CCUSD Watch: Focused on Cave Creek Unified School District 93

Disgusted!!!!!

2012-01-23T18:10:00.001-07:00

So disgusted at the gross and blatant power grab by the governing board.

CCUSD parents: When another rubber stamper\district sycophant\insider is appointed to the board shortly, you will be getting the school district you deserve! Enjoy…

Don’t Miss the Community Forum for the Open Governing Board Seat

2012-01-17T12:57:00.001-07:00

You can’t ask a question or get a vote but here is the information for those naïve enough to think that your input actually matters:

Cave Creek Unified School District will be conducting a community forum on Tuesday, January 17th at 6:00 PM in the Governing Board Room (33016 North 60th Street) to allow the community an opportunity to hear candidates applying for the vacant Governing Board position. Candidates will be asked a series of questions by the Collaboration Team. Audience members will be able to provide written comments although will not be able to vote for a candidate. The Collaboration Team will forward three names to the Maricopa County Education Services Agency (MCSEA) who will ultimately select the new member. For additional information or questions, please contact Dr. Debbi Burdick, Superintendent, 480-575-2015.

Cave Creek Unified wants your budget ideas. We make

2012-01-09T12:54:00.001-07:00

According to this article CCUSD wants your budget ideas. Just attend tomorrow’s board meeting to express them.

Cave Creek schools seek ideas for cutting budget

Here are our suggestions:

Expand the calendar to 200 days. This will result in a 5% increase in budget (BSL) from the state. Remove the professional development and conference days, about 10, so only 10 days will need to be added to the calendar.
Consolidate all the schools into 2 campuses. STMS and HTES in the south. DAMS, BMES, old BMES, and CSHS in the north. Close three schools,DWES, DSES, and LMES, and make all schools K-8 except Cactus Shadows. Use old BMES to ease overcrowding at the HS or use it for 7-9. Operate the south and north schools as one, for example HTES and STMS could act as one campus and allocate room accordingly (maybe HTES is the lower school K-4 and STMS is an upper school 5-8), same with BMES and DAMS. This is likely a $1.2M savings and not one teacher needs to get laid off and we would also realize some transportation savings.
Raise class sizes by 3-4 at K-8 level but to mitigate this implement an ability grouping in each grade level. The higher ability groups would have more students in them, the lower levels less students. Just as a simple example students would be grouped into the following class sizes: Honors 40 per class. Highly performing 36 per class. Performing 30 per class. Under performing 28 per class. Have parents sign a form understanding that to be in the honors track, you accept a higher student teacher ratio.
Expand the walk zone around schools. There are some bus routes at DWES that drop kids off 1000 feet from the school. Why?
Consolidate all school records information at the district office. Certainly that spiffy new school management system we bought can allow for one or two people to manage all the schools from a central location. We don't need a records secretary (currently 7 or 8 FTEs) at each of the schools for such a small district. Cut this to 3, 1.5 for K-8 and 1.5 for the HS and a savings of $200,000.
Fund a full time volunteer coordinator position. This person will be solely responsible for creating a database of parents who are more than willing to step up and help the schools in this time of need. If a teacher needs some help, they call the volunteer coordinator who will send out an email blast asking for volunteers. Principal needs some temporary help, the volunteer coordinator could find a volunteer instead of paying a temp or substitute.
Remove all car allowances. If someone needs to travel between schools, the district maintains a fleet of vehicles that can be used for this purpose. Savings at least $40,000.
Raise deductibles and premiums for employee family members and eliminate paying 100% of the cost of health care for administrator’s family members.
Eliminate health care subsidies for part time employees. No private employer gives part time employees free health care.
Raise fees for groups using district fields and gyms to fully cover the utility usage. Who is paying the electricity costs for the lights that are on every evening at the district ball fields, when no one is using them? Just because some organization donated the lights, does not we are obliged to pay for the electricity to run them.
Discontinue paying fees to associations. AZSBA, AASBO, NSBA, etc. will still continue to advocate for schools even if our district is not paying them. It is fine to pay for the services of these groups, but in these hard times, we cannot afford frills like this.
Cut all day kindergarten. Sorry there is no proof that adding another 120 minutes of instruction (when you subtract for lunch, another recess, nap time, etc.) is worth the cost. These funds could be put to a much more productive use.
Eliminate IB. Sorry but colleges do not give IB as much respect as AP. And since CCUSD made the decision not to expand the program at the elementary and middle schools (too expense they said!) running both these programs is a waste of resources.
Cut the World Language programs. No parents asked for this and it was a poor decision to implement it without a stable funding source.
Drop the Goldwater lawsuit appeal. You are throwing good money after bad with little hope of winning.

When has the Sonoran News lied about Cave Creek Unified?

2011-12-21T15:44:00.001-07:00

The governing board recently did a self evaluation where they almost pulled a muscle patting themselves on the back. Today’s Sonoran News points out that the unattributed comments in this evaluation claim that the Sonoran News lies about the district.

We would love to hear from our readers. When has the Sonoran News lied about Cave Creek Unified.

Our constructive criticism of the Sonoran News would be that they need to ask direct questions of the district leadership and get direct answers and let the readers know when those answers are not forthcoming.

AZ Capitol Time: Court teaches CCUSD Cave Creek Unified a lesson–do what you promised

2011-11-28T21:43:00.001-07:00

From the Arizona Capitol Times…

Court teaches school district a lesson — do what you promised

But both the Arizona and U.S. constitutions prohibit governments from impairing contracts. Legislative favoritism cannot circumvent those protections. Simply put, the state cannot make a rule that authorizes a school district to break another rule.

Cave Creek school district to appeal bond-money ruling

2011-11-26T14:43:00.001-07:00

From the Arizona Republic...

Cave Creek school district to appeal bond-money ruling

Key quotes from the article...

"We owe it to our kids, and it's the best thing for the taxpayers," board President David Schaefer said."

...

"He said asking the Arizona Court of Appeals to decide the matter, which could take up to a year, is the most cost-effective option regarding the pot of frozen money. He declined to estimate the legal costs associated with the appeal, saying that the details haven't been firmed up yet but that it was a "low price."

...

"Applying the money toward existing debt would require setting up a trust, which also would be costly."

CCUSD Cave Creek Unified Administration recommends appeal to Goldwater lawsuit

2011-11-22T15:35:00.001-07:00

Update: Board votes 3 to 1 (Clancy against) to go ahead with the appeal.

The Cave Creek Unified Governing board this evening will vote on whether to appeal it losing verdict in the recent lawsuit over voter approved bonds to the Arizona Supreme Court.
This is beyond the pale and the height of arrogance. First of all, there is the complete and total hypocrisy that we already pointed out.

Live by the lawsuit, die by the lawsuit for Cave Creek Unified

Second, the district got its butt handed to by the judge. Every argument put forth by the district’s legal team was summarily ignored. Read the decision here. Ruling. Third, the district does not have the money to waste on this.
Dear CCUSD,
Suck it up, pay off outstanding debt (saving us tens of thousands a month in interest), then come up with a reasoned and reasonable approach to maintaining the facilities in the district that all the voters can approve.
Of course look for it to pass the governing board, 4 to 1.

Cave Creek Unified Panel to Discuss Education

2011-11-21T07:30:00.001-07:00

With very little notice or marketing, the International Baccalaureate students of Cactus Shadows High School are hosting a panel this evening where, “the panelists will be sharing their views about what is to be done to improve not only the Cave Creek school district but all schools across the nation.”

The panel will be preceded by a screening of the propagandists film, “The Race to Nowhere”. If you have followed the commotion around this film, you would know that this film complains about the supposed stress of making students work hard (boo hoo) , while presenting no evidence as to why the US is falling behind the world academically. The Race to Nowhere implicitly advocates for further dumbing down of the curriculum of our schools.

If the IB students really wanted to understand American education they would be screening Waiting for Superman, a film in part that bemoans rich affluent suburban schools who are failing their students. Sound familiar? Or they should have offered a screen of the film 2 Million Minutes how countries around the world are preparing their students and eating our lunch in the process.

The most interesting aspect here is that while the IB students invited mostly those from the education establishment, they did also invite Ms. Linda Bentley from the Sonoran News.

Cave Creek Unified and why the teaching of Mandarin is a failure for the students

2011-11-16T08:59:00.001-07:00

Thanks to Katharine Beals, who runs the Out in Left Field blog, for articulating exactly why teaching Mandarin is hard and why we think it is a waste of resources and precious seat time for the elementary students in Cave Creek Unified…

Why we switched from Chinese to French

In comparison with French and other Indoeuropean languages, Chinese presents two disadvantages. One is its writing system. Mastering the thousands of Chinese characters required for basic literacy demands hours of daily practice. I've seen first hand how a short hiatus can result in massive forgetting. One simply cannot learn to read anything of substance in Chinese without a long-term commitment to significant daily practice. Another is its vocabulary. Chinese words are especially challenging for English speakers to remember because they bear no resemblance to English words.

Our district leaders make it seem that a few minutes of speaking Mandarin a week is going to prepare our students for international job opportunities, but like most things in Cave Creek, this World Language program comes no where close to requiring significant practice or mastery.

If you don’t believe us or Ms. Beal, then read this from The Economists…

The craze for teaching Chinese may be a misguided fad

Of course FAD is the basis for all of the ‘reform’ in CCUSD, so it fits right in.
Gullible parents and board members fall for these FADS, but parents who know better have already left the district taking their vote with them.

CCUSD Cave Creek 2011 Override Election Goes Down to Defeat

2011-11-08T20:37:00.001-07:00

Results unofficial…

Cave Creek Unified CCUSD Governing Board Vacancy

2011-11-02T09:59:00.001-07:00

Governing Board Seat Vacancy…

Cave Creek Unified School District is accepting letters of interest from community members who wish to apply for a vacant Governing Board position. The term will run through December 2012. Candidates must be registered voters of this state and residents of the District for one (1) year. Interested candidates need to submit a letter of interest to CCUSD® Governing Board President, P. O. Box 426, Cave Creek, Arizona 85327, as well as an applicant packet by November 30, 2011. For additional information or questions, please contact Dr. Debbi Burdick, Superintendent, 480-575-2015.

In case you didn’t hear, the three people making the decision on who to pass on to the Maricopa County Superintendent of Schools (who makes the ultimate decision) are:

The CCUSD Governing Board President
The District Superintendent
The Cave Creek Teachers Union President

In other words if you are not a district ‘yes man’, do not bother.

Mark Warren Resigning from Cave Creek Unified Governing Board

2011-10-14T17:17:00.001-07:00

According to the Arizona School Board Association, Mark Warren is moving immediately to Virginia and will resign from the Cave Creek Unified Governing Board.

