Enterprise
Superintedents' appraisals tough to get from many districts
by Richard Tackett and Christine Harvey May 2010
Taxpayers cover the salaries of superintendents in Arizona’s public school districts, but in many cases it’s difficult to learn exactly what governing boards think of superintendents’ work, a Cronkite News Service review found.
Out of dozens of school districts approached with public records requests, officials in about a third said they were unable to provide documentation of their superintendents’ latest performance appraisals. The reason: Those reviews were delivered behind closed doors in executive session.
David Cuillier, a University of Arizona assistant journalism professor who specializes in freedom of information issues, called it “ludicrous” for governing boards to conduct superintendents’ performance appraisals in private.
“That absolutely violates all of the principles of government accountability to the public,” said Cuillier, who serves as the national chair of the Society of Professional Journalists’ Freedom of Information Committee. “You should not be hiding superintendent evaluations in executive session.”
State law allows public bodies to meet in executive session when discussing legal advice, the sale or lease of property, labor negotiations and personnel matters including employment, assignment, appointment, promotion, demotion, dismissal, salaries, discipline or resignations.
Dan Barr, a media attorney who represented the East Valley Tribune in two successful lawsuits when Scottsdale refused to release a city manager’s self-evaluation and a former police officer’s performance reviews, said that appraisals for superintendents should be public record because they involve public officials.
“They try to circumvent public review of these evaluations by making them verbal and thus there are no records of them,” he said.
Cronkite News Service reporters and students in reporting classes at Arizona State University’s Walter Cronkite School of Journalism and Mass Communication submitted public records requests to 104 public school districts, each with about 1,000 or more students. The goal: obtaining the superintendent’s salary and copies of his or her contract and latest performance appraisal.
While each district provided a salary and all but one provided a copy of its superintendent’s contract, officials with 34 districts said they were unable to provide documentation of a performance appraisal because it was delivered in executive session. Reporters received 54 written evaluations, and most of the remaining districts reported having new superintendents who had yet to be evaluated.
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Out of dozens of school districts approached with public records requests, officials in about a third said they were unable to provide documentation of their superintendents’ latest performance appraisals. The reason: Those reviews were delivered behind closed doors in executive session.
David Cuillier, a University of Arizona assistant journalism professor who specializes in freedom of information issues, called it “ludicrous” for governing boards to conduct superintendents’ performance appraisals in private.
“That absolutely violates all of the principles of government accountability to the public,” said Cuillier, who serves as the national chair of the Society of Professional Journalists’ Freedom of Information Committee. “You should not be hiding superintendent evaluations in executive session.”
State law allows public bodies to meet in executive session when discussing legal advice, the sale or lease of property, labor negotiations and personnel matters including employment, assignment, appointment, promotion, demotion, dismissal, salaries, discipline or resignations.
Dan Barr, a media attorney who represented the East Valley Tribune in two successful lawsuits when Scottsdale refused to release a city manager’s self-evaluation and a former police officer’s performance reviews, said that appraisals for superintendents should be public record because they involve public officials.
“They try to circumvent public review of these evaluations by making them verbal and thus there are no records of them,” he said.
Cronkite News Service reporters and students in reporting classes at Arizona State University’s Walter Cronkite School of Journalism and Mass Communication submitted public records requests to 104 public school districts, each with about 1,000 or more students. The goal: obtaining the superintendent’s salary and copies of his or her contract and latest performance appraisal.
While each district provided a salary and all but one provided a copy of its superintendent’s contract, officials with 34 districts said they were unable to provide documentation of a performance appraisal because it was delivered in executive session. Reporters received 54 written evaluations, and most of the remaining districts reported having new superintendents who had yet to be evaluated.
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Valley schools work to retain teachers
by Christine Harvey Dec. 2009
Melissa Fletcher taught elementary education in the southeast Valley for seven years. She recently made the choice to let her full-time certification go, although her one true love is teaching.
Fletcher made the decision not to renew her certification not because of the lower salary or because of the frustrations teachers face, but because the current education climate was not something she wanted to return to. With four of her own children, Fletcher was a busy woman. She was tackling difficulties with the re-certification process and was witnessing first hand the tensions Arizona educators were facing.
"I saw how many people were losing their jobs, how many cuts were being made and it was not a climate I wanted to return to," Fletcher said. "It was really tough when I was there and I can't imagine how they are doing all of the things that they are supposed to be doing now. It's very difficult."
With Arizona's education system facing constant criticism and teachers feeling pressure from legislators, it is possible these conditions might worsen. The Arizona Education Association reports that the state is in great need for teachers. In 2006, Arizona employed 46,358 teachers while student enrollment was over 1 million, leaving the student-teacher ratio at 21.5. That is the highest in the United States.
Fletcher, who taught kindergarten, first and second grade in the Gilbert and Mesa school districts, said one of her biggest challenges came in her larger class sizes.
"In one of my years teaching kindergarten, I was overloaded with 28 children," Fletcher said. "I had no aid and when there were so many different levels of things I had to focus on, it made it extremely difficult."
Monica Allread, public information coordinator of Tempe Elementary School District, said the biggest challenge related to teacher retention involves keeping young teachers.
"Some of our young teachers spend the first few years of their career with us," Allread said. "They begin to settle down and want to buy a home and cannot afford a house in our district, so many move to the far East Valley. Many attempt the commute, but tire of it and end up moving to a district that is closer to their home."
Allread noted that although many new teachers do leave the district, many make the decision to stay. She said that the district extends its support and genuinely wants its teachers to succeed. The district is the 20th largest in the state with 13,705 students and a total of 905 teachers. The student to teacher ratio is one to 15, considerably better than the state average.
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Fletcher made the decision not to renew her certification not because of the lower salary or because of the frustrations teachers face, but because the current education climate was not something she wanted to return to. With four of her own children, Fletcher was a busy woman. She was tackling difficulties with the re-certification process and was witnessing first hand the tensions Arizona educators were facing.
"I saw how many people were losing their jobs, how many cuts were being made and it was not a climate I wanted to return to," Fletcher said. "It was really tough when I was there and I can't imagine how they are doing all of the things that they are supposed to be doing now. It's very difficult."
With Arizona's education system facing constant criticism and teachers feeling pressure from legislators, it is possible these conditions might worsen. The Arizona Education Association reports that the state is in great need for teachers. In 2006, Arizona employed 46,358 teachers while student enrollment was over 1 million, leaving the student-teacher ratio at 21.5. That is the highest in the United States.
Fletcher, who taught kindergarten, first and second grade in the Gilbert and Mesa school districts, said one of her biggest challenges came in her larger class sizes.
"In one of my years teaching kindergarten, I was overloaded with 28 children," Fletcher said. "I had no aid and when there were so many different levels of things I had to focus on, it made it extremely difficult."
Monica Allread, public information coordinator of Tempe Elementary School District, said the biggest challenge related to teacher retention involves keeping young teachers.
"Some of our young teachers spend the first few years of their career with us," Allread said. "They begin to settle down and want to buy a home and cannot afford a house in our district, so many move to the far East Valley. Many attempt the commute, but tire of it and end up moving to a district that is closer to their home."
Allread noted that although many new teachers do leave the district, many make the decision to stay. She said that the district extends its support and genuinely wants its teachers to succeed. The district is the 20th largest in the state with 13,705 students and a total of 905 teachers. The student to teacher ratio is one to 15, considerably better than the state average.
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