Alexis Huicochea's top articles of 2014

Tucson’s largest school district has awarded a $92,500 strategic planning contract to a company headed by one of the new superintendent’s personal job references.

The company was one of three invited to bid on the contract. Because the value is less than $100,000, the district was not required to hold open bidding or seek approval from the district’s Governing Board.

Neither of the other two invited companies submitted bids.

The three invitations to bid were sent out just three days after the TUSD Governing Board, at Superintendent H.T. Sanchez’s request, raised the ceiling for awarding contracts without a public bid process from $50,000 to $100,000.

Tucson Unified School District’s five-year strategic planning initiative will kick off Feb. 25 with a conference led by five educational experts, several of whom have a connection to Sanchez, who took over leadership of the district in July.

The experts have all been recruited by an educational consulting company called the Center for Reform of School Systems. Its leader, Cathy Mincberg, not only worked with Sanchez on strategic planning in the district he ran in Texas, but also is listed as one of four references on his résumé.

Two other people leading the conference — three of the five — have worked with Sanchez on planning and training efforts in Texas. The group will lead discussions with students, parents, educators, community members, business leaders and elected officials about curriculum and instruction, finance, facilities, communication and diversity.

Sanchez, along with the Governing Board, school principals, the local chambers of commerce and the Southern Arizona Leadership Council, selected who would be able to take part in discussions and offer feedback about what they want for the district.

No board approval

It’s nothing more than a coincidence that a contract worth more than $90,000 was awarded to a “professional acquaintance,” Sanchez said. The other two vendors, who declined to submit bids, were from San Francisco and Boston.

Because the services cost less than $100,000, the district administration, headed by Sanchez, was able to award the contract without submitting it to the Governing Board for approval.

Opening the process any further would not have been cost-effective, said TUSD Deputy Superintendent of Operations Yousef Awwad.

While Sanchez acknowledges he formulated the scope of work that would be sent to the vendors, he said he did not select who would be invited to submit quotes for services.

“In terms of any ties to the Center for Reform of School Systems, they’re an entity that provides board training across the United States and they have access to people who have knowledge and expertise beyond what I have access to,” Sanchez said. “The bottom line is, we have a process that I am outside of and they went through the process.”

Awwad said he was unaware of Sanchez’s connection to Mincberg when he selected the three invited vendors. He chose them by conducting an Internet search for educational consultant firms with experience in strategic planning.

TUSD Governing Board member Mark Stegeman said he would have preferred to see a consulting contract like this brought before the board.

“I think this raises the potential appearance of a conflict of interest. A contract of that nature should’ve gone through the board,” he said.

Stegeman noted that just days before the request for quotes went out, Sanchez recommended that the board raise the threshold for consulting contracts from $50,000 to $100,000 — a move Stegeman opposed.

“Consulting contracts have been an area of abuse in the district historically,” he said. “I doubt whether I would have supported this expenditure if it had come through the board.”

Stegeman’s four fellow board members all approved the change, which Sanchez said puts the district in alignment with state standards and law. The threshold was lower in the past because the district was under scrutiny by the state for procurement violations.

Governing Board President Adelita Grijalva has no qualms about the process. She agrees with Sanchez that the superintendent’s ties to the company are a “weird coincidence.”

“I don’t believe this was a private agreement,” she said. “Dr. Sanchez was not a part of the selection and we went through the legal process as we should have. It seems to me like this was the best firm to do the job or that it meets all of the qualifications.”

Downtown meeting Feb. 25

The Feb. 25 strategic planning kickoff will be at the new Tucson Electric Power headquarters, 88 E. Broadway, from 8 a.m. to 4 p.m.

Anyone can attend, but those who are not invited must sit in the back of the room and can only observe.

Each table will have a student, a teacher, college and university representatives, a business leader, an elected official and a facilitator to discuss five concepts:

• Creating equity and using diversity in schools to prepare students to lead in a global community;
• Whether it’s possible to ensure every student gets a quality education;
• Dealing with a new financial reality;
• Matching last-century schools to 21st-century needs;
• Building community-district relationships through effective communication.

As part of the $92,500 contract, the Center for Reform of School Systems will use information generated at each table to identify common themes and statements. That information will be provided to the district to use in developing a strategic master plan, Sanchez said. The firm will also train the Governing Board on governance and oversight.

“This is not $90,000 for a one-day event,” Sanchez said. “It’s not a matter of flying in, giving a speech and leaving. It’s researching the district, understanding who we are. … When you look at the complexity and the size of the district — and understand that nothing like this has been done before at this level and scale with this level of transparency and visibility — we have to be dedicated to getting it right.”

The five-year plan is to be developed over the remainder of this school year and the district will operate under it starting in the fall. In the first year of implementation, there is likely to be visible change in some areas, but bigger pieces may not roll out for an additional year, Sanchez said.

For example, recommendations on curriculum and instruction can be implemented immediately through professional development and training. But facilities changes may take longer because the budget year will have already begun, with funds already assigned.