Good luck Mr. Warren to you and your family. While we believe that you understood the necessity of increasing achievement in our district, it is unfortunate you never stood behind that belief with your vote.

Note from ASBA below…

Once Again, Cave Creek Unified Students Deserve Your Vote

2011-10-14T01:00:00.000-07:00

Cave Creek Unified Students Deserve Your Vote

We have made our disagreements with the Cave Creek Unified School District crystal clear and we will not rehash them here. As early ballots will begin arriving today, we wanted to communicate our feelings on the override vote.

This override is one of the primary ways that our community can support our local schools. Overrides have the biggest and most direct impact on the classroom, and with property tax deductibility, it only costs us 70 cents (or less) on the dollar out of pocket.

This override isn’t about new buildings or laptops or swimming pools, this is about the classroom. This override money goes directly to support the students and our teachers. With the passage of this override, there will be no excuse for the district to make cuts that affect our students.

We need to support our schools and make them BETTER.

We currently operate with a K-3 override and a maintenance override in place. The ‘vested interest’ boosters point to the recent bond and override defeats as proof of the lack of community support for the schools, but the community has stepped up and shown its support for getting the dollars to the classroom. There is no reason this should not continue.

Don’t set back the cause based of your hatred of the governing board’s and administration’s short sighted decisions. The district leaders will still get paid, still get their car allowances, still get their free health insurance, and they will still get their bloated pensions at retirement, but our children only have one shot at kindergarten, one shot at first grade, one shot at second grade, etc. Keep your powder dry for the governing board elections in 2012 where we can affect real change.

We need to build for a future of improved of academic distinction for all of the children in the Cave Creek Unified district. A failure on election day will only give them more cause to continue the stagnation and inertia of lowered expectations that has plagued our district.

Please support our Cave Creek Unified students with a YES vote on your ballot.

Cave Creek Unified Spending. How Much is Enough?

2011-10-13T10:00:00.001-07:00

Where are these millions that supposedly have been cut from the budget? Where are those supposed cuts to teachers salaries?
For those complaining about classroom sizes, go ask the board and the superintendent why $2.7 million of M&O was left unspent in 2009 and 2010. How many teachers would that have funded? (If this was ARRA money why weren’t more teachers hired like this person suggested?)

For those complaining about no money for curriculum, go ask the superintendent how much those new copiers and electronic message boards cost.
All of these six year dollar increases have outpaced inflation which was 17.1% from July of 2003 to July of 2009

Have no fear though district supporters, CCUSD Watch will be urging a yes vote on the override. Tune in tomorrow.

Click to Enlarge

Cave Creek Unified Returns to All EXCELLING, A-F Labels Released

2011-10-12T09:33:00.001-07:00

According to the East Valley Tribune, all schools in Cave Creek Unified have finally returned to all EXCELLING under the Arizona Department of Education AZ Learns Legacy Labels.

The news was not so good on the new A-F letter grade labels where Desert Sun Academy and Sonoran Trails Middle school were graded with a B.

As we have stated before, these labels are a low bar and in no way represent the levels where we want and need our students to perform at. We all know how poorly Arizona does in comparison with the rest of the US, so being the best in Arizona does not prove much. One of the Cave Creek Unified board members said it best…

“We can no longer pride ourselves on our performance in the past nor can we count on state standards to be accurate judges of our future performance…We should be looking nationally and globally to find the standards we should set…If we set our expectations higher than what Arizona thinks is acceptable, we can better equip our students for the future and better prepare them for the world beyond Cave Creek. We will fly by standards that we currently use in Arizona”
- Mark Warren, Cave Creek Unified Governing Board Member

Now if the district would only rise up to meet Mr. Warren’s challenge, the community would have something we could all be proud of.

Cave Creek Unified versus the Nation and the World

2011-10-05T09:35:00.001-07:00

The Nation

US News just published its Best High Schools for Math And Science and no surprise, Cactus Shadows in Cave Creek Unified failed to make the list. The methodology used by US News is to consider participation and success in AP courses that the College Board considers STEM Math or STEM Science. We wanted to see how many of these STEM courses were offered at Cactus Shadows and we were stunned by the results.

We have heard of student complaints about the AP offerings but we had no idea that the math and science offerings are so anemic. Not even offering AP Chemistry is an outrage. No Calculus BC? It is just sad that math offerings end here. How can our leadership run around claiming 21st Century this and that, but offer no computer science classes?

Compare these offerings to Vail Unified, a school district about the same size as Cave Creek Unified, in a considerably less affluent area.

So Cienega High School in the Vail Unified School District has twice the STEM AP offerings as Cactus Shadows does.

Rest assured though if your Cactus Shadows Student wants to take dance, there is a 4 year, full credit offering. Is it any wonder that our cheerleaders do so well, yet AP participation is down and scores are below STATE averages (students only need ONE credit of fine arts for in-state university admission).

The solution is simple.

1) Stop offering IB. This is draining too many resources for too little students. In addition, more colleges offer credit for AP than they do for IB.

2) Put more effort and resources into teaching the top students, instead of trying to save students with e2020 and PASS. We realize that these student you save bring you more money, but it should not be about the money, it should be about student achievement.

3) Let parents use tax credit money to pay for the costs of AP exams or better yet, have the district pay for the cost of AP exams. Show a commitment to learning over extracurriculars.

The World

The just published Global Report Card shows the pathetic performance of our public district schools (not just CCUSD®) when compared to the achievement of 25 other countries with developed economies. Below is how Cave Creek Unified stacks up against the world.

Be sure to check out the accompanying article “When the Best is Mediocre” which highlights how districts in affluent areas like ours pat them sleeves on the back for outperforming urban districts and state averages, but when compared internationally, our students are falling short.

Cave Creek Unified Education Foundation pending dissolution

2011-10-04T09:36:00.001-07:00

As we noted in June, the Cave Creek Education Foundation was AGAIN not in good standing for failure to annual report with the Arizona Corporation Commission. The continued failure to file this report resulted in the Arizona Corporation Commission threatening to dissolve the foundation.

So CCUEF, how can you inspire faith in donations and support when you cannot complete the required paperwork with the government on time?

CCUSD® is now a federally registered trademark

2011-09-22T13:56:00.001-07:00

CCUSD® and the district logo are now federally registered trademarks.

The question is why would the district waste its time and money on lawyers fees on this. We believe the answer is to suppress speech and its critics. Would fit right in with that journalism teacher accusation.

The best way for the district to silence its critics is with achievement, rigor, and high expectations, not lawyers, trademarks, and asking students to do your dirty work.

Sigh.

CCUSD® Cave Creek Unified Teacher Accused of Telling Students to Suppress Free Speech

2011-09-22T13:32:00.001-07:00

From the Sonoran News…

At CCUSD, does the end justify the means?

The Sonoran News reports that a teacher (who is married to the head of the Learn Yes political action committee) was telling students to destroy copies of the Sonoran News.

Not cool.

Would this teacher who by the way is the journalism teacher and in charge of printing the award winning Cactus Shadows newspaper, The CS Press, allow for students opposing its editorials to destroy copies of The CS Press. If this accusation is true, it sure seems like a poor decision.

Cave Creek Unified CCUSD Loses Goldwater Lawsuit

2011-09-15T12:54:00.001-07:00

From the Arizona Republic...

Court throws out Ariz. law over unused school bond money

Superior Court Judge Eileen S. Willett said Wednesday the law "essentially abrogates the voters' rights existing at the time of their bond vote, and by so doing, strikes a blow to the election process and violates both the Arizona and Federal Constitution."

Here is a copy of the ruling...

September 14, 2011: Ruling

Recent Cave Creek Unified News You May Have Missed

2011-08-24T18:04:00.001-07:00

The Sonoran News puts the Arizona Republic to shame on its coverage of Friedman v. Cave Creek Unified. Sonoran News here. Arizona Republic here.

Coverage in the Arizona Republic of the Cave Creek administration complaining about the new state A-F ratings. Ms. Miller says they don’t know the rules of ‘how to play the game’. Here is an idea. Stop playing the game and focus on a higher standard. You don’t answer to the state, your responsibility is to our students. Setting high expectations in everything that you do would be a good start instead of kowtowing to the state and the feds. Article here.

The Sonoran News has an article about new lawsuits against the district. The article implies that the district, its insurance carrier, and its lawyer stonewalled a person injured in a batting cage so their lawsuit would be denied. The parents of a child who broke her leg at the BMES Fall festival are suing the district and the company who provided an inflatable slide. CCUSD facing more lawsuits.

According to the Arizona Republic, Cactus Shadow is increasing grade checks so those failing students can earn back their eligibility quicker. Nice to see more administrators make athletics the priority.

‎‎You can see the district’s full 2011 AIMS and Stanford 10 scores in the 8/9 governing board presentation. No part of the presentation says how they will improve those scores.

Peggy Neely - Phoenix Mayoral Candidate Statement on Education

2011-08-18T09:12:00.001-07:00

Here is the first of the responses we received from the candidates.

---------------------------------

Encourage Quality Education

Encouraging a quality education is part of my comprehensive plan entitled “The Phoenix We Want.” You can view the entire plan at www.PeggyNeely.com or click here.

Education is a cornerstone of our quality of life. As a mother, my first priority was to ensure a quality education for my daughters. That is why I became actively involved in the United Parents Council. We can’t afford to keep a hands-off approach to education and expect things to change. If we are to attract business and investment to Phoenix, we must offer quality K-12 education for their families and university education that produces highly trained and skilled workforce to fill their needs.

Promote academic innovation and competitive education – We must foster and encourage choices in public education to boost competition and build an abundant, talented workforce to attract business.

Support quality university education – We must capitalize on our higher education opportunities building on our relationships with local universities and actively attracting other institutions to locate in Phoenix.

Recognize and encourage success – Recognize quality teachers and successful students on a regular basis and connect educators and administrators with local government and business leaders to understand what is working and what needs improvement.

Encourage student participation – Foster student participation and engagement in local government in areas such as developing policy, expanding volunteerism, and creating a sustainable city.

Education is part of the comprehensive reform plan that we need which includes attracting jobs, balancing the city budget, and increasing government transparency. I would encourage you to learn more at www.PeggyNeely.com and I would be honored to have your vote.

CCUSD Watch Invites Phoenix Mayoral Candidates to Make a Statement on Education

2011-08-16T10:18:00.000-07:00

From: ccusdwatch@hotmail.com
To: info@wesgullett.com; claude.mattox@mattoxformayor.com; info@peggyneely.com; info@stantonformayor.com; info@wright4mayor.com; anna@annabrennanformayor.com
Subject: Phoenix mayoral candidate statement on education...
Date: Tue, 16 Aug 2011 11:11:42 -0600

Dear Candidate,

We run a nonpartisan blog advocating for improved academic achievement in the Cave Creek Unified School district, part of which resides in north Phoenix. We are offering each mayoral candidate the opportunity to comment on our blog about education issues in Phoenix and how as mayor you will improve academic achievement in our schools.

