

Rich Harkins, president of the Van Horne Parent-Teacher Organization, said keeping students home from school was an attempt “to send a message to whoever will listen that the allocation of funds to our school, and all schools, is inadequate.

“We had asked our parents to call the Governor and state Legislators and many have,” he said.

“But people are frustrated. People are angry. They feel powerless. Will (keeping children home) accomplish anything? Time will well,” he said. “But it did give people a voice.”

Sedona Naifeh, 9, a third-grader at Lineweaver Elementary School, tells Tucson Unified School District board members Tuesday night it would be sad to lose her music teacher.

A student worried about losing her inspirational music teacher.

A teacher-librarian lamented possibly getting laid off after 30 years as an educator.

A parent fretted her autistic child wouldn’t continue receiving the critical attention he needs in his inclusive classroom.

Those were a few of the concerns voiced at Tucson Unified School District’s board meeting Tuesday night.

The remarks were the fourth display of dissatisfaction for a reduction in force in which more than 560 teachers on April 3 were told they may not be rehired for the next school year.

As the school day began Tuesday, about 500 of Cholla High Magnet School’s 1,658 students refused to go to classes and instead congregated outside the school at 2001 W. Starr Pass Blvd. and chanted “save our teachers.”

Across town at Van Horne Elementary, 7550 E. Pima St., parents of half the 197 students there kept them home Tuesday.

Then, as governing board members met in a closed session, students from Rincon/University High School’s concert choir performed outside the building where the board was meeting. The performance was to give the board a taste of what it might miss if the choir director isn’t rehired.

TUSD spokeswoman Chyrl Hill Lander said the Cholla incident was “very peaceful and the kids were back in school by 10:30 a.m.,” about three hours after they started the sit-in.

Lander said school safety officials would be on alert for similar activities at other schools this week, but said she had not heard of anything else being planned. She said she hopes there will not be any others.

“Certainly we want kids to stay in school. The administrators at Cholla encouraged students to go back in the classrooms and to write letters to the governor instead of sitting outside and not accomplishing much,” she said.

Cholla students not in their morning classes were marked absent, she said. Twenty teachers and four administrators at that West Side school have received layoff notices.

At Tuesday’s board meeting, the president of Van Horne’s Parent-Teacher Organization, Rich Harkins, said that new TUSD Superintendent Elizabeth Celania-Fagen had challenged schools to reinvent themselves to become more appealing and attract more students.

“At Van Horne, we did that. We’re trying to do an English immersion program and last week two-thirds of the people on the committee working on it got RIFed,” he said.

Sedona Naifeh, 9, a third-grader at Lineweaver Elementary, said her Opening Minds through the Arts instructor, who is teaching them to play the recorder, might not be there next year. “He gets us excited about music. It would be the end of the world if they took OMA away.”

Sally Lefko, teacher-librarian at Ro˚wore a grim reaper costume with TUSD on it, said she didn’t appreciate the threat of layoffs given to all librarians. “It’s not fair,” to do that to an educator of 30 years, she added.

TUSD officials say they had to send the layoff notices. State law requires districts to notify employees by April 15 if they might not be rehired. Facing state cuts of $20 million to $45 million, TUSD had to consider the worst-case scenario, Lander said. But she said there is hope many teachers would be rehired if cuts are not so deep.

Scores of Tucson Unified School District teachers laid off for next year, their students and other supporters are expected to attend Tuesday’s board meeting.

It will begin at 6:30 p.m. in the boardroom of the district headquarters, 1010 E. 10th St.

On April 3, the district gave pink slips to 560 certified employees – mainly teachers – and 65 administrators, mostly assistant principals.

Officials said next year’s reduction in force is based on a worst-case scenario of state cuts of $45 million to TUSD for fiscal 2009-10. They hope the situation is not that bad and that many of those employees can be retained.

At the meeting, the board also will hold a public hearing on a state performance-based compensation plan for teachers.

New principals will be appointed for next year for Soleng Tom and Vesey elementary schools. Tom is one of the district’s farthest East Side schools, Vesey one of the farthest West Side ones.

The board will hear updates from staff members on budgets for this year and next and boundary changes for the next school year.

Before the regular meeting, the five-member board will conduct a closed session at 4 p.m. to discuss:

• continuing efforts to be removed from the district’s 30-year-old court-ordered desegregation

• student disciplinary reports

• administrative appointments

• negotiations with employee groups.

A student who exemplifies one of Tucson’s most honored humanitarians will receive the Ray Davies Student Service Award on Wednesday.

Sixteen students from local high schools have been nominated for the award, named after Davies, a former teacher, who is known nationally for his advocacy of humanitarian causes.

The winner will receive a laptop computer.

Nominees are:

• Ashley Gee, Cholla High Magnet School, worked at an orphanage in Anahuac, Chihuahua, Mexico.

• Rita Oldham, Mountain High School, is a youth mentor for YES, Youth Empowered for Success, which has teen institutes to train high schoolers to do community service.

• Mary Bryant, Sahuarita High School, worked hundreds of hours as a volunteer at Reid Park Zoo’s learning center.