The consultant hired to lead TUSD’s $92,500 strategic planning initiative met with district officials and was provided insight into their planning needs months before the district began soliciting contract bids, district emails and records show.

Before her company won TUSD’s strategic-planning contract, Cathy Mincberg, the CEO of the Center for Reform of School Systems, was given a $1,400 sole-source contract to come to Tucson in October at the request of Superintendent H.T. Sanchez.

Sanchez said the October session was unrelated to the larger strategic planning project now underway. But district emails the Star received through a public-records request indicate otherwise.

A TUSD purchase order describes it as a “strategic planning session,” and an email Mincberg sent about the October contract includes the subject line “Quote for strategic planning.” Also, a letter she sent Sept. 23 to Yousef Awwad, TUSD’s deputy superintendent of operations, said, “The Center for Reform of School Systems is pleased to commit to a strategic planning session with the Tucson Unified School District on October 7, 2013 for a fee of $1,400 for expenses only. CRSS will invoice you after completion of the strategic planning session.”

Sanchez, who listed Mincberg as a reference on his résumé when he applied to lead TUSD, has said he had no involvement in selecting her firm to run the $92,500 planning project.

The superintendent declined to meet with a Star reporter last week to discuss the planning contracts but confirmed in an email Friday that he selected Mincberg for the October consultation because he had worked with her in Texas, where her firm is based.

A CRSS PowerPoint presentation summarizing the October session indicates it focused on setting and achieving a district vision looking five years ahead to 2018. It included such topics as educational, operations and demographics audits, making TUSD a “destination district,” and improving human resources, technology, custodial standards and facilities.

The larger $92,500 strategic-planning project is focused on having the community help develop a five-year plan for TUSD’s improvement. Three education consulting companies were invited to bid on that project, but only Mincberg’s CRSS submitted one.

The three invitations to bid were sent out just three days after the TUSD Governing Board, at Sanchez’s request, raised the ceiling for awarding contracts without a public process from $50,000 to $100,000.

Ongoing conversation

Awwad, the deputy superintendent, selected Mincberg’s firm for the $92,500 project. He initially said he identified the three potential bidders through an Internet search. On Friday, however, Awwad clarified that he picked two companies from the Internet and included Mincberg’s firm because he was familiar with it from the previous dealings.

Awwad also originally told the Star in February that he was unaware of Sanchez’s connection to Mincberg when he invited her to bid. He clarified on Friday that he knew the two had previously worked together, but he was unaware at the time that Mincberg was a job reference for Sanchez or that she had approached him about possible consulting work with her firm.

Mincberg was not given any details about the larger strategic planning initiative during the October collaboration, Sanchez said. “We were talking about culture and organizational change ideas, particularly in our operations area,” he said in a written response to the Star.

However, in the weeks that followed the October meeting, Mincberg and Sanchez continued to communicate via email and by phone, emails show.

On Nov. 6, more than a month before bids for the larger initiative were solicited, Mincberg wrote to Sanchez discussing pricing for a community event and board training — both of which are items included in the $92,500 agreement with her firm.

“Hi HT, Here you go,” she wrote in an email. “It is one slide and we can provide more detail but I wanted to get you pricing. It will include 2 board training sessions as well as the community event as well as all that needs to happen to set up the governance model, plan and begin work.”

Sanchez responded, “I like the plan. When can we talk to set dates?”

Despite the similarities between Mincberg’s Nov. 6 offer and the scope of work TUSD ultimately put out to bid in December, Sanchez wrote in an email to the Star that the two are not related.

In November, he wrote, Mincberg was proposing a rollout of recommendations she made regarding operations and change management — a process TUSD was not ready to move forward with, so no further discussion took place.

Confusion over scope

Sanchez acknowledged that the October contact gave Mincberg insight into the district that the other invited bidders did not have. Still, he said the process was fair. Both other invited bidders declined to comment.

“The reality is that when any vendor has worked with you previously, they have some additional knowledge of your organization and its workings,” Sanchez wrote in an email to the Star. “This would be the case with any vendor who has worked with us before and certainly is reflective of that reality in other organizations. However, this previous work did not result in CRSS being given an advantage in the award of the contract.”

CRSS was the only company solicited for the October planning effort, which is allowed because the contract was for less than $5,000.

“I contacted Cathy because I know and trust her and brought her here for one day to brainstorm with me to do what’s best for TUSD,” Sanchez wrote. “I did not seek out anyone else because I knew Cathy’s background and trusted her input, and the price quoted for this one-day visit was very reasonable and fair to the district.”

Sanchez and Mincberg worked together on strategic planning in his previous school district in Odessa, Texas. In addition to being a job reference, Mincberg also once tried to recruit Sanchez to her consulting team, unrelated emails showed.

Despite those ties, Sanchez said the award of a $92,500 contract to her firm was more of a “coincidence.”