Just email us your statement and we will post it when received. We will post your statement without editing and without commentary. Our loyal readers may comment on your statements, so feel free to engage in the comment section.

Thank you and best of luck with your campaign.

--
CCUSD Watch
http://ccusdwatch.com/
ccusdwatch@hotmail.com

Cave Creek Unified CCUSD 2011-2012 School Year

2011-08-10T23:08:00.001-07:00

Welcome back to all Cave Creek Unified students and staff. We hope that you have a fulfilling and successful school year.

Ann Orlando named principal at Cheyenne Traditional in SUSD

2011-08-02T21:57:00.003-07:00

Former Desert Arroyo principal Ann Orlando has been named interim principal at Cheyenne in Scottsdale Unified. Congrats to her.

Cheyenne Traditional School
Ann Orlando has transferred to Cheyenne Traditional School as interim principal. Last school year, Ms. Orlando was the interim principal at Sequoya Elementary School. Ms. Orlando has 19 years of administrative experience including 14 years as principal at Desert Arroyo Middle School in Cave Creek Unified School District.

Now as far as the new principal selections in Cave Creek Unified, we are not impressed. More to come.

For the first time CCUSD Cave Creek Unified Schools fail to make adequate progress

2011-07-27T07:13:00.002-07:00

For the first time in district history (as far as we can tell, going back to 2003), an individual school has failed to make Adequate Yearly Progress. AYP is a federal benchmark based on results of the AIMS test. According to the Arizona Republic, both Sonoran Trails Middle School and Cactus Shadows failed to make progress.

Now you may recall that for the past 2 years the district as a whole has failed to make AYP. With 2 schools failing to make progress, we would imagine this would be the third year in a row that the district did not make AYP.

2011 AYP determination

Sonoran Trails Middle School - Not met

Black Mountain Elementary School - Met

Desert Willow Elementary School - Met

Desert Sun Academy - Met

Lone Mountain Elementary School - Met

Horseshoe Trails Elementary School - Met

Cactus Shadows High School - Not met

For comparison, some neighboring middle and high schools...

Paradise Valley Unified District - Explorer Middle School - Met

Paradise Valley Unified District - Pinnacle High School - Met
Paradise Valley Unified District Horizon High School - Met

Scottsdale Unified District Desert Mountain High School Met
Scottsdale Unified District Chaparral High School Met
Scottsdale Unified District Cheyenne Traditional Elementary School Met
Scottsdale Unified District Copper Ridge Elementary School Met

Foothills Academy Foothills Academy Met

More Cave Creek Unified CCUSD AIMS 2011 Test Results

2011-07-21T16:59:00.001-07:00

Bottom line, stagnant with a large drop in writing. Of course, this is after a significant drop from last year. The AIMS Writing test was revised and our students were not prepared for the change. Last year our superintendent assured us that, “Everyone will have a laser focus on the classroom and student achievement, and we're going to put all of our efforts there.” Guess that her two pronged strategy of differentiated instruction and focus on technology did not pan out. Who would have guessed that it would not work?

Next year’s crystal ball prediction, the administration will say…

‘Our AIMS math test scores slipped\fell because of the transition to our new math textbooks.’

Our future response. ‘You should have picked a better textbook, and why did you choose to 1) Not pilot it 2) Not phase it it? You only have yourselves to blame.’

[Click to enlarge]

2011 Cave Creek Unified CCUSD AIMS Scores

2011-07-13T21:25:00.001-07:00

It gets tiresome but here you go. As always, these scores are good for comparing schools, but not much else.

Below is 5th Grade Math, showing schools in PVUSD, SUSD, DVUSD, and FUSD that performed better than the lowest performing CCUSD school.

Frankly the range in scores (92 at LMES [nice work!] to 78 at DSES) shows how little control the administration has or exerts.

And the dreaded 8th grades scores where about 30% of Cave Creek Unified 8th graders cannot pass the AIMS Math test…

And our high school significantly underperforms its adjacent neighbors…

Things are going so well in CCUSD that the governing board is taking off July

2011-07-01T08:18:00.001-07:00

Apparently things are going so well in Cave Creek Unified that the governing board has decided to take off the month of July. They decided to cancel the single board meeting in July becuase they had done so well with the budget.

Not suprisingly, AIMS, Stanford 10, AZ Learns Labels and AYP notification are also scheduled for public release in July. At least this will give the administration a month come up with a whole new set of excuses for why our schools under perform.

If you are a governing board member, you should request to be notified of these scores NOW, as they have been released to the districts.

Embargoed release to districts/schools

AIMS, AIMS 3-8, and Stanford 10 scores available via the ADE Common Logon.
June 29, 2011

Preliminary AYP evaluations for all schools and districts.
June 8, 2011

Preliminary AZ LEARNS Achievement Profiles for all schools.
June 29, 2011

Public release

AIMS, AIMS 3-8, and Stanford 10 scores.
July 13, 2011

Final AYP evaluations for all schools and districts.
July 20, 2011

Final AZ LEARNS Achievement Profiles for all schools
July 20, 2011

Cave Creek Education Foundation AGAIN not in good standing with the state of Arizona

2011-06-26T09:49:00.001-07:00

In a repeat of last year, again the the Cave Creek Unified Education Foundation is not in good corporate standing for failure to annual report with the Arizona Corporation Commission. According to its website, the superintendent of Cave Creek Unified is a board of trustee member of this organization. One would think that she should demand excellence from any group that she is a part of and is promoted by the district.

Not sure why this is so hard. How can you inspire faith in donations and support when you cannot complete the required paperwork with the government on time?

How School District’s actions do not affect property tax rate and Why it matters to the Cave Creek Unified Override election

2011-06-22T09:49:00.001-07:00

You will not find a more cogent analysis of how school districts in Arizona (in this case Scottsdale) cannot affect your primary property tax rate than this one…

Impacting Property Taxes

Since the Board cannot adopt a budget in excess of the statutory amount (except as it relates to secondary taxes), and never adopts a budget that is less than the statutory amount, the Board's adoption of a maintenance and operations budget does not effect the primary property taxes paid by its property owners.
Likewise, while changes in student numbers (i.e. this year's drop of 561 total students) affect the overall amount of money the District gets to spend in any given year, declining enrollment has no effect on primary property taxes.
The primary tax rate is impacted only when the state alters the statutory funding formula in some way.

The secondary tax rate is strictly voter approved, so again no day to day action by the district can change what the voters approve (right!).

Thank you so much to Earth4439.

So the implication for the Cave Creek Unified school district and its PAC is that claims from the governing board its fiscal responsibility around property taxes are false. Day to day operations and board decisions do not affect property tax levels. And don’t forget that the Sonoran News has already proved that 5x3 = 3x5.

Learn Yes is going down the wrong road arguing property tax rates. It’s strategy of threatening teachers jobs will not get it very far either.

If the district and the PAC want to win over the voters, then show us the plan to achieve academic excellence and that our students will be the best performing students in the world.

The governing should start by demanding that the administration start meeting the board’s Number 2 Goal…

2. Develop and deliver a curriculum, instructional program and assessment process which exceeds state standards.

Is it too much to ask for our district to exceed state standards and for the governing board to reach its own goals?

Newsweek’s Best High Schools List and the continuing slide of CCUSD Cave Creek Unified

2011-06-20T13:02:00.001-07:00

So Cactus Shadows fails to make Newsweek’s Best High Schools in Arizona. This calculation is more ~~comprehensive~~ broad than the Washington Post’s list that Cactus Shadows also failed to make.

Cactus Shadows did appear on the Newsweek 2010 list.

Methodology below.

So for the in the past year, Cave Creek Unified has…

Lost its All Excelling status
Failed to make federal AYP for the second year in a row.
Sonoran Trails slipping two state achievement levels from Excelling to Performing Plus
Cactus Shadows dropped off the national high school Challenge Index.
Cactus Shadows fails to make the new Newsweek top high school list.

To Inspire Excellence is not enough. You can call us “naysayers” but who is standing up for achievement in this district? We would love to hear from the “yessayers” how things have improved under this governing board’s leadership.

Methodology: We enlisted a panel of experts—Wendy Kopp of Teach For America, Tom Vander Ark of Open Education Solutions (formerly executive director for education at the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation), and Linda Darling-Hammond, Stanford professor of education and founder of the School Redesign Network—to develop a yardstick that fully reflects a school’s success turning out college-ready (and life-ready) students. To this end, each school’s score is comprised of six components: graduation rate (25%), college matriculation rate (25%), AP tests taken per graduate (25%), average SAT/ACT scores (10%), average AP/IB/AICE scores (10%), and AP courses offered (5%).

Did former Black Mountain Principal Leave CCUSD Cave Creek Unified for Ventana Academy?

2011-06-15T10:44:00.001-07:00

Did Elie Gaines, the former principal at Black Mountain Elementary in Cave Creek Unified leave for Ventana Academy?

According to her Linked In page, Ms. Gaines is now employed by Challenge Foundation Academy (CFA). CFA is a national network of 7 charter (gasp!) schools.

Ventana Academy is a struggling (in both academics and enrollment) charter school, that leases classroom space from Cave Creek Unified in the heart of Cave Creek proper. Ventana has enrollment of around 120 students. The school was independent, but recently joined the CFA network and it uses the Core Knowledge curriculum, of which Ms. Gaines is a consultant of.

Ms. Gaines’ Linked In profile does not identify the school that she will be the director at (only says New School, of which Ventana is new to the CFA network).

The implications for Ms.Gaines being the director at Ventana are interesting. She will be directly competing against Cave Creek Unified for students and teachers, and like we said Ventana rents from CCUSD. Ventana draws its students almost exclusively from within CCUSD’s boundaries so the game is on. A growing Ventana will only further add to the list of competitors for CCUSD.

Goldwater Institute and Sonoran News rebuke Cave Creek Unified CCUSD

2011-06-08T17:01:00.002-07:00

The Goldwater Institute rebukes Cave Creek Unified for promoting a PAC in its recent press release...

District needs schooling in Arizona election law

A couple weeks ago, the Goldwater Institute sent a letter to the district urging it to withdraw the press release which prominently features comments from the ballot committee LearnYes.org, which is campaigning in support of and fundraising for the district’s November budget override election. Attorney General guidelines specifically prohibit the use of district-sponsored web pages to sway election outcomes.

