Jason Williams speaks with Lela Alston at the July CTA retreat about her campaign. And, congratulations to Lela for far exceeding her goal for signatures!
Hi, my name is Alicia Cybulski. I am very excited to work with our endorsed school board candidates.
I have always been interested in education. Having grown up in Mesa, I had the amazing opportunity to attend fantastic public schools with amazing teachers. I graduated from the University of Arizona and during that time, I wondered why my experience could be so different than other students who came from different schools. This led me to seek out Teach For America, where I became a 2005 corps member.
As a member of Teach For America, I taught 4th grade at Cheatham Elementary School in the Laveen Elementary School District for the past three years. Working with my students and families gave me so much hope as to what our students are capable of. I also discovered many of the systemic problems in education and how they make teacher and student achievement so difficult to attain. We must have high expectations for students, families, teachers, and administration. We must have excellent leaders on our school boards who will make the right decisions for our students. Read the rest of this entry »
Jason Williams had a moment to chat with Will Reimers, a Trevor Browne High School teacher, on the issue of the “Dream Act” during CTA’s annual retreat.
My name is Sherri Connell and I am running for the Tempe Elementary School District Governing Board. I am a mother of two boys, and in the fall my oldest son will be starting the third grade. I am just like you. I work full time and look forward to the end of the day when I can sit at the dinner table with my family and hear about their day. When my son was in kindergarten, it occurred to me that the quality of public education has fallen by the wayside. He focused more on memorization instead of the fundamental concepts behind the reading and writing.
That is why I am running.
It is important for me as a parent and professional in workforce and economic development to be able to improve the quality of education our children are entitled to. I am against school district unification. I believe in local control, and when elected my vote will represent the community as a whole. We are all accountable.
There are three seats up for re-election and I cannot do this alone. When the incumbent files a $500 exemption statement with no intention to raise or expend $500 on a campaign, the message is clear–that seat is assumed. We cannot assume anything with this campaign and with a donation of $25 or more, we can send a message back. We are serious about change and are prepared to fight for our right to quality public education.
Send donations to:
Make checks payable to The Connell Campaign
4517 S. Oak Street, Tempe, AZ 85282
I am running for the Washington School Board because I know the district well. I grew up attending Washington Elementary District #6 from 1982-1989. During that time I witnessed a lot of changes to the district. Demographics and socioeconomic circumstances have changed considerably. Moreover, English Language Learners (ELL) and special education student enrollment numbers have soared since the 1990s. This, coupled with decreased state funding as a result of the district no longer being in a “growth” area have led to unique challenges in the district.
Having said that, I believe every child CAN and SHOULD learn. I want to improve the culture of the Washington Elementary School District by increasing community outreach and promoting the many good things the district does on a daily basis to increase student learning. I will fight to improve the morale for both employees and students at the middle school sites to ensure that students are safer and happier to be at their schools. This can and will be done by empowering the parents, administrators, and educators to collaborate more effectively together in the decision-making process. Read the rest of this entry »
What most frustrates me about the unification effort are the non-issues that are touted, taking the spotlight away from the real issues in K-12 education.
The commission and unification supporters claim that unification will “streamline the financial resources” of the district yet they have offered no evidence. The norm among Phoenix elementary school districts is the utilization of intergovernmental agreements like the Mohave contract. This allows districts to procure the best deal for products and services. Also, in looking at dollars spent in the classroom, unified districts do not spend more in the classroom than elementary or high school districts. In fact, six of the top ten large districts in the state were elementary or high school districts including Cartwright Elementary and Alhambra, two districts targeted by the unification proposal. Additionally, Arizona spends less on central administration than the average nationally at 9.5% compared to 11% (ASBA Legal Services). Arizona administrative salaries are also below the US. The commission has offered no evidence that unification will be more cost-effective and the aforementioned evidence challenges the assumption there is a “problem”.
Arizona leaders have made huge strides in meeting the commission’s main goal of unification: “a fully-coordinated, continuous instructional plan for students beginning in kindergarten and ending with the senior year in high school ultimately support a more productive education career for the students involved (SDRC FAQ).” This is already occurring through the implementation of K-12 state standards. All students are required to have a particular knowledge base at various points in their Arizona public education and the AIMS test is a way to measure that progress. The commission misses the mark when they state this as their goal. If they really cared about kids, their goal would be to improve student achievement. Trying to get there would lead to a forced election, that if approved, would create a bureaucracy that no Phoenix schools under the proposal support.
So if Arizona education is fairing better than unification supports claim, why the push for redistricting?
Those of us in education know that there is no silver bullet in education. Can we do better? Of course. Is unification the answer? No.
Tiffany Troidl
AZ School Works Political Director
AZ School Works (AZSW) exists to provide diverse, grassroots support for public education. One of our primary vehicles to accomplish this goal is our School Board Recruitment Initiative. School board members have a tremendous impact on school administrators, teachers and our children’s classrooms based upon their opinions and decisions.
Through our online community, we hope to provide motivation, cultivation, and advice for strong, public education advocates interested in running for their local school boards and supporting our local public schools.
Recently, Tiffany Troidl (Creighton School Board Member) provided advice for newly elected school board members. Our first school board candidate, Robin Stamp, posted his profile, and received an official endorsement and contribution from AZSW. Mark Trinitapoli offered his insight as a former educator on the importance of compensation as a critical component to teacher retention. And, I offered my thoughts on the current economic difficulties for our school districts.
This month, we will continue to build our online conversation by soliciting input from more community members, educators, parents, and students. In fact, as we continue to grow, supporters want to know how to get more involved. There are several ways. Lend your voice as a guest contributor (application here) on our website, nominate, or inform us of, school board candidates who are strong advocates for public education, host a house party, and/or make a contribution to help build our organization and provide the needed resources to accomplish our goals (donate here.)
As always, many thanks for all your support!
With hope and determination,
Jason Williams
Founder and Chairman, AZ School Works Political Action Committee
We are excited to offer this website as a vehicle to capture the reflections, ideas and projects of our elected officials, education professionals, parents, and community members.
This website is for you! Join our team and share with all of us your thoughts and responses to current issues impacting the Arizona public education system.
Each week, some of the topics will include: political or government updates, candidate profiles and introductions, and updates from our Founder and Chairman, Jason Williams.
If you, or someone you know, would like to be a part of this dialogue, please download this application and email it back to supporteducation@azschoolworks.org today.
Kevin Spidel
State Director, AZ School Works