CFSD Governing Board 2022
CANDIDATES
JASIN - MORGAN - PEMBERTON
HOT TOPICS
ACADEMIC PERFORMANCE
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Bhola, Krauss and Mehmert state on their Thrive4CFSD website that CFSD is the #1​ school district in Arizona
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They also list several publications such as "Best Elementary Schools" per US News & World Report 2022, implying that CFSD is among the best without actually stating where each CFSD school actually ranks:
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FACTS:
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There are many school rating sites. Each one gives different weights to different criteria, including non-academic measures
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CFSD is not the #1 school district in Arizona in any of the school rating sites in 2022
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Previously Niche rated CFSD as the #1 school district in Arizona, but now rates it #2
Click here to view results
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Below is how each CFSD school actually ranked in the US News & World's "Best" Elementary Schools in Arizona per the 2022 rankings:
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Catalina Foothills High School #19
Sunrise Drive #30
Ventana Vista #152
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Bhola, Krauss & Mehmert also state the following, which are from the 2019-2020 school year. More updated figures are now available. Why aren't they using them? Provide link. AZ Schools Report Card just came out today.
Catalina Foothills School District has a .6% dropout rate.
FACT:
Per the Arizona Department of Education, the current dropout rate is 2.53%
Click here to view results - need to add link
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90% of Catalina Foothills High School Graduates attend college
FACT:
Per the Arizona Department of Education, 94% of students attended college just four short years ago
Catalina Foothills Schools continue to score above other regional schools in Math and English.
FACT:
While this is true, there is much work to be done.
Per the latest Arizona Department of Education report cards (2021), 45% of students are not proficient in Math and 37% of students are not proficient in English Language Arts.
Performance had already been declining prior to COVID.
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Not Proficient in Math:
2021* 45%
2019 33%
2018 29%
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Not Proficient in English Language Arts:
2021* 37%
2019 34%
2018 32%
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*No testing done in 2020. Students suffered severe learning loss during COVID, caused by current board’s decisions to keep schools closed
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TRANSPARENCY
Parents have been locked out of schools and board meetings and their voices are unheard. It is time to welcome parents into the decision making process.
HEALTHCARE
Not a school district topic. Students and staff should have their own medical freedom and have a choice to keep that information private between them and their healthcare providers.
OPEN ENROLLMENT
Support all students whether they are in-district or out-of-district
Expand teachers' salaries and student learning NOT school capacity
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Background: The Catalina Foothills School District is requesting $81.2M in new taxes that will include a new $38M bond and two property tax levee overrides, an administrative override for $14M and a maintenance and operations override for $28.7M to be on this year's ballot. The bond will include $17M for the new construction of classrooms at several schools. Currently, over 3,100 of Catalina Foothills' 5,000 students are open enrollment students that do not live in our district.
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Open enrollment students are WELCOME at CFSD with open arms. Their eagerness to attend our schools helps us to maintain the programs that make us such a great district.
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Solution: Manage our enrollment through natural attrition rather than plan for increased capacity. Recommend reallocating the construction dollars into more pressing needs such as improving teacher salaries, reduced classroom size where needed, and improved maintenance and operations (M&O) functions. M&O operational improvements would include required improvements from the security audit just completed, reducing energy cost with investment in new energy efficient utility systems, and water reduction changes.
SCHOOL COUNSELING
PARENTAL CONSENT:
Parental consent is paramount for LBGTQ group classes at middle schools. A parent spoke with a counselor and she confirmed that the school is not required to get authorization from parents for their children to miss instructional time to attend this 6-week class. Counselor kept calling it a group and parent continued to call it a class. Parent insisted they make this change so parents could be partners with their children in these life-altering decisions and she said bringing parents in violates the confidentiality of the student/counselor relationship
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SURVEYS:
Counselors are continuously surveying and monitoring students as part of their daily activities.
The Counseling website states that there is "Developmental and systematic programming," of our students. It is not the school's job to program our children.
Our school counseling program is proactive and preventive. It is an integral and essential component of the overall educational program, and provides all students with the opportunity for optimum development. Developmental and systematic programming are provided to support each student’s academic, career, and social/emotional development and achievement.
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Under the new Arizona Law, parental consent is required for surveys that discuss sensitive and private topics. Parents must be notified seven days in advance and be given the option to opt out of the survey.
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POLICIES
Current Governing Board is heavily guided by the Arizona School Board Association (ASBA). They essentially write all our current policies. CFSD Board Members lack critical thinking and has adopted and followed along with CDC, Pima County, State Legislature, and ASBA. It's time to start thinking for ourselves.