However, emails obtained by the Odessa American showed that just days after he was named TUSD superintendent in June, Sanchez told Mincberg he would be in touch for strategic planning assistance.

That conversation wasn’t a promise to do business with Mincberg, Sanchez told the Star in February. He also said it wasn’t a discussion he’d had since arriving in Tucson in July. However, he is included in an email exchange with Mincberg during his Tucson tenure referencing strategic planning.

Mincberg started communicating with TUSD officials last September about what ultimately became the one-day Oct. 7 session. She quoted a price of $1,400 for the single visit, with the possibility of up to five visits for $7,000. After a TUSD staffer pointed out that multiple quotes would be required for a contract over $5,000, the agreement was limited to a single visit.

The emails show that questions arose from a staffer because, at that time, a scope of work hadn’t been written for services to be provided.

“Who do I get quotes from?” Karen Bynum, Sanchez’s administrative assistant, wrote to Awwad. “I don’t even know the scope of work. I don’t know what they are doing so I wouldn’t even know what other companies might provide the service to reach out for a quote. … Help me move forward with this if I am to secure quotes.”

In the end, TUSD had CRSS “redo the quote to reflect just one visit,” eliminating the need to seek further price quotes, the emails show.

In his email response to the Star on Friday, Sanchez wrote that written scopes of work are used for higher-level bids and that state rules do not require it for purchases under $15,000.

Second quote accepted

After the October session, Mincberg sent Sanchez a proposal to “assist with the change management process to transform TUSD.” It said the goal would be to train staff workers so they could drive lasting change on their own. It also would help build community support for the work.

“I have watched so many districts try to improve but fail to focus on the critical processes needed to both plan the changes and later to get their organization to adopt the new ways,” Mincberg wrote to Sanchez on Oct. 26. “I believe we can be your partner to create an effective, efficient and productive TUSD.”

By Oct. 31, TUSD had drafted a strategic planning scope of work. However, that scope of work wasn’t sent to any vendors until Dec. 13, after Awwad directed Sanchez’s administrative assistant to get written bids for the strategic planning work from CRSS and the other two other companies.

Emails show the CRSS quote was initially $98,500 — just $1,500 below the $100,000 threshold that would have required TUSD Governing Board approval. As a result, Kevin Startt, TUSD’s purchasing director, recommended a selection process open to more vendors.

Governing Board “approval is required for consulting contracts $100K and above,” Startt wrote to Awwad via email. “The vendor, (CRSS), offers additional consulting days at $3,500/day and additional travel for $1,200/2-day trip, so there is potential for additional work which could easily bump the original cost over $100K.”

Startt noted that the district could negotiate the total cost down by eliminating certain services or could propose a new cost for the total package.

TUSD suggested some work could be done by the district’s staff. Three days later, Mincberg submitted a quote for $92,500.

District officials said on Friday that the $92,500 agreement for services is not a contract but a purchase order. The purchase order allows the district to spend up to that amount.

Mincberg’s firm held the first public session as part of the $92,500 contract last month. About 200 teachers, students, administrators and selected members of the public took part in a series of presentations by education experts, followed by smaller group discussions.

That feedback, which is being analyzed by CRSS, will be used to help craft a five-year strategic plan that will focus on curriculum and instruction, finance, facilities, diversity and communication.

Sanchez said the money is being well spent.

“We were able to put together an important and meaningful event to bring together diverse members of our community to work together on the vision for the district,” he wrote to the Star, “and are pleased with the overwhelmingly positive response that has come with that event.”

The Tucson Unified School District is strengthening its internal controls for procuring consultant services in an effort it says will avoid the appearance of wrongdoing.

The change — prompted by an Arizona Daily Star investigation of the awarding of a $92,500 contract to an acquaintance of TUSD Superintendent H.T. Sanchez — was approved by the Governing Board 3-2 Tuesday.

Though Sanchez has characterized the Star’s reporting as inaccurate and misleading, he asked TUSD’s staff to come up with “safeguards” to reduce the likelihood of anyone else having the kind of scrutiny the contract awarding attracted.

An internal review of the procurement process for the district’s strategic planning effort found no violations of law, but it noted that the district’s practices were the legal “floor.” The recommendations made Tuesday are intended to put the district above minimum expectations, Sanchez said.

“My whole thing is, this time it was all fixated on me, and next time it might be another member of the leadership team that’s put in the spotlight, and they and their family and friends and the team they work with are all under this same scrutiny,” Sanchez said. “I don’t want anybody to have to go through all of that. … I don’t think that’s right.”

The safeguards will include implementing a “consultant services acquisition process” that would spell out the necessary steps to be taken to procure services.

The process would require a clearly defined scope of work; a screening of current district vendors that might be able to do the work; if a contracted vendor is not available, the written quote process will require at least two written quotes with proposed costs and no more than one “no quote” would be allowed; the use of a broader vendor database in seeking vendors; and a declaration-of-objectivity form to be completed by the staff.

