This is the fifth in a series of questions asked of Higley USD Governing Board candidates. Voters will decide among these four candidates for the two open four-year seats on the board.
What is the most pressing issue facing your school district today and how as a board member will you address this concern?
Brooke Garrett, homemaker, volunteer
Teachers. We need high quality teachers, and we need to retain them. This is a harsh reality that ALL schools are facing right now. Public and charter schools. I believe that we can work as a district to provide a positive work environment. This can be done by providing resources, training, mentorship, opportunities for upward mobility, and earning more certifications. It also helps ease the teacher overload if class sizes are smaller. Providing better healthcare options for district staff would be another possibility we can look into.
Roy Morales, operations support manager
First is the issue of sub-par proficiency scores in English, Language & Arts (ELA) and Math. Last year, HUSD reported both in proficiency and highly proficiency scores (for all grades), less than 50% rating in both ELA and math. When you translate that into a letter grade, that is a “F” on their report card. That is a dismal record when you see that more than 52% of the students are not meeting the minimum proficiency. We should turn our focus and resources in boosting those proficiency scores, across all grade levels. This is an all-hands-on-deck effort from the administration, teachers and parents in promoting academic excellence from our students.
Secondly, we need to change the focus away from students’ social and emotional concerns to the development of their future career opportunities. Those would include preparation for university, technical or trade schools. However, to achieve this, we need to push our students beyond mediocre academic performance. In preparing our students, they will be more likely to find their calling and focus on what they can contribute to society that adds true value. Preparing our students for the future with the focus on academic excellence, they will grow to be productive and self-reliant members of the community.
Third, we need to allow our great teachers to do what they want to do, that is to teach. To do this, we need to work with our local and state legislative bodies to remove common core and social-emotional learning from the classroom. These additional requirements are over-working our teachers into the point of exhaustion, despair and frustration. We need to allow them to be subject matter experts in their area of discipline. Allow teachers to develop individual lesson plans instead of being dictated from the Administration.
Inversely, teachers and administrators must understand that the students are under the sole care of their guardians, both on and off campus. Therefore, any and all curriculum, policies and materials must be accessible and approved by parents and the community at large. School staff must respect the sovereign rights over their students belong to the parents.
Anna Van Hoek, financial and accounting analyst
The most pressing issue is supporting our students getting up to speed academically. As a board member, I will make sure that the focus is on academics and that our students are given every available opportunity to succeed.
Amanda Wade, stay-at-home mom, applying to school
The most pressing issue our district faces is staffing shortages. There are many issues facing education today, and I think they all matter in their own way. However, they do not matter if we do not have enough staff to effectively run a school. We need to not only ensure we fill vital vacancies but must also work to retain and recruit the most qualified individuals for these positions.
Tom Blodgett Senior News Editor | Gilbert @sp_blodgett
Meet Tom Tom Blodgett joined Independent Newsmedia, Inc., USA, in 2022, when the company acquired Community Impact Newspaper's Phoenix-area properties. Raised in Arizona, he has spent more than 35 years in journalism in the state.
Community: He has served as an instructional professional in the Walter Cronkite School of Journalism and Mass Communication since 2005, and is editorial adviser to The State Press, the university's independent student media outlet. He also is director of operations for an 18U girls fastpitch softball team from Gilbert.
Education: Arizona State University with a BS in Journalism.
Random Fact: He lived in Belgium during his freshman year of high school.
Hobbies: Tweeting enthusiastically about ASU softball (season-ticket holder) and grumpily about other local sports (pessimistic fan).
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