Just a few years ago, the district’s conduct elicited concerns from the Maricopa County Attorney after similar documents in support of a budget override and bond election were posted on its website. At that time, the district agreed to remove the documents and send all of its board members to a training class on unlawful political activities.

Apparently the lesson didn’t stick. The new press release attempts to skirt the law by directing readers to LearnYes.org’s website, whose homepage implores visitors to “vote yes” on the override.

And the Sonoran News is targeted by high school students in the IB program and writes about it a front page article...

CSHS IB juniors misrepresent services provided by selected charity

And then in the editorial pages...

Alinski’s kids

The district is really digging itself in a hole.

The Top Fallacies of Tax Rates, Poverty Levels, and Teacher Salaries in CCUSD Cave Creek Unified

2011-06-05T21:17:00.001-07:00

A commenter here writes…

Maybe this is why CCUSD can't provide the programs and technology that the districts surrounding can - these are tax rate comparisons for 2010-2011 (combined Primary and Secondary taxes)

He\She then goes on the list the tax rates for surrounding districts. The same information can be found at Learn Yes and its campaign to support the CCUSD Override Election in November.

We appreciate the open dialogue and the point that the commenter is trying to make but this person needs to dig deeper and stop being spoon fed the party line.

We are here to set the record straight. Consider this our FAQ (Frequently Asked Questions) on Tax Rates and spending in CCUSD.

1) These comparisons are unfair because of the size, locale (urban\suburban) and the SES populations vary widely among the districts.. See the state auditor general report on school district spending where districts are compared with their peers.

2) The Sonoran News does a great jod explaining why 5x3 is the same as 3x5. Be sure to read it here…

LearnYes.org fundraising, campaigning to pass a November override

3) We will further the Sonoran News’ point by showing that tax rates and poverty rates have little correlation between spending and teacher’s salaries with this chart (despite the complaining from CCUSD that it does not get enough federal funds because we do not have enough students who are poor [what a horrible situation]):

See, top tax rate does not equal the top spending or teacher pay. Bottom tax rate does not result in the lowest amount of spending or the lowest teacher pay, and the poverty rate shows little to no correlation either.

4) In Cave Creek Unified, per pupil pending is up 38.4% and teacher’s salaries in Cave Creek Unified are up 48.5% over the past 10 years and that includes all those state budget cuts in 2008 and 2009. See the numbers here.

So commenter, we would love to seriously hear what you think about this information and if this is helpful to you at all. Thank you for your input.

News: CCUSD is all about spin and money

2011-06-04T10:31:00.001-07:00

From the Sonoran News…

CCUSD is all about the spin and money

And while the district professes poverty has prevented it from completing “critical capital projects,” taxpayers may want to note Superintendent Debbie Burdick authorized the expenditure of $18,000 to engage Primary Consultants, LLC to conduct a push poll to try to garner support for the override election.
District policy does not require board approval for expenditures less than $30,000.
And, the district spent somewhere in the neighborhood of $48,000 to install electronic marquees at three of its schools so it can have “optimal communication with parents and the public.”
Since the electronic marquees also cost less than $30,000 each, the district did not require board approval for those purchases either.

So there you go $66,000 and not one penny of that money spent will improve the learning and achievement of our students on the classroom.

And let’s not forget that we were told that we could not implement the IB program for our elementary schools because it was too expensive.

So there you have it, politics and ‘optimal communication’ over academics.

Congratulations to CCUSGB.ORG in CCUSD Cave Creek Unified

2011-05-25T23:38:00.002-07:00

Congratulations to http://ccusdgb.org/ on your one year anniversary of NOT posting the videos of Cave Creek Unified board meetings.

We heaped praise on you when decided to take the iniative to share with the community the workings of our governing board, and despite some missteps, you did a fantastic job. It seems to us that you stopped posting videos around the time the triumvirate really came in to power, thus hiding the true nature of how these three behave and rubber stamp everything presented to them by the administration. Remember this board decided it did not want to read your emails aloud, but they free to pontificate to the crowd at anytime they choose.

We would love to see you return and if you need any help feel free to contact us at ccusdwatch@hotmail.com. Until then we are stuck with late and lame reporting from Mary Beth or Board Bits posted weeks after a meeting.

Cave Creek Unified CCUSD Governing Board calls for 15% override

2011-05-24T22:39:00.001-07:00

According to a Facebook posting by LearnYes,org, the political action committee that supports more money for CCUSD schools, this evening the governing board approved a 15% override for the November ballot.

Cave Creek Unified Board to Vote on Approval of Override election

2011-05-23T13:59:00.001-07:00

Buried deep on the public information page of the district’s web site is a supposed press release, supposedly released last Thursday that says the governing board will vote tomorrow evening (5/24/11) on whether to approve an override election for this November.

So this post is not about the override election, as much will be discussed about this in the coming months, but the fact that the district hides this from the community so no one can have any say.

There was no notice on the district’s home page, no notice on its Twitter account, a notice released on Facebook 14 hours ago, no notice in any school newsletters (that we could find), no notice sent out to the community newsletters, AND the agenda and packet for tomorrow's board meeting STILL are not posted (as of 1:40 PM for a meeting in about 28 hours). Additionally, we found nothing in the Arizona Republic about this. Knowing Mary Beth, the Arizona Republic reporter that covers CCUSD, we will probably read about this on Friday and hear about the vote results on Saturday or next Wednesday. (If you saw this news somewhere else, please send us proof and we will correct).

The lack of transparency here is horrible but clearly a political move to not allow any dissent.

So go ahead and read the ‘press release’ here, but don’t bother wasting your time. It is preordained and there is no room for debate or openness in Cave Creek Unified. Remember that not only does this involves property taxes, it also carries with it a cost in the 10s of thousands in fees to the county to be on the ballot and thousands in lawyer’s fees to come up with the wording.

Update: Apparently the newsletter is buried so deep you cannot even navigate to it via the district website, you can only get to it through the Facebook link. We wonder how many older voters in our community are on Facebook.

Update 2: Someone emailed us to say that in their latest school newsletter they were told about a vote on activity and sports fees at the governing board meeting but nothing about an election vote.

Cactus Shadows High School in Cave Creek Unified CCUSD falls from Top High School Rankings

2011-05-20T06:37:00.001-07:00

On the front page of the Cactus Shadows home page you will find the following statement:

Now we would take exception with that statement primarily because the Newsweek Challenge Index is only a narrow measure the percentage of students and and the number of Cambridge\AP\IB tests that they take, and not how the students performed on those tests. Any school claiming they were the ‘best’ because of this list is being disingenuous.

But since the district insists on claiming it is the 9th best high school in Arizona (why isn’t it the best?), we thought we would look how the district did in this year’s rankings and just like the shocking slip in the ‘Excelling’ state ratings for some of our schools, Cactus Shadows has slipped completely off the Challenge Index list now hosted at the Washington Post.

At a board meeting about SAT and AP testing, an administrator claimed that the reason for the drop in AP test participation rates was due to the high costs of the tests. Of course she failed to mention 1) That the College Board offers reduced fees 2) The state of Arizona offers funds for those needing assistance 3) If it wanted the district could allow for tax credits to pay for the costs of those test.

With a school that offers both IB and AP it is hard to understand how Cactus Shadows fell off the list. We believe that the lack of high expectations found in our district is to blame.

What do you think is the cause?

Budget Solutions for Cave Creek Unified CCUSD

2011-05-19T12:26:00.001-07:00

We have no idea what is going on with the 10-11 budget review committee (only two meetings?) but we were surprised that the governing board approved a 1.6% pay increases and the employee contracts before any review from that committee was complete and presented to the board. Another failed committee or were the results just hidden from the public?

Parents for Super Schools has put out a call for budget ideas here.

Save Our Schools - Lower Our Taxes Challenge

We present our suggestions here.

Consolidate all the schools into 2 campuses. STMS and HTES in the south. DAMS, BMES, old BMES, and CSHS in the north. Close three schools,DWES, DSES, and LMES, and make all schools K-8 except Cactus Shadows. Use old BMES to ease overcrowding at the HS or use it for 7-9. Operate the south and north schools as one, for example HTES and STMS could act as one campus and allocate room accordingly (maybe HTES is the lower school K-4 and STMS is an upper school 5-8), same with BMES and DAMS. This is likely a $1.2M savings and not one teacher needs to get laid off and we would also realize some transportation savings.
Raise class sizes by 4 at K-8 level but to mitigate this implement an ability grouping in each grade level. The higher ability groups would have more students in them, the lower levels less students. Just as a simple example students would be grouped into the following class sizes: Honors 40 per class. Highly performing 36 per class. Performing 30 per class. Under performing 28 per class. Have parents sign a form understanding that to be in the honors track, you accept a higher student teacher ratio.
Expand the walk zone (currently 1 mile) to 2 miles. There are some bus routes at DWES that drop kids off 1000 feet from the school. Why! The closure of 3 schools may mitigate some of this. Savings unknown but > than 0.
Consolidate all school records information at the district office. Certainly that spiffy new school management system we bought can allow for one or two people to manage all the schools from a central location. We don't need a records secretary (currently 7 or 8 FTEs) at each of the schools for such a small district. Cut this to 3, 1.5 for K-8 and 1.5 for the HS and a savings of $200,000.
Fund a full time volunteer coordinator position. This person will be solely responsible for creating a database of parents who are more than willing to step up and help the schools in this time of need. If a teacher needs some help, they call the volunteer coordinator who will send out an email blast asking for volunteers. Principal needs some temporary help, the volunteer coordinator could find a volunteer instead of paying a temp or substitute.
Remove all car allowances. If someone needs to travel between schools, the district maintains a fleet of vehicles that can be used for this purpose. Since the state reimburses us for every mile driven we could even make money by doing this. Savings at least $40,000.
Raise deductibles and premiums for employee family members and eliminate paying 100% of the cost of health care for administrator’s family members.
Raise fees for groups using district fields and gyms to fully cover the utility usage. Who is paying the electricity costs for the lights that are on every evening at the district ball fields, when no one is using them? Just because some organization donated the lights, does not we we are obliged to pay for the electricity to run them.
Discontinue paying fees to associations. AZSBA, AASBO, NSBA, etc. will still continue to advocate for schools even if our district is not paying them.
Cut all day kindergarten. Sorry there is no proof that adding another 120 minutes of instruction (when you subtract for lunch, another recess, nap time, etc.) is worth the cost. These funds could be put to a much more productive use.
Eliminate IB. Sorry but colleges do not give IB as much respect as AP. And since CCUSD made the decision not to expand the program at the elementary and middle schools (too expense they said!) running both these programs is a waste of resources.
The biggest suggestion of all. Implement a program and curriculum that delivers achievement and sets the highest of expectations. Dear CCUSD, your hodgepodge of world languages (costs $300,000), spotty misuse of Core Knowledge, selections of mediocre math textbooks, use of project based learning, and insistence on differentiated instruction, may make your ed school professors proud, but they are not helping our students achieve or complete in Arizona much less the world. Remember you caused some of our schools to not even meet the state’s low threshold of excelling. What have you done about it? We see the your fantastic Blue Ribbon BluePrint Strategic 21st Century Committee has yet to present a plan to plan, and the end of the school year is upon us.