Measures could also be put in place in which the district leadership reports to the Governing Board on a periodic basis on procurement consultant services at a predetermined dollar amount.

Sanchez maintains there was no conflict of interest in the award of a $92,500 purchase order to a company that is headed by a woman who is also listed as a reference on his résumé and has previously suggested he work for her firm as a consultant.

Governing Board members Mark Stegeman and Michael Hicks voted against Sanchez’s recommendation on Tuesday.

Hicks’ focus was on revising the threshold for when consultant contracts come before the board. He suggested lowering the threshold from $100,000 to $50,000. That would return the threshold to the maximum contract amount that required board approval before TUSD voted to raise it in December at Sanchez’s recommendation.

The TUSD staff did not recommend that the threshold be lowered, instead offering up the new safeguards, which will be written into the policy’s regulation.

Seventy-seven Tucson children may have to repeat the third grade after failing to meet statewide reading standards.

The children are the first group of students impacted by a 2010 law that requires third-graders to be approaching or reading at grade level to be promoted to the fourth grade.

The state gave schools three years to get students up to speed, even providing additional funding to improve K-3 literacy. Even so, Tucson’s largest school district is retaining twice as many as it did before the law was in effect.

The Tucson Unified School District retained 42 students due to the Move On When Reading legislation. On average, about 20 third-graders are held back in TUSD each year.

While twice as many third-graders are facing retention this year, the number is far lower than what it could have been — 300-plus — had the law gone into effect in 2010.

The students hail from 26 of the district’s 63 schools that serve third-graders. All but one of the 26 schools serve high-poverty populations with high mobility rates. For Steve Holmes, the assistant superintendent of TUSD’s curriculum and instruction department, it all comes down to the quality of the district’s curriculum, which was found to be lacking in a recent audit.

“The root cause of why this is occurring is we don’t have a standard curriculum that is taught in every school,” Holmes said. “So what may have been taught first quarter at one school may be different than what was taught first quarter at another school, and that’s not helpful for children who are moving between schools. To guarantee that they’re going to get the full curriculum in one year is risky.

“If we have a good curriculum, that will mitigate issues associated with poverty.”

TUSD is vowing to focus on three areas: reworking the curriculum and doing more targeted work in kindergarten, first and second grades; examining intervention models to ensure that only those that are effective are being used; and having a good support system for students that ensures that staff is intervening early and using data appropriately.

Amphitheater, Marana and Vail school districts retained only one student each, while Catalina Foothills, Flowing Wells, Sahuarita and Tanque Verde had no students impacted by the law.

Tucson’s second largest school district, Sunnyside, which serves more than 17,000 students — one-third of the size of TUSD — has 32 students at risk of being held back.

Sunnyside has long struggled with academic achievement, with more than half of its schools earning grades of Cs and Ds from the Arizona Department of Education and none earning an A.

2013 AIMS data showed about 80 Sunnyside third-graders fell far below the reading standard, which this year would have resulted in being retained unless the students fell into one of two exemption categories: English-language learners with less than two years of English instruction and students with special needs in reading or language.

Intervention programs

TUSD has been working to reduce third-grade retentions, implementing intervention programs, increasing communication with parents and notifying them if their child scores below the standard on assessments, and keeping detailed information on students to track their progress and create support plans for struggling students, including additional tutoring during the school day.

Even now, students are getting a second chance through a summer school program that includes an AIMS-like reading test. Should the students pass a pre- or post-test, they will be promoted. Sunnyside is offering a similar opportunity to its students.

For those who are unable to show reading proficiency and are forced to repeat the third grade, TUSD schools will provide targeted instruction to identify areas the students need to make gains, whether it’s in phonics, reading fluency, vocabulary or comprehension.

“We’ll have to be more diagnostic in nature,” said Holmes, of TUSD. “With these children in particular, we’re going to have go real deep, almost into a medical-like model where we’re actually diagnosing and planning a really specific intervention treatment that matches the child.”

There will also be increased scrutiny and support at five schools that together have 40 percent of the children at risk of repeating the third grade — Erickson, Holladay, Lawrence, Lynn/Urquides and McCorkle, which earned grades of Cs and Ds this year from the Arizona Department of Education.

While the Sunnyside School District did not identify which schools had third-grade retentions, spokeswoman Mary Veres said campuses have targeted reading instruction and intervention for kindergarteners through third-graders.

It has also encouraged parent involvement to help develop oral language and reading with children daily to increase fluency and vocabulary.

Strong targeted interventions were the key to success in the Flowing Wells School District, which is a fraction of TUSD’s size, but serves an equally challenging population. Of the 5,500 students enrolled, 71 percent qualify for free or reduced lunch. Nearly half of Flowing Wells’ kindergarten through third-graders either came from another school or district or left before the end of the school year.

Despite the demographics, no Flowing Wells students were held back as a result of Move On When Reading and retentions in years past have averaged about two students a year.