• Brittany Brooke Moreno, Marana High School, is president of Erasing Racism And Sexism Everywhere (E.R.A.S.E.) at her school. She also started the Marana Youth Leadership Program, which had a Stop the Hate workshop at school and a Taste of Marana event for the town of Marana to bring people from different cultures together.

• Hema Ruiz-Jimenez, Pueblo High Magnet School, is involved in the YES Club and is a school peer counselor and a volunteer at Tucson Children’s Museum, where she plays, reads, does fingerpainting and teaches children.

• Nicole Marie Smith, Presidio School, is involved in the Pima County Public Library Teen Advocate Program, where she speaks with peers to advocate library use; and in the Pima County Summer Youth Program, where she worked with children with disabilities.

• Imelda G. Cortez, Pueblo Magnet High School, is involved in TYLO (Tierra y Libertad Organization), a grass-roots collective based in Tucson that promotes equality, justice and self-determination. She was part of the TYLO Barrio Sustainability Project, organizing the South Side of Tucson around an urban green model. She also was part of the Pima Internship Program Freedom Summer, where she earned a health promoter certificate that allows her to talk to peers about sex awareness, hygiene and healthful eating.

• Samuel Barba, Pueblo Magnet High School, also with TYLO’s Barrio Sustainability Project. He also worked for migrant rights.

• Brittany Leigh Craber, EDGE High School, volunteered and worked for the Teaching Our Toddlers Skills (TOTS) Program, where she worked with young children. She also is a recreation aide in a program for children ages 5 to 17, and a mentor at her school.

• Natalia Hoyos, University High School, raised money to go to Ghana to work at an orphanage and school. She is trying to start a nonprofit organization (the Web site is www.buildingbrightfuture.com) to raise money for schools in Ghana. She also works with New Global Citizens, a school group that partners with youths in another country each year to make a difference. This year it is raising money for the operation of shelter for abused women in Sierra Leon.

• Christine Fallon, Tanque Verde High School, is president of the Tanque Verde Service Club, which raised money last year by doing a cookbook, and this year by putting on a concert and fair for children with disabilities.

• Josue Saldivar, Desert View High School, chairman for volunteering in the school’s National Honor Society and an executive mentor of IGNITE, where he trains others to become mentors.

• Kathy Tran, Ironwood Ridge High School, raised $1,500 last year for the American Cancer Society and also is involved with Interact, a Rotary Club project through which she organized toy and book drives and festivals at Rio Vista Elementary.

• Sienna Jeffers, Sahuaro High School, founded the Humanitarian Club at her school to fight hatred and civil rights abuses around the world. For the first event, Darfur Week, students raised money and worked to raise awareness. She also created Poetry Jam, where students could voice their opinions.

• Kea Tabisola, Salpointe Catholic High School, is a longtime summer camp counselor for Girl Scouts. She is involved in student council, which does the annual Random Acts of Kindness Week. She also is a Rotary junior counselor.

• Julie Crusa, St. Augustine Catholic High School, went on a five-day trip to San Carlos Indian Reservation, working with children in the classroom.

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If you go

What: Third annual Ray Davies Student Service Award

When: 7 p.m. Wednesday

Where: Catalina United Methodist Church, 2700 E. Speedway Blvd.

Details: For reservations, call 791-3221.

Want to know the latest on Tucson Unified School District’s budget problems?

Get it straight from the top.

Superintendent Elizabeth Celania-Fagen will conduct a meeting on “the realities of Tucson Unified Schools’ budget for the coming school year” Thursday.

It will be from 5:30 to 7:30 p.m. in the auditorium at the joint Rincon and University high schools campus, 421 N. Arcadia Blvd.

The Marana Unified School District governing board voted unanimously Thursday to lay off 133 employees next school year, a 7 percent reduction overall.

The number includes 30 teachers, 10 administrators, mainly in newly created posts, and 93 support staff members, said district spokeswoman Tamara Crawley.

All but two of the district’s 17 schools – DeGrazia Elementary and Twin Peaks Elementary – were affected, Crawley said.

No principals, counselors or librarians were let go, she said. “All student programs, including fine arts, will be maintained, as will full-day kindergarten,” she said.”

Crawley said the cuts were needed based on a worst-case scenario that the district will lose about $7.6 million in state funding for fiscal 2009-10. Its budget this year is $77.7 million.

“We are absolutely hopeful that, in the event the district does experience less than $7.6 million in cuts, we will rehire those employees, beginning with teachers,” Crawley said. “The governing board members and superintendents re-emphasized that message at the meeting and expressed their concern that K-12 education is in this position.”

The state expects to be in the red by $3 billion next fiscal year.

Eliminating the 30 teachers will save $2.5 million; administrators, $539,000; and support staff, $1.2 million, Crawley said.

The remaining money will have to be saved in areas such as travel and cell phone costs and by changing to a more economical health care provider, she said.

All those being laid off for next year were notified personally by either Superintendent Doug Wilson or an assistant superintendent before Thursday’s meeting, the spokeswoman said.

Cuts in administration include a community involvement coordinator and a support staff development coordinator.

Marana has 1,877 employees this year, including 827 teachers, counselors and librarians.

The decision to do a reduction in force came after months of evaluations, Crawley said. “The superintendent visited every site, we had two public meetings and we created an Effective Use of Resources Committee to look at cost-savings options.”