Congratulations to Cave Creek Unified CCUSD graduating students

2011-05-18T11:20:00.000-07:00

it takes courage to grow up and turn out to be who you really are

e. e. cummings

We wish the best of luck to you all.

Goldwater and Cave Creek Unified CCUSD sign agreement to stop spending

2011-05-17T13:10:00.000-07:00

Press release from the Goldwater Institute:

"The Goldwater Institute is pleased to announce that the Cave Creek Unified School District has agreed to stop spending bond money on projects voters did not approve until a judge can decide if spending the money is legal. Both the Goldwater Institute and CCUSD signed an agreement that will expedite a ruling in this legal challenge."

and

“Like us, the School District wants to get the matter resolved as quickly as possible, and signing this agreement helps speed up the process,” said Christina Kohn, the Goldwater Institute’s lead attorney on the case."

http://www.goldwaterinstitute.org/article/6033

The fleecing of the taxpayers and the short changing of the students in Cave Creek Unified CCUSD

2011-05-12T10:08:00.000-07:00

The next time some ‘grass roots’ education advocacy group says that our schools’ budgets have been cut to the bone and other groups go on to threaten that over 50 teachers will lose their jobs if overrides are not passed, ask them why Cave Creek Unified:

Installed new electronic marquees at 4 schools…

Continues to give car allowances to a multitude of administrators (from proposed 2011/2012 contracts)…

Pays for out of state trips for the superintendent (to receive an honorable mention)…

PS Isn’t a website, Facebook, Twitter, and email enough to get the word out? What percentage of parents drive to even see the signs? But ironically enough, notice that the LMES electronic marquee (not solar powered, sucking down thousands of watts or power a year) is promoting that parents read the school emailed newsletter instead of actually providing vital information.

Scottsdale Unified SUSD Superintendent Resigns

2011-05-02T08:55:00.002-07:00

According to Parents For Super Schools, Scottsdale superintendent Gary Catalana has resigned. The SUSD governing board is to meet this evening to discuss accepting his resignation.

Mr. Catalina was one of those who retired (in Illinois) then came to Arizona to get another position, while still collecting his pension in Illinois. Illinois law would not have allowed him to double dip. His total compensation topped $400,000, according to the Chicago Tribune.

We fully endorse any local superintendents in our area to promptly apply for this open position.

Letter to Dear Ms Burdick in Sonoran News

2011-04-28T08:56:00.000-07:00

Be sure to check out this letter from Kyle Amy Durham to Ms. Burdick. You may remember Ms. Durham from last year when she called out the Cave Creek Unified superintendent for confusing her gender.
Highlights...

Dear Ms. Burdick

This is what the bureaucrats refuse to acknowledge: more money does not guarantee better results. Rather, it is strong leadership, accountability, parental/citizen involvement, and a knowledge that we're all in this together so it's in our mutual best interests to encourage each other to do the right thing. Like so many other government entities, CCUSD is on the wrong path, Dr. Burdick, hence the reason for the law suit.

Desert Sun Academy in Cave Creek Unified CCUSD to not expand to K-7

2011-04-25T11:25:00.002-07:00

Wow. A huge blow to the theory that parents in the district want a charter style school. Of course the district doesn’t understand that it is not the uniforms and calling yourself an academy, but parents who go to outside the district want high expectations, challenging academics, and a culture of high achievement. We have not seen anything at Desert Sun Academy that sets it apart from other schools in the district, much less approaches the curriculum and programs offered by those schools attracting Cave Creek Unified students. Of course we called DSA “windows dressing” here and also pointed out that the DSA move to K-8 was back-doored with no notice to the parents and community. Again, the district is reaping what it sows.
So what are parents thinking by abandoning DSA? Is this indictment that parents are not satisfied with the school or that the extra-curriculars offered at Sonoran Trails Middle School more important?

Update: Bizarre. Just 14 days ago the Arizona Republic quoted the Principal of Desert Sun Academy stating the 7th grade was coming. For reference there are around 60 students in the current DSA 6th grade. If they cancelled 7th grade, we could likely assume they have less than 45 students committed. The district sure did hang the reporter, Mary Beth Faller, out to dry. Of course this article was not really news (the coming 7th grade was not new), but a disguised advertisement for new enrollment. Heck it even had Bert’s phone number at the bottom.

Bert Honigman, principal at Desert Sun, said he expects 45 to 60 students in the school's two seventh-grade classes next year, with more the following year, when eighth grade is added.

New Education Reform Group in Scottsdale: Parents for Super Schools

2011-04-23T08:37:00.000-07:00

If you are looking for an education reform group that isn't beholden to school district leadership or the teacher's associations and does not believe that more money is the only solution, be sure to check out this new Scottsdale based group.
Parents for Super Schools

They describe themselves as:

About: A Non-Partisan Education Reform Grass Root Movement that Advocates for Parents and Students.

Description: Why did we start "Parents For Super Schools"? Why are we different from other parent groups?

Because we realize that there are dozens of parent and political groups lobbying for public schools, teachers, administrators, and school vendors but none of them represents the interests of our children. We are a group that advocates for parents and students. We believe in an education system that is parent friendly and student focused. Parents should be empowered to seek the best options for their children. Parents know best and they act in the best of interest of their children.

Our motto: "We can't afford to wait for Superman."

About our page, we understand that as parents we are concerned with many education issues and we would like to comment on all of these issues. But we must stay on message and post only issues that focus on parent empowerment, school options, and education reform. As moderators at times, we will displace comments that we feel are not related to topics. We apologize in advance and thank you for being so understanding and supportive.

Why did we start "Parents For Super Schools"? Why are we different from other parent groups?

Because we realize that there are dozens of parent and political groups lobbying for public schools, teachers, administrators, and school vendors but none of them represents the interests of our children. We are a group that advocates for parents and students. We believe in an education system that is parent friendly and student focused. Parents should be empowered to seek the best options for... (read more)

Mission: Our mission is to inform the public about education reform issues and legislative updates, to empower parents and students with school options, and to advocate for the highest standards of education for all Arizona students.

Cave Creek Unified, Not even the best in its peer group

2011-04-21T10:50:00.001-07:00

A commenter made the assertion that CCUSD has the ‘best school report cards in the state’. Well the Arizona Department of Education ceased issuing report cards a few years ago, but according to the Arizona Auditor general, CCUSD does not even have the best AIMS passing rates in its peer group, much less the state. And we haven’t checked but it is a safe bet that CCUSD has the lowest poverty rate of any district in this group. And as we have shown time and again, CCUSD under performs most neighboring schools.

It is not good enough to be near the top, CCUSD should be the top district in the state. Educators would kill for demographics like our children have, and instead of trying to push our kids to be the best and compete with the top schools in the US or the world, the district and governing board are satisfied teaching our children to the state standards.

Percentage of Students Passing 2010 AIMS

Teacher salary, per pupil spending, enrollment, and classroom spending in Cave Creek Unified CCUSD

2011-04-21T10:23:00.001-07:00

Source: State of Arizona Auditor General

News: Cave Creek Unified to proceed with school project despite lawsuit

2011-04-14T15:14:00.002-07:00

From the Arizona Republic...

Cave Creek to proceed with school project despite lawsuit

A commenter below the article says it best... I'm always amazed to read about all the mysterious funds controlled by school districts, even as they cut teachers & programs, provide nationally laughable education, and continually ask for more money.How is it that the district has millions in unrestricted capital, but it begs, pleas, cajoles, and forces PTOs to pay for $9,000 copy machines, $3000 Smartboards, thousands for Core Knowledge textbooks and even has the nerve to make parents provide copy paper.

If it has all this unrestricted capital, why haven't the fire alarms been fixed?

Goldwater suit stalls some Cave Creek Unified school renovations CCUSD

2011-04-12T11:38:00.001-07:00

From the Arizona Republic...

Lawsuit stalls some school renovations

The lack of any real reporting by the Arizona Republic is stunning.

Where are the quotes from Ms. Friedman (who confirms they have not even tried to contact her) or any of the Cave Creek Unified governing board members?
Where is the response from Mr Warren who promised in 2009 that these funds would go to 'expand Cactus Sahdows', not a bunch of unrelated projects.
Where are the quotes from the author(s) this bill.
Who determined the 2009 law was too narrow?
Who authored the 2010 law and how is it more broad (despite the fact that the wording can only apply to CCUSD)?
What bond attorney vetted 'the law to ensure it was constitutional'?
Where is this vetting?

And one more thing, funny that the timeline on the right side of the page forgets to mention the issuance of bonds in 2006, starting the interest payments and prior to the vote for the new high school.

Statement from Debbi Burdick on Goldwater Institute Lawsuit against Cave Creek Unified

2011-04-07T20:57:00.002-07:00

Here is the statement…

April 7, 2011

Dear CCUSD Constituents,

I am disappointed to inform you that at 2:30 on April 5, the District was served a lawsuit from the Goldwater Institute to block what they call a "...misuse of school district bond money." Last year, our AZ Legislature approved a bill that allowed school districts within certain criteria to access unexpended bond monies. Our district fit the criteria and our Governing Board unanimously voted to use 13 million dollars of unexpended bonds to do work and repairs that have been postponed for years on our schools and other facilities. As you may know, a local publication had printed that the Goldwater Institute would be investigating our planned use of the 2000 bond monies. We are currently suspending work on the projects that these bond dollars were to be used for, pending the decision on this lawsuit. I know that our parents, students and staff were looking forward to having capital projects done starting in the upcoming week. In addition, we had hoped to use local contractors as much as possible to help our CCUSD greater community and economy. We have turned the suit over to our attorneys and look forward to a
positive outcome in the future.

Sincerely,
Debbi Burdick

Live by the lawsuit, die by the lawsuit for Cave Creek Unified

2011-04-06T08:26:00.001-07:00

The suit against Cave Creek Unified by the Goldwater Institute brings with it a boat load of irony.

In this case Goldwater is arguing that,

…both the legislature and the school board have violated the contract between the voters and the school district.

Well, Cave Creek Unified was the lead plaintiff in the Prop 301 lawsuit. The case was even titled, Cave Creek Unified School District et al. v. State of Arizona. In this case the Arizona School Board Association, the driver behind the suit, claims,

We are asking the court to rule on the real meaning of Prop. 301 and, in doing so, uphold the will of Arizona voters.

