Mike Tully: Change at Catalina is inescapable and UHS deserves better

While conflict makes for a good story, it could not have been worse for the Tucson Unified School District, the community and students. The representatives of the three schools are not enemies; they are dedicated educators with different visions of a common goal: academic achievement for their students.

The Governing Board put the issue on hold and instead chose to evaluate all 10 district high schools for possible restructuring. Some hope the status quo at Catalina will abide now that the board has declined to relocate UHS. That is not the case.

Catalina, unfortunately, is an underperforming school under a state-mandated improvement plan. Given the circumstances, change is inescapable. The Catalina High community loves their school and has called on the district to improve it, not effectively close it by moving it to the Rincon campus. But the history of Catalina suggests the request will go unheeded. A former Catalina principal noted in a guest piece to the Star in December that TUSD has not supported Catalina and “examples of the lack of needed assistance and support abound,” including an attempt to close it.

If past is prologue, it’s hard to be optimistic about Catalina’s future.

The other untenable status quo is a campus at 113 percent capacity, home to UHS and Rincon. The overcrowding burdens both schools and consequences fall on the students. Example: computer access. Rincon has a computer for every 1.15 students, basically a computer for every student. Meanwhile, at UHS, 12 students share a single computer (12.21 students per computer).

There is no reason UHS and Rincon students should be forced to share an overcommitted campus while Catalina is severely under-enrolled. Packing two high schools onto a campus that can’t adequately meet their needs while a nearby school is under-enrolled and underperforming makes no financial or educational sense. This is an inefficient use of district resources and a shabby way to treat students and teachers.

UHS is not an elite school. Far from it. More than 56 percent of UHS students are eligible for free and reduced priced lunch. More than 35 percent will be the first in their family to attend college. UHS has the highest number of Hispanic National Merit Scholars in the U.S. and the school is committed to increasing academic achievement for minority students. The numbers of African-American and Hispanic students have increased 37 percent and 35 percent respectively since the 2012-2013 school year.

The current freshman class is 47 percent minority. The UHS student population as a whole is almost evenly split. State data for the 2016-2017 school year show the student body is 45.9 percent white, 36.7 percent Latino, 8.3 percent Asian, 7.3 percent multiracial and 1.5 percent African-American.

UHS is committed to increasing academic opportunities for all students in accordance with the values of the community and the goals of the Fisher-Mendoza Unitary Status Plan. UHS has the most Flinn scholars in Arizona, along with five Rhodes scholars. U.S. News & World Report rates UHS as the 15th-ranked high school in America. Success like that should be nurtured, not stifled.

If UHS can have its own campus, like other high schools, more students, especially minorities, will have access to its advanced academic programs. Since UHS attracts students from outside TUSD (including some who left TUSD), expanding the student body will increase revenue.

One more example of the untenable status quo: every other school in TUSD works hard to promote academic achievement. UHS, by contrast, is the only school forced to ration it. How does that make any logical or educational sense?