The Peoria Unified School District is planning to procure updated textbooks for its student population.
The governing board will consider contracting with a number of math and science curriculum and textbook vendors at its May 22 public meeting.
The board also will consider putting a bond on the ballot for the November general election at this meeting.
Last year, administration recommended science and math curriculum textbook adoption take place due to the age of current science and math materials and the availability of federal pandemic grant funding to purchase new resources to support student learning throughout the district.
The school board followed suit and approved this recommendation, Oct. 27, 2022.
Arizona state law allows school boards the authority to select and acquire textbooks for schools. To facilitate this process, the district’s textbook advisory committee was formed and has been meeting since January to evaluate each vendor holistically to determine how well the resources meet the needs of both the general student population and special student populations.
The following vendors have risen to the top: Savvas Learning for K-8 math, K-8 science, high school math and high school science. This also includes Bedford Freeman & Worth for statistics only and Cengage Learning for financial algebra and college algebra only.
The textbook advisory committee is made up of teachers, administrators, specialists and coaches, with all meetings open to the public.
Request for proposal evaluation criteria included cost, textbook content, responsiveness to RFP, method of approach and professional development.
The district recently closed a 60-day public display of the proposed textbooks that started Jan. 9, in the lobby of the District Administration Center and other district locations, and ran through April 12.
The full list of textbooks on display is available on the district’s website.
PUSD spokeswoman Danielle Airey said the community feedback will be used to guide future learning in math and science classrooms.
“Throughout the public display period, we have strongly encouraged students, teachers, support staff, parents and our community to review the resources that are being considered and to provide feedback,” she said.
Philip Haldiman can be reached at phaldiman@iniusa.org, or on Twitter @philiphaldiman. We’d like to invite our readers to submit their civil comments, pro or con, on this issue. Email AZOpinions@iniusa.org.
Meet Philip Haldiman is an award-winning journalist who most recently took first place for investigative reporting in 2023 from Arizona Newspapers Association. He joined Independent Newsmedia, Inc., USA, in 2015, covering Sun City West his first year. Since 2016, he has covered the city of Peoria. Prior to coming to INI, he was a reporter with The Arizona Republic for seven years, covering numerous cities throughout the Valley. Before that, he was a freelance writer.
Community: Haldiman spearheads the Peoria Independent Hometown Heroes Awards program, honoring local individuals and businesses that give back to the community. He has hosted local candidate forums over the years and is a member of the Society of Professional Journalists. Haldiman also served as a member of the Journalism Program Community Advisory Board at Glendale Community College. Outside journalism, Haldiman served as a member of the city of Peoria Complete Count Committee for the Census, 2019-2020. Lastly, he has served as a member of his HOA governing board since 2021.
Education: Arizona State University with a BA in Journalism and Mass Communications and a BA in Theater.
Random Fact: Haldiman is a fourth-generation Arizonan as well as wrote and produced an autobiographical comic book about his time spent in Hollywood and his life as a cult film star.
Hobbies: He enjoys hiking Arizona’s mountainous landscapes and is currently working on a play for the stage.
By 
Comments
No comments on this item Please log in to comment by clicking here