Cave Creek Unified et al. lost the lawsuit when a judge ruled that the Prop 301 language was a suggestion, not a specific appropriation. Seems in the Jayne Freidman v. Cave Creek Unified et al. case that when the district says we will spend x dollars this item, that would be considered a specific appropriation.

Even today, '”more money is the solution” education supporters are claiming that the cuts to education are ignoring the will of the voters who passed the 1 cent sales tax increase and to protect the First Things First funding. Let’s see if these groups rally behind the Goldwater Institute to help uphold the will of the voters in Cave Creek.

Goldwater sues Cave Creek Unified CCUSD

2011-04-05T22:53:00.001-07:00

So all those threats in the Sonoran News were not idle. The Goldwater Institute is suing Cave Creek Unified for overriding the will of the voters by changing the how bond money will be spent through legislation.

You can read the Arizona Republic’s coverage here. The Goldwater Institute’s statement is here. Sonoran News here.

The lawsuit is filed on behalf of Jayne Friedman, a district taxpayer and resident. A FAQ from GWI on the suit can be found here and the lawsuit is Friedman versus Cave Creek Unified. Motion for Preliminary Injunction to halt any work can be found here.

Which Elementary School Principal is Leaving Cave Creek Unified?

2011-04-05T13:20:00.001-07:00

Our guess is the BMES or the DSA principal.

Boundary Change for Schools in Cave Creek Unified

2011-04-01T11:04:00.001-07:00

With no explanation, the district is proposing a boundary change to expand the Black Mountain Elementary attendance area and to lessen the Lone Mountain Elementary area. This area is the Lone Mountain Section 16 currently being developed by Lennar/Pulte. Since Black Mountain has the lowest enrollment in the district, forcing the new residents to attend BMES makes sense, but the real issue of attendance is not the boundaries, it is the programs and leadership at BMES that are responsible for the declining attendance. At least FAEP is thankful for that.

And the revolving door in the Cactus Shadows athletic department keeps revolving...

2011-03-02T21:42:00.000-07:00

First year men's basketball coach is leaving and the football coach is again rumored to be leaving. After the sad departure of Monica Barrett, it has been nothing but downhill and the blame falls squarely with the district's leadership.

Who would want to be a Future Falcon with this mess?

Sonoran News: CSHS coach accused of showing students pornography

2011-03-02T17:13:00.000-07:00

From the Sonoran News...

CSHS coach accused of showing students pornography

It is no fault of the district for the employee's actions, but geesh, at least perform the background check before putting them in charge of our children and when they can't spell the name of their former employer and they leave critical information on the application blank, seems like a huge red flag.

Any takers on the likelyhood that any CCUSD administrator will be held responsible?

What should the K-8 Math Adoption Process Be

2011-02-08T18:31:00.001-07:00

Thank you to those who replied to our

Open letter to the community on the Cave Creek Unified K-8 Math Adoption

and mentioned that we offered no solutions.

The solution is that the K-8 Math Adoption perform due diligence to find a curriculum that will exceed state standards and allow our students to excel at an international level. We found the simplicity of current process appalling. This committee is deciding how to spend $400,000 plus thousands of hours of teacher training, yet the sum total of its efforts was voting by teachers on a rubric created by teachers, for teachers (see the rubric here).

There is no more important decision that the district will make over he next 5 years. This decision will affect the learning of our students for the next 8 to 16 years and it has been is extremely lacking.

For this committee to perform an acceptable level of due diligence it must:

Analyze current student math achievement in math including how our students perform on the SAT, ACT and AP Math subject tests after 8 to 10 years of the instruction in CCUSD. Without knowing where our students are, how do you know where to go?
Set district goals for the adoption process that include selecting programs that include rigor, high expectations, and resources to allow the gifted to accelerate their learning.
Take the time to understand the ‘math debate’ and realize that programs like the NCTM endorsed Everyday Math have failed our students for the past 10 years. NCTM has failed our nation and it was thoroughly rebuked by the National Mathematics Advisory Panel in 2008. Had the committee understood this it could have avoided relying primarily on NCTM resources. The NMAP outlines the what an ideal and balanced curriculum should include. The committee chose to ignore this by not taking the time to understand the issues.
Include more programs in its analysis to include known rigorous and proven programs such as Sadlier-Oxford, HSP Math (aligned to the NMAP recommendations) and Singapore Math (a Core Knowledge recommendation). It seemed that the committee had one check box, ‘Aligned to the coming Common Core Standards’, but these programs do not need to meet the Common Core Standards, because they already exceed them. We also fail to understand how the initial programs list was filtered to three choices after only one meeting (the first meeting was introductory only). Where is the due diligence there?
Include more outside resources. Did the committee look at nearby schools who are outperforming CCUSD and see what they are using? Did the committee talk to college math professors to see if their process was sound and that the final selections are appropriate to allow students to succeed in college? Did the committee talk to anyone outside of the publishers?
Take the time to understand what academically highly performing countries are doing and incorporate it into the selection process. There are plenty of resources including the TIMSS and PISA analyses to understand what they are doing right and why the US is falling behind.
Produce a draft report on its findings and have the report reviewed by outside experts and community review BEOFRE submitting a final report and recommendation to the governing board. Again, this is the value of including outside resources to assure biases and preferences do not creep into the findings. The majority of the committee was beholden directly to the administration. As far as we can tell there isn’t even a report.

Open letter to the community on the Cave Creek Unified K-8 Math Adoption

2011-02-07T19:43:00.002-07:00

Dear CCUSD Community Member,
Apparently without even a presentation or final report (just an action consent item), the administration of Cave Creek Unified tomorrow night will ask the governing board to approve new math textbooks at an initial cost of over $400,000.

Without question these new and unproven materials (GO MATH! for K-5 and Big Ideas for 6-8) are not adequate for our students and the K-8 Math Adoption Committee has failed to perform proper due diligence to ensure that the selection will allow our students to perform at an international level.

The K-8 Math Adoption Committee process was clearly driven by the National Council for Teachers of Mathematics, the textbook publishers, and the committee’s desire to meet the coming new state and national standards called the Common Core Standards (also unproven, but a slight improvement over the current standards). We believe that this process was designed to meet the minimum (the state standards) and to choose a program with resources that meets the needs of teachers but not one that has the rigor and demands mastery to allow our students perform to at a high level.

Instead the committee should have been interviewing college professors, talking to leaders of high performing district and charter schools around the country, and understanding the math standards of countries like Finland and Singapore who excel in international math comparisons.

The problems we find with these selections and process include:

The committee did not include any outside recourses, save for a district tutor who served on the NCTM.
The committee did little analysis on how our students perform in math, where they need to improve, and to what level of performance to do we want them achieve. (For example, do we want Algebra in 7th or 8th grade for all?).
The committee did not include all of the Core Knowledge recommendations for a math textbooks when narrowing down its selection.
The new adoption selections are not used in any district in Arizona that we can find. Did the committee even directly talk to other schools and charters who have high performing math achievement to find out programs they use?
The newness of the adoption selections does not allow for an analysis of schools that have used them. There are plenty of proven programs that have years of actual classrooms usage behind them.
Who is to say that the new standards will stick. The new standards are unproven and they are already experiencing a backlash in some states. We should not be aiming for state standards, but at higher international ones.
Picking a math program based on a specific standard could lead to early obsolesce. If the standards change, will we have to do this again and at what cost to the taxpayers and the students’ performance.
The committee is not specifying any plan for rolling out the program and at what costs. Will all grades change in the Fall? How will this abrupt change from Everyday Math which expects a year after year spiral of learning affect our students? How will we remediate this problem? How will new teachers be trained on the new materials and at what cost?
Why are we not considering piloting a sample of these programs to understand how they perform before committing $400,000 and thousands of hours of teacher training?
The new materials include little to help our higher performing students. They have plenty resources to help those falling behind (RTI) but little to provide real content to our highly performing and gifted students.

At a recent board meeting, CCUSD Governing Board Member and Arizona School Board Association Treasurer Mark Warren read the following comment:

“We can no longer pride ourselves on our performance in the past nor can we count on state standards to be accurate judges of our future performance…We should be looking nationally and globally to find the standards we should set…If we set our expectations higher than what Arizona thinks is acceptable, we can better equip our students for the future and better prepare them for the world beyond Cave Creek. We will fly by standards that we currently use in Arizona.”

We could not agree more with Mr. Warren and we implore him and the board members to send the K-8 Math Adoption Committee back to the drawing board to perform the diligence necessary to bring us a program that allows our students to 'fly'. If Mr. Warren is true to his word he must vote against this adoption.

The programs that the committee has selected are unproven, mediocre, and inadequate for our students for the next 8 to 10 years. If you have a student in the district and want them to exceed state standards or if you are a community member and want our schools to be the best, you need to make your voice heard at tomorrow's board meeting to oppose this adoption.

Posted at CCUSD Watch where you can comment, and emailed to all governing board members and a variety of community leaders and parents.

Teacher pay in Cave Creek Unified

2011-02-03T08:47:00.003-07:00

In case you missed the tête à tête between a Cave Creek Unified teacher and Wil Wreight, long time critic of the district, we will reproduce the highlights here.
Mr. Wreight decries the $3,000 bonuses for full time teachers courtesy of the Obama administration.

What are the real priorities of CCUSD's governing board? The district recently received about $1 million in federal stimulus funding. Did they use some of it to lower class sizes, similar to the actions taken by Scottsdale and Fountain Hills school districts?

Mr. Wreight then goes on to show how the average annual teacher’s has increased ‘25-30%’ in the past 7 years to an average of $50,700. Finally Mr. Wreight chastises the board for not sticking to its priorities.

What happened to CCUSD's governing principle "Children first, people always"? What happened to CCUSD's governing board strategic priority: class size?. A ranking CCUSD governing board member has said "...class size (is) very important", noting that "...our class size is a competitive advantage (PVUSD and SUSD classes are higher)..... ". Another ranking board member said "...the board is concerned about class size...".

Apparently this did not sit well with Carrie McCulloch, a Cave Creek Unified kindergarten teacher at Lone Mountain. Ms. McCulloch writes that Mr. Wreight’s information is incorrect. She goes on to say…

Please show me where my salary has grown between 25-30 percent. I can show you the numerous cuts. Also, please explain to me how the average CCUSD annual certified teacher salary from the 2009-2010 school year is estimated at $50,700, yet I earn well under that with a Masters Degree plus 45 credit hours plus 13 years of teaching experience.