“We have been focused on early literacy for a long time,” said Audrey Reff, Flowing Wells director of federal programs. “This is not something that was new to us with the legislation.”

Flowing Wells has worked for at least five years on coordinating curriculum and support programs for all of its campuses, allowing for an “all-hands-on-deck approach,” Reff said.

The district conducts early screenings to measure students’ reading behaviors against certain benchmarks, intervening immediately to close the gap.

Teachers are also highly trained in delivering a broad and balanced reading curriculum, and support specialists are in tune with classroom goals and expectations week-by-week.

“We’re happy with our results, we know that we’re not satisfied until we have 100 percent of our students meeting and exceeding standards regardless of the challenges that they face,” Reff said.

“So our work isn’t done but we’re really excited that this first year has allowed all of our third-graders to be promoted to 4th grade. We’re thankful that we have so many people who care and are dedicated to helping these kids to achieve at high levels.”

A Foundational skill

The Move On When Reading law is contentious, primarily because of the retention requirement — studies show that holding back a child can result in low self-esteem, poor peer relations and even alcohol or drug abuse.

Even when a student is not reading at grade level, there may be other reasons to support promotion, Holmes said. And in a good system with strong curriculum, the next grade-level teacher would be able to help the child catch up.

“I think children need to be given every opportunity to advance,” TUSD assistant superintendent Holmes said. “I think holding students back over the long term has been proven to not necessarily work. But I understand the state’s position and we’ll certainly ensure that we’re doing everything we can to make sure kids are prepared and meeting the standards — that’s our business and that is our obligation to the community.”

Holmes acknowledged that the law has placed a spotlight on what is widely considered to be an important grade level.

Traditionally, students learn to read in kindergarten through third grade, but after that, they are reading text books and other materials in order to learn, Flowing Wells’ Reff said.

“It’s a basic foundational skill,” she said. “We are a high-poverty area and our kids do have lots of challenges, but we believe that literacy is the door, the gateway to helping them overcome all of those obstacles and do what they want to do.”

Academic gains have been made in schools across the state, with more earning letter grades of A and fewer falling into the B, C and D range, data released from the Arizona Department of Education on Monday show.

The same cannot be said for Pima County, however, where the number of traditional, district schools earning A’s decreased and the number of B, C and D schools remained about the same.

No schools have been dubbed failing by the Department of Education as it allows an appeals process to run its course. However, an Arizona Daily Star analysis shows five campuses that have earned grades of D three years in a row, making them eligible to receive an F this year.

The at-risk schools hail from the Tucson and Sunnyside unified school districts, the first- and second-largest districts in Southern Arizona. TUSD and Sunnyside again received lower marks than most of the other Pima County school districts, earning grades of C.

The at-risk schools are Lawrence Intermediate and Maldonado Elementary of the Tucson Unified School District, and Sunnyside’s Los Ranchitos Elementary and Challenger and Chaparral middle schools.

Last year, four Tucson schools were at risk of being labeled failing, including Los Ranchitos, but only one ultimately received the label. A final determination on the failing schools should be made before the end of the month.

The letter grades are based on the weighting of student performance on the AIMS test and student academic growth from year to year, along with additional points awarded for high English-language-learner reclassifications and significant reductions in dropout rates.

Across Arizona public schools, including charters, about 20 percent improved a letter grade, 63 percent maintained their grades and 17 percent earned lower marks.

More than 300 schools improved by one letter grade, while 38 jumped up two letter grades, the Arizona Department of Education said.

“The majority of Arizona schools are doing quite well,” said Arizona schools chief John Huppenthal. “Arizona’s schools are improving.”

While Tucson’s largest school district saw significant strides in letter grades last year, little overall progress was made this time around.

The district’s new leader, H.T. Sanchez, is not concerned, however, saying TUSD’s ability to maintain its previous performance in a time of transition should be commended.

“When I came in at the end of last year, they were looking for 227 teachers, brand-new administration, and they just finished closing schools and laying off people,” Sanchez said. “My job was to not lose ground. With all of that flux and all of that change, one would anticipate that you’d see a lot more A’s drop to B’s and C’s drop to D’s, but we stabilized the system.

“I’m very proud of our students, teachers and administration for the work they did coming out a very challenging year.”

TUSD maintained the same number of A schools, had fewer B and C schools and added one D school, but a number of campuses scored individual wins, including Johnson Primary, which went from an F school last year to a C-rated campus this year.

Intensive intervention efforts that included visits from administration at least four times a month made all of the difference, as well as the introduction of a new principal, Sanchez said.

Other equally notable achievements were seen at Drachman Primary Magnet School, which went from a C last year to an A; Marshall and Tolson elementary schools went from earning D’s to B’s; Banks, Davidson and Vesey elementary schools, Vail Middle and Cholla High rose from C to B grades; and Oyama Elementary rose from a D to a C school.