Mr. Wreight has an immediate retort (thanks to the Sonoran News) stating that all his facts are readily available from reporting that CCUSD provides to the state.
We suspect that Ms. McCulloch is holding back on the truth. First she touts her 13 years of experience an as educator. Well thanks to the Cave Creek Education association, overall experience has nothing no bearing on her salary, only length of service in CCUSD. According to the Certified Teacher Salary Schedule for 2010-2011, a teacher with a Master + 45 and 8 years experience (about the CCUSD average), makes close to the mid 40s for a base salary. Add to that the estimated 301 funds of $1930 and assuming that the teacher does the minimal work need to eligible for the career ladder, that teacher can add up to another $4700 to their salary (90% of teacher participate in the Career Ladder program). Let’s not forget the $3000 bonus thanks to BO, and presto, you have a salary of over $50,000. Let’s hope that Ms. McCulloch gets her NBCT so she can add another $3000 to her salary from the stipend that the district provides.
We don’t mean to pick on Ms. McCulloch, but the district is playing games by telling us on one hand that teachers salary’s are low and keep getting cut, while passing out 301/ARRA/Career Ladder/Stipends with the other. We don’t doubt that salary cuts have been made relative to the fat and happy years of pre-2008, but again here you can blame the board and the administration. They have chosen to keep as many district employees employed as possible, instead of reducing head count along with the the corresponding reduction in students. Reducing the head count would free up M&O to keep teacher’s pay at the current levels.
Mr. Wreight sums it up with…

One wonders about these comments! Is the term "class size" merely rhetoric that is revived every time CCUSD is seeking extra M&O money from the district taxpayers? One wonders, once again!

We wonder the same thing when the CCUSD administration claims that our teachers are underpaid.

[Note. If we have anything factual incorrect, please let us know in the comments and we will be happy to correct.]

Cave Creek Unified, here is your new middle school math textbook, complete with cartoons

2011-01-04T16:35:00.001-07:00

The opaque K-8 Math Textbook Adoption Committee finally lets the parents and the community know what is going on behind its unadvertised doors by revealing its new 6-8 math textbook selection.

While we applaud its focus on fewer topics and emphasis on the NCTM Focal Points, the newly selected middle school math textbook, BIG IDEAS MATH, leaves a great deal to be desired, like its overuse of pedagogical humor.

“Big Ideas Learning will show you how cartoons can be used to help teach mathematics, increase student interest, and increase student retention.

Presentation of more than 170 original math cartoons organized by subject, such as fractions, decimals, algebra, and probability.”

[Note to BIG IDEAS authors, 3/2 is not a fraction, it is called an improper fraction]

In addition to the unnecessary use of humor for 14 year olds, there seems to be little alignment with GO MATH!, the K-5 selection, no room for an advanced math track (no Algebra until high school?, so it looks like if CCSS doesn’t support it, Cave Creek Unified will not), and BIG IDEAS MATH is a new program with no proof of success.

BIG IDEAS MATH and GO MATH! are clearly not textbooks that will allow our students to compete globally (see how poor US students are doing in math here) or in the 21st Century. The path of mediocrity for CCUSD students is now set in stone for the next 6 to 10 years.

Well, at least they can enjoy the comic strips along the way.

Black Mountain Elementary in Cave Creek Unified to keep K-6

2010-12-03T21:12:00.000-07:00

Looks like Black Mountain Elementary will remain a K-6 school and BMES students will be subjected to the Middle School Mess and Stuck in the Middle.

We are positive the BMES committee came to a consensus and that all parties are now placated.

It is clear through test scores, that middle school is where what ever academic achievement CCUSD offers, it goes to die.

The walls continue to close in on Cave Creek Unified

2010-11-21T14:18:00.001-07:00

Paradise Valley is considering building a new elementary school in Fireside and a new high school north of the 101 (to open in 2017).

http://cmweb.pvschools.net/siteweb/facilities-planning.html

Double Dipping Employess in Cave Creek Unified

2010-11-18T00:30:00.001-07:00

According to the Arizona Republic, 12 employees in Cave Creek Unified have 'retired' only to be rehired again at an average salary of $52,000. The true problem is that these 12 rehires are hurting the other educators (and eventually us taxpayers who will have to foot the bill to get out of this mess) by reducing the funding for the already underfunded pension system. The estimate here is the loss of $120,000 of dollars not paid into the pension system caused by the double dippers.

No worries though, every district in the state does it so it must be OK for CCUSD to do it.

Cave Creek Unified Governing Board Election Results November 2010

2010-11-02T21:42:00.000-07:00

CAVE CREEK UNIF NO. 93 GOV BRD - 4 YR (vote for 2)

100% (19 of 19) precincts reporting

Vote for 2 EV VOTES TOTAL VOTES % VOTES

- CLANCY, SUSAN L.* 4440 6523 34.52

- REESE, STEPHANIE* 4648 6968 36.88

- WORKMAN, KARI E. 3604 5403 28.6

Unofficial results

CCU Education Foundation Financials for 2009

2010-11-01T08:44:00.008-07:00

Not really much going on with the Cave Creek Unified School District Foundation, officially called CCU Education Foundation. For 2009 their financials were:

Income: $8033
Expenses: $3100
Grants: $0

(see the full financials below)

No big deal, we know they have been MIA and this shows it. What is disconcerting is that they tout a different board of directors than the one that they list with the IRS and the Arizona Corporation Commission. Shadow conspiracy or laziness and ineptitude? Either way, not the way to run an organization that is begging for donations via the United Way.

ccuef_990

CCUSD has another million to play with

2010-10-26T19:15:00.001-07:00

The Arizona Republic reported today that Cave Creek Unified had received $1.175 million as its share of the $26 billion ~~Union Payoff~~ Edujobs bill that congress passed. So nice of them to burden our Mandarin speaking (but not writing) students with a much larger national debt that they and their children will have to deal with at some point. Maybe when China owns the US that Mandarin will come in handy.

Any hoo, you dear reader, of course you read it here first with our post back in August where we stated that CCUSD would be receiving this money. Our estimate was $1,087,761. Pretty close. The Republic writes its story with this nonsensical bullet point.

- The district received $1.175 million from the federal government from the education jobs bill signed in August. The status of this funding had been uncertain. Other districts, including Scottsdale and Fountain Hills, hired teachers before the money arrived, while Cave Creek waited.

"Waited." What does that mean? CCUSD will now be hiring more employees? Waited for what, since when, for who? Sure is amateur reporting hour at the Republic. Must have been one of the Konkrite Kids who cut and paste the email they received from the district. "Uncertain". Not a chance, there was no uncertainty with this money. The second that Obama signed this bill, the money was coming. No way the state was turning it down. The only uncertainty was how much of a cut the state would take (limited to 2% max).

Can't wait to hear how this money is spent (not holding breath). Under terms of the contract with CCEA, it most likely will be going to across the board wage increases. Keep raising those funds you PTOs. Our new 'technology friendly' math programs work best with Smart boards and we will need to fill out every classroom in the district with computers, Smart boards, pay for installation fees, buy $300 replacement bulbs, and fund the electricity to run it all.

Cave Creek Unified Administration Spending Up, Classroom Spending Down, Millions Left Over

2010-10-21T14:49:00.002-07:00

How is this possible given all the rhetoric we hear?

(These numbers are ACTUAL expenditures, not budgeted amounts)

Administration spending up.

2400 School Administration
2010: 1,522,910
2009: 1,465,937
Change: 3.9%

Classroom spending down.

Classroom Instruction
2010 13,695,528
2009 13,999,927
Change: -2.2%

And millions left over!

M&O
Carry Forward (782,652)
Revenue: 35,847,906
Other Revenue: 19,119
Budget: 34,542,543
Actual Expenses: 33,374,666
Surplus: 1,709,707

Unrestricted Capital
Carry Forward: 713,463
Revenue: 641,181
Budget: 1,511,552
Actual: 104,039
Surplus: 1,250,605

So they starve the schools by spending only $104,000, in capital so you can then complain we don't have money to fix the schools or buy text books. Of course we did have the money to spend 1.5 million on what, 10 administrators? And why are administrators benefits at 50% of their salary, while classroom staff are at 30%?

Asinine.

Concerned Parents in CCUSD counter Cave Creek Unified Governing Board member

2010-10-11T20:48:00.001-07:00

We can assure you that this email does not belong to CCUSD Watch.

We do agree that all of this politicking by the triumvirate, the administration, the principals, and other district advocacy groups needs to stop. The credibility of this sewing circle continues to plunge when they get caught politicking to civic groups, host sham 'education forums' with only candidates they support, or send emails LIKE THE ONE BELOW (assuming it is authentic, we have not verified it).

It really shows that they are out for each other and that they have only passing concerns for the students, achievement, or the community.

-----
From: Concerned Parent [mailto:concerned4ccusd@gmail.com]

Sent: Monday, October 11, 2010 6:46 PM
To: Redacted
Subject: Please Vote...

Dear Fellow Cave Creek Parents, Teachers, and other interested parties,

We are writing this letter today in support of Susan Clancy for School Board in Cave Creek Unified School District. We were suprised to see David Schaefer, as a Board member, sending out a mass email asking us to vote for his choice of candidates in order to have a more unified school board. The CCUSD Board is too unified behind the questionable decisions of the Superintendent as it is. This shows an appalling lack of judgment on his part and a gives clear reason for voting for the candidate not supported by Mr. Schaeffer.

Here are the reasons we are choosing to vote for Susan Clancy. We request that you thoughtfully consider the same:

1. At every meeting we have attended, it has been Susan Clancy, and only Susan Clancy, asking the district questions, asking for accountability, asking for information, asking that the district and our board do due diligence by having all the facts and figures on the table in open public view prior to making decisions.

2. In person, Susan has been an open and inviting member of the Board, willing to listen and dialogue regarding important issues. In these discussions, it is clear the priority for Susan is our kids.

3. We have been disappointed in other board members who have asked NO questions of the district administration when important decisions are being made that affect the students, teachers, and families in the district on a daily basis. Why aren't they doing their jobs? Now Mr. Schaeffer is actively trying to vote out the one member who seeks to represent our voices, asking the tough questions we should be asking. Why is that?

4. The current administration needs assistance in representing the families in the district. Last year's sad process and decision of closing Desert Arroyo is a great example. Much public upset was created by the overwhelming appearance of favoritism, the use of questionable or incomplete budget figures being thrown around, and the impression that the results were in the bag well before the final vote. The Superintendent met with parents from Desert Arroyo and stated that the number of honors classes and other offerings would be greater in one middle school. Sorry to say, that hasn't materialized at Sonoran Trails Middle School (Where is honors science and social studies?). Where is the Board now? Where is the follow through? The Superintendent and Board claimed that closing DAMS would save money because of all the needed repairs? Why is money being spent to redo the gymnasium floor at DAMS now?