Catalina High School, which earned D’s three years in a row, improved to a C. The campus serves a high population of poor, refugee students and was essentially counted out by TUSD when it came to the possibility of earning a higher grade this year. As a result, TUSD fired then-Principal Rex Scott despite objections from Catalina families and community members.

Perhaps the largest turnaround in TUSD came from Palo Verde Magnet High School, now an A school after going through a turnaround model in 2011, replacing the administration and staff due to poor academic achievement.

Palo Verde Principal Eric Brock has been on the journey with the east-side school for much of his life, having walked the halls there as a student and serving in various capacities for 12 years. Though the challenge in 2011 may have seemed too great to overcome for some, Brock has been waiting for the day to say that Palo Verde is one of TUSD’s top schools.

“I’ve always had the underdog attitude — given the opportunity I was going to show everyone in the world what we can do,” Brock said. “Our faculty has high expectations, and our students have eaten that up and run with it.”

Not all campuses have a success story to share this year, however, as some lost ground. Schools including Cavett, Erickson, Holladay, Pueblo Gardens, Utterback, Valencia and Santa Rita all went from being C schools to D schools.

Interventions like those implemented at Johnson, as well as transformational efforts at some campuses, will work to raise the schools back up, Sanchez said.

Sanchez noted that most of the struggling campuses have had interim principals and midyear changes. Santa Rita, for example, had three different leaders in six months. He is confident the right leadership combined with the extra help will result in better scores.

Sunnyside had seven schools improve their letter grades, 12 that maintained the previous year’s performance, and three whose grades dropped.

Tucson’s second-largest district attributed the performance to the fact that it has begun implementing Common Core curriculum, which is not aligned to AIMS.

“As our schools and teachers have encountered huge shifts in what students need to be able to know, do and apply in relevant

real-world settings, our focus has been on the implementation of the Arizona Career and College Readiness Standards,” said Jan Vesely, deputy superintendent of Sunnyside, in a prepared statement.

Meanwhile, Amphitheater, Flowing Wells and Sahuarita either maintained their letter grades or improved slightly.

The Vail School District, Catalina Foothills and Tanque Verde were named three of the top districts across the state, an honor that Vail attributes to proven instructional practices, outstanding staff, community support, and solid leadership at the school, district and board levels.

The Marana School District saw a significant decrease in A schools, going from six to one, and gaining five B schools. Marana Superintendent Doug Wilson cited a similar concern as Sunnyside.

“It is extremely difficult to measure the progress of student achievement when we are still using a state assessment instrument (AIMS) not aligned with the standards our teachers are required to teach,” Wilson said.

Unlike Sunnyside, Marana earned an overall grade of B.

In the months before news of the Tucson Unified School District’s possible $15 million deficit broke, at least two of the district’s finance experts expressed frustration about challenges caused by costly unilateral decision-making by the superintendent.

TUSD emails describe several examples in which jobs were modified or added, or promises of raises were made without consulting current Chief Financial Officer Karla Soto or her predecessor, Yousef Awwad, on possible funding sources.

TUSD Superintendent H.T. Sanchez says he did not make unilateral decisions.

Rather, he said that on different occasions, he worked separately with Soto, Awwad, a budget analyst and staffing experts to make decisions, some of which he said saved TUSD money.

As a result, Sanchez said the district is planning to carry forward $9 million in maintenance and operations funds and $4.3 million in capital funds, which is higher than in years past. He said that money will be reallocated to support sites and staffing.

Still, Ricky Hernandez, deputy superintendent and chief financial officer for the Pima County School Superintendent’s Office, said Awwad’s and Soto’s concerns highlight the danger of unilateral decision-making, which is not considered to be best practice in any organization.

“As the superintendent of a school district, when you have a leadership team, collaboration is only going to allow decisions to be more supported simply because you’ll have the facts from the people who have expertise in your organization,” Hernandez said. “Unilateral decisions in any organization, from a management perspective, are not necessarily wise.”

Hernandez said unilateral decisions tend to have a ripple effect, positive or negative, on other areas.

News broke in email

The budget concerns came to light last month after TUSD Governing Board member Michael Hicks asked Awwad, who is resigning to take another job, to provide a picture of the district’s financial outlook for the upcoming school year compared with the current and past school years.

The following morning, Awwad’s response broke the news of the estimated $15 million deficit, copying Sanchez and Soto, a series of emails obtained by the Star shows.

Six minutes later, Sanchez tersely responded by email: “This is the first I have heard of this.”

Awwad wasted no time telling Sanchez, again by email, that he had been cautioning the superintendent against making decisions without involving himself or Soto.

“Many of the reasons that this happened is that we did not stick to our plans, which I cautioned against,” Awwad wrote. “Many decisions were made and reversed that caused more expenses (than) it was planned for.”

Hours later, TUSD Governing Board President Adelita Grijalva called a press conference where the possible deficit was shared publicly as a worst-case scenario, with Sanchez highlighting all of the state and federal cuts TUSD has endured over the years.

Sanchez denied that any of his multimillion-dollar initiatives, many of which he said were paid for by shifting funds around, had anything to do with the possible shortfall. Those initiatives included opening two early-learning centers, addressing salary inequity issues, lowering class sizes and moving away from the practice of annual layoffs.

An hour after the press conference began, Sanchez responded to Awwad’s email, which asserted that Sanchez had been warned: “That’s right. Thanks for the review. … I appreciate you doing this before leaving.”

Sanchez went on to ask Awwad for recommendations on an external auditing firm that could review his work. He also said that because Awwad had been busy, Sanchez involved either Soto or another finance employee in decision-making.

“You are always proactive, and I will miss your help, amigo. Stop by tomorrow before you head out,” Sanchez told Awwad. Awwad’s only response was to clarify that he had cautioned against Sanchez’s decisions because they were made without his or Soto’s knowledge.

Caught off-guard

Emails over the last seven months identify incidents in which Awwad and Soto are caught off-guard by financial decisions or promises.

In one instance in June, there was discussion about adding director and coordinator positions in a department — decisions that were made in a meeting with Sanchez and the chief human resources officer, Anna Maiden, but not Soto or Awwad.

In an email, Awwad told Sanchez he was concerned about the administrative costs that were added but not budgeted for.

“Was this discussed with finance? I was not aware of this plan, and I was not prepared for it, either,” Awwad said.

Sanchez responded, “I understand we have 20 mil in (desegregation funds) that wasn’t spent. Relative to this item, everything was contingent on deseg funding being available. Can we ascertain if such exists?”

Awwad told Sanchez he was not aware of those funds. Soto confirmed that $20 million was not accurate.

Awwad asked Soto whether other new positions Sanchez worked on with Maiden had been addressed, saying they were reportedly budget-neutral due to consolidating other positions, but he had yet to see any details. Sanchez urged Awwad to stop by his office to talk if he needed more details, saying, “I worked on this while you were out.”

It was only incidental to meeting with employee group representatives in June that Awwad learned Sanchez promised to give raises in December.

“We have no recollection of this promise,” Awwad told Sanchez. “Is this true?”

Sanchez told Awwad the raises were contingent on increased funding from the state due to a lawsuit or an override.

Awwad told him any new funding was not possible until the 2015-16 school year.

As recently as July, after receiving a request for tentative department and school budgets, Soto expressed frustration about the budgeting process, saying, “I have found this budget process very difficult to work with since deadlines were not adhered to and requests keep trickling in.

“I am now being held accountable for not providing information. I want to be supportive but feel that I am now in a very difficult position.”

What Soto was referring to was the fact that departmental budgets were not ready due to organizational changes made at a superintendent’s leadership team meeting.

Prior to that meeting, Soto said she had not been included in any discussions on adding or modifying positions, which she said resulted in her not being able to answer board members’ questions on a budget presentation.

Awwad backed Soto, saying he also was not involved in that process.

“I am also frustrated with the process,” he told Sanchez in an email. He went on to question the fact that, in addition to he and Soto being left out of discussions, most instructional departments had no input on their budgets, and some never saw their budgets, as decisions were made independently by Deputy Superintendent Adrian Vega and Assistant Superintendent Steve Holmes.

Earlier financial experience

Since coming to Tucson more than a year ago from Texas, Sanchez has said he has experience with school budgeting, with his résumé showing two years serving as a chief financial manager in a growing district — unlike TUSD, which continues to lose enrollment.

While having a global understanding of school finance would help a new superintendent, the system in Texas is far more independent in school finance structure than Arizona, which is prescriptive, Hernandez said.

Sanchez acknowledged on Monday that there is always room for improvement, and said he and Soto have been able to resolve her concerns about being left out of budgeting decisions, adding that she has been at the table for building next year’s budget.

The practice for creating new positions now requires a signature from both Soto and Sanchez before any action can be taken.

“Things I did this past year worked out well; we made sound decisions,” Sanchez said.

Tonight, Soto is expected to provide a fiscal status update to the Governing Board. Details of the report were not available Monday.

The board will also vote on the call for an outside expert to provide an analysis of Awwad’s projection. According to Sanchez, the analysis will ensure that the projection is accurate so TUSD can plan appropriately.

Nearly 1,100 students are attending failing schools southwest of Tucson in the remote community of Sells, and have been for the last three years.

Every year, however, the letter grade has come as a surprise to district officials who say the work being done in the Baboquivari Unified School District could come straight out of a best practices playbook.

The efforts include numerous interventions for struggling students, data-driven decision making, accountability for both teachers and students, the latest in technology, a focus on early childhood education, increased focus on student attendance, an extended school year, and community buy-in.

There is also the $51,000 starting salary being offered to teachers — an effort to recruit and retain the best.

While the district’s many initiatives have resulted in significant academic growth, it has been unable to get students to meet Arizona standards that have been considered to be too low by most.

Nonetheless, officials do not feel that they are doing students a disservice.

“We are not sitting back,” said Baboquivari Superintendent Edna Morris. “We are doing the things we need to do and we are moving the school district forward in many ways — engaging the community, increasing support to teachers, and putting student achievement first.”

Morris explains that years of low expectations have left students without strong educational foundations — a gap that has been challenging to close as evidenced by standardized test scores.

The district is confident, however, that it is only a matter of time before its elementary, middle and high schools can redeem themselves in the eyes of state education officials.

Geography doesn’t help

The remote town of Sells faces a lot of challenges, with few amenities and even fewer resources.

“It is the nature of where we live — our families not having access to books, to media, to television,” Morris said. “We still have homes without electricity or water.”

Added Baboquivari Governing Board member Sara Mae Williams: “We’ve always said it is one of the most important things, but did we really know how important education was to our community? No one ever challenged us to say let’s make that the best of the best.”

Add to that the rural location and the lack of exposure to what schools should look like and what it means to really be challenged, Williams said.

“The state never pushed it either, because why would you let that go on for so long?” Williams said.

It wasn’t until five years ago that former superintendent Alberto Siqueiros and the governing board decided to work to reverse what had long been a trend of underachievement.

The district started by cleaning house — getting rid of up to half of the staff identified as being ineffective.

When it came to replacing teachers, there was more to recruiting than advertising the highest starting salary in the state. District officials did not just want someone willing to work in a remote location, they would have to be effective, too.

The hiring process was retooled, from the standard interview to an approach that involved teaching in front of students while being evaluated by a team of educators and providing data that proves they are able to grow student achievement, Morris said.

The higher pay increased the number of applicants for the district to chose from, and the revised hiring practice ensured well-thought out decisions were being made.

Teacher turnover went from 80 percent in some schools down to 4 percent district-wide this year.

There has also been an emphasis on strong school leadership, which works daily to monitor teacher effectiveness and student learning.

The district opened up a free preschool to prepare younger children, who more often than not were coming into kindergarten unprepared.

Armed with highly qualified, highly effective educators, Williams and Morris say the improvements at the lower grade levels are astounding — the highest achievement the community has seen.

It is the upper grades where challenges still exist, where students who are now in middle school and high school were saddled with teachers who came to Baboquivari as a last resort.

“It takes time to bring in highly qualified teachers, and starting from ground zero,” Morris said. “Unfortunately for our upper grades, our children didn’t have the benefit of getting that education because they might not have had a highly effective teacher.”

There have been strides made, however with the graduation rate going from 48 percent in 2010 to 79 percent in 2014. The dropout rate has also plummeted from 16 percent in 2010 to 6 percent in 2014.

In addition to closing the achievement gap, the district also struggles with the challenges students face in their home lives.

“We can control what we do between the hours of 8 and 3,” Morris said. “We can’t control what happens in the evening.”

Many in the community struggle with alcoholism and drug problems, Morris said.

It is because of that, Williams said, that the district must improve its efforts to offer wraparound services.

“It’s not just academics — we’re offering that now,” she said. “Our biggest challenge is providing the wraparound services so that they have that net there that is not going to let them slip through the cracks.”

Grades don’t tell the story

State-issue letter grades, however, do not take into account a student’s personal struggles.

Schools are evaluated both on how many of its students are passing AIMS each year and how much its students academically grow each year. Other factors such as dropout rate, graduation rate and English language learner reclassification rate are taken into consideration, when applicable.

While the Baboquivari School District fares well in the growth category, the high-stakes test scores, particularly in math, is where the challenge lies.

According to Morris, the district has been implementing rigorous Common Core standards for the last four years and she believes the curriculum in place is strong. Given that Common Core is said to be a step up from the past state standards, most would think that students would excel on the AIMS assessment.

What Morris found was that students were not being prepared to test, with assessments only being administered quarterly in the past.

Today teachers are assessing their students weekly, checking for understanding and adjusting instruction as needed.

To earn a C, schools need at least 100 points — a mark that the elementary school missed one year by three points. The middle school gained 16 points, going from 72 to 88. The high school earned 86 points — up from 66 the year before.

“Those points are hard to achieve,” Morris said. “Clearly we know we are F schools, but if people were to come and look into our classrooms, they would see the growth we have made.”

Constant changes in scoring over the years, also haven’t helped, Williams said. And with a new test and accountability system on the horizon, the way the state defines success is up in the air.

Despite the unknown, Morris believes that with consistency, the district’s teachers will deliver a strong education and the students will eat it up. Though change is sometimes a slow process, she expects to see improvement in the spring.

“It was mediocre and failing and we don’t want it to be that way anymore and we’re tired of hearing we are failing schools,” Morris said. “It’s a slap in our face every single time. It hurts us to no end. So we wrap ourselves up in it and say, that is the label we got for three years in a row. Now we have to get back in and say what are we going to do better?”