5. The administration's premature and ill conceived notion of a charter school at CSHS is another good example. Without any input from in-district parents, the district sought to tell us what we want for our students. Their creative thinking went as far as small classes and uniforms. Not even close CCUSD administrators. You missed the boat, wasted time and money, upset children and families, and came away with no option again. In the meantime, you are allowing a middle school history teacher to place pictures postcards of Joseph Stalin in the front of the class (while studying the formation of the United States) and call out jokes about "Lenin-ade" and tell our children that the Declaration of Independence was simply put a "propaganda piece." How about we start with teaching subject matter and not political agendas? It's the content, not the "window dressing," we want.

6. Susan Clancy has served on the Board and does a remarkable job speaking up and asking the tough questions. We need more members like Susan Clancy, not less. Anyone who says we need a "united" Board to function smoothly can only believe in a "top down, heavy handed, approach." We for one believe the more discussion the better. The more light the better. To be uncomfortable answering well thought important questions about issues affecting our students on a daily basis, does not speak well of the administration nor the other Board members who are complacent to nod and vote yes without seeking a full understanding of the issues and implications.

Please vote for Susan Clancy for our children! Show that we expect representation and accountability.

Thank you for your time and consideration,

Concerned parents in CCUSD.

-----Original Message-----

From: David Schaefer

To:

Sent: Sun, Oct 10, 2010 7:32 pm

Subject: PLEASE VOTE FOR STEPHANIE REESE AND KARI WORKMAN FOR CAVE CREEK GOVERNING BOARD - EARLY BALLOTS HAVE ARRIVED

PLEASE READ AND FORWARD TO FRIENDS, NEIGHBORS, PARENTS, AND FAMILIES LIVING IN THE CAVE CREEK UNIFIED SCHOOL DISTRICT

Early Ballots have arrived. Please vote for Stephanie Reese and Kari Workman. They are 100% for all students, teachers, and support needed resources in the classroom.

Both REESE and WORKMAN have been endorsed by the Cave Creek Education Association (Teachers)!

Voting for REESE and WORKMAN will create a more constructive and functional governing board.

REESE has years of experience on the Cave Creek Board as well as PTO President of Desert Sun (she started the Desert Sun PTO). Her children attended Desert Arroyo and graduated from Cactus Shadows

WORKMAN is a parent, a former teacher and holds degrees in education and educational leadership. She knows the needs of teachers and would nicely complement the skills already present on our board.

Please VOTE for STEPHANIE REESE and KARI WORKMAN!

Thank you,

David S. Schaefer

More: Differentiated Instruction is a Pedagogic Fad that Cave Creek Unified CCUSD Should Avoid

2010-10-02T13:04:00.000-07:00

As we have stated, Differentiated Instruction is a fad, difficult to implement, and above all non-sense. If you missed it be sure you can read it here.

CCUSD strategies for improving achievement and why differentiated instruction will not work

Be sure to also check out the comments. A few days ago, posted at Education Week, is a commentary saying some of the same things we said.

When Pedagogic Fads Trump Priorities

First, there is absolutely no evidence that it is effective...

As Bryan Goodwin of Mid-continent Research for Education and Learning, or MCREL, has written, there is "no empirical research" whatsoever for schools to adopt DI if they wish to avail themselves of the best ways to promote learning or close achievement gaps.

and in fact it can be harmful to learning.

In these ways, Differentiated Instruction, or DI, corrupted both curriculum and effective instruction. With so many groups to teach, instructors found it almost impossible to provide sustained, properly executed lessons for every child or group-and in a single class period. It profoundly impeded the teacher's ability to incorporate those protean, decades-old elements of a good lesson which have a titanic impact on learning, even in mixed-ability classrooms.

This article even dismantles the second prong (21st Century Skills) of the newly minted "CCUSD 2010-2011 Goals" by stating:

Of course, Differentiated Instruction is only one among many prominent detours American education has taken, none more pernicious than the chop-logic and excesses of what is now being advocated in the name of "21st-century education" or the simplistic requirement for teachers to mindlessly "incorporate technology" into their lessons-as though that will rescue poor instructional plans from failure.

This is more proof of the inexperience of the leadership in our district. It seems they believe that grabbing on to these fads makes them safe because everyone else is doing it. Our leaders need to stop getting their information from Ed-Schools, listservs, and neighboring districts. They need to do some solid research to understand strategies that will will actually work in increasing achievement. They could start by heeding the advice in this article and by visiting and understanding effective charter schools in the area.

But do not forget the blame lies with the school board triumvirate that put this leadership in place without due diligence and has supported stability over achievement despite all the evidence staring them in the face.

No Singapore Math in Cave Creek Unified becuase the district doesn't put learning first

2010-10-01T08:52:00.000-07:00

From today's New York Times an article about a school district moving from Everyday Math to Singapore Math.

Making Math Lessons as Easy as 1, Pause, 2, Pause ...

From the article

--------------

In contrast to the most common math programs in the United States, Singapore math devotes more time to fewer topics, to ensure that children master the material through detailed instruction, questions, problem solving, and visual and hands-on aids like blocks, cards and bar charts. Ideally, they do not move on until they have thoroughly learned a topic.

Principals and teachers say that slowing down the learning process gives students a solid math foundation upon which to build increasingly complex skills, and makes it less likely that they will forget and have to be retaught the same thing in later years.

And with Singapore math, the pace can accelerate by fourth and fifth grades, putting children as much as a year ahead of students in other math programs as they grasp complex problems more quickly.

----------------
Wow, putting students a year ahead. Sounds like a wonderful program which we should look at.

Of course it didn't happen, Singapore Math didn't even make the Cave Creek Unified K-8 Math Textbook Adoption Committee initial evaluation list, despite the fact that Singapore Math is a Core Knowledge Foundation recommendation.

Core Knowledge Foundation Math Recommendation

What is left on the list (for k-6) is three programs that covers too many topics, are untested, and don't require mastery. These three programs will work great with Smartboards and come with many professional development tools to make lives easier for the teachers and the administrators, because as we know in Cave Creek Unified, its all about putting the leadership and the staff above the students (as we saw with the budget cuts and school closings).

We are so happy that our district will be stuck with these middling textbooks for the next 5 to 10 years, in which time, as history has shown us, almost all of the district's leadership will be long gone, and our community will be left holding this giant bag of mediocrity.

Maybe the governing board will come to its senses and demand that the administration actually put in place a math program that will allow our students to excel at an international level, regardless of how difficult the program is to implement.

Yeah, right.

Black Mountain Elementary to Study Move to K-8 in Cave Creek Unified CCUSD

2010-09-23T10:42:00.000-07:00

We have heard that BMES is\has formed a committee to study a move to K-8 (the K-8 idea that was stolen from the BMES PTO and awarded to DSES). While we are completely for K-8 schools, we don't really see how this could happen in a vacuum and would likely cause havoc with all the 7-8 sutdent who would choose a K-8 BMES to avoid the drive\bus ride.

Funny that DSES made the change with zero parent input and BMES has to form a committee to push for its change. Obviously the committee it stirctly to placate the parents and nothing will come of it.

Nonetheless, here is some recent research for those on the committee to study...

Stuck in the Middle: How and why middle schools harm student achievement

Our solution has been to become a two node district, closing DWES, DSES, and LMES. The two nodes would be:

South - HTES/STMS
North - BMES/DAMS
Both nodes would act as one K-8 school with two physical buildings. Think how much money we could save closing three schools. You can revist our idea and the numbers behind it here...

http://ccusdwatch.blogspot.com/2010/02/cave-creek-unified-has-2500-empty-seats.html

The Three Envelopes, an Education Leadership Parable

2010-09-21T21:57:00.002-07:00

An educator had just been hired as the new superintendent of her district.

The retiring superintendent met with her privately and presented her with three numbered envelopes.

“Open one of these each time you run into a problem you don’t think you can solve,” he said.

Things went along pretty smoothly, but six months later, enrollment took a downturn and she was really catching a lot of heat.

At her wit’s end, she remembered the envelopes. She went to her drawer and took out the first envelope. The message read,

“Blame the politicians.”

The new superintendent went to the school board and tactfully laid the blame at the feet of the state legislature, the governor, and federal government mandates, painting them as uncaring politicians.

Satisfied with the comments, the parents and the school board rallied behind her and the problem was shifted away from her and onto the politicians.

About a year later, the test scores in the district started dropping precipitously.

Having learned from her previous experience, the superintendent quickly opened the second envelope. The message read,

“Create a strategic plan with a blue ribbon committee.”

This she did, dazzling the school board with her judicious use of edu-jargon and the promise of 21st century learners. Things again were better.

After another year of still lower enrollment and stagnant test scores, the superintendent once more came under the microscope.

Again the superintendent went to her office, closed the door, and opened the third envelope.

The message said,

“Prepare three envelopes.”

Priorities in Cave Creek Unified CCUSD

2010-09-20T09:00:00.000-07:00

Paraphrased statement from recent board meeting when explaining the recent decline in test scores:

"We have outdated textbooks and materials in our schools. Textbooks and materials do not correlate with the standards.

So we have outdated curriculum materials but at least we have Smartboards:

9/14/2010 LMES PTO donated $10,200 to LMES to purhase three new smart boards.
8/19/2009 LMES Site Council Approval of Tax Credit Monies used for a SmartBoard in Ms. Roger’s Room
5/13/2008 LMES PTO donated ...a SmartBoard valued at $2,994.00
4/13/2008 LMES PTO donated a SmartBoard valued at $3910.13
3/13/2007 Lone Mountain Elementary School PTO donated four Smart-boards from CCS Presentation Systems valued at $15,299.77.
6/12/2007 Lone Mountain Elementary School PTO donated one SmartBoard for art teacher Dara Sharapan, valued at $3,422.91.
11/3/2006 LMES PTO purchased 2 SmartBoards and 4 Airliner Projectors and other items to enhance student learning at Lone Mountain.

And who is donating the electricity to run the Smartboards, the money to buy the $300 replacement light bulbs, and the training costs to get teachers up to speed on these devices? Of course the taxpayers are and at the same time they are pleading poverty and crying over 10 year old textbooks.

Cave Creek Unified Governing Board Candidate Q & A

2010-09-18T00:42:00.002-07:00

Cave Creek Unified Governing Board Candidate Q & A from the Arizona Republic

Kari E Workman
Susan Clancy
Stephanie Reese

Is Everyday Math dead in Cave Creek Unified?

2010-09-15T08:01:00.002-07:00

It seems that the Cave Creek Unified K-8 Math Adoption Commitee has eliminated Everyday Mathematics for consideration for K-6 when it narrowed down its choices to three at a meeting yesterday

If it stands, this is a tremendous victory for the students of Cave Creek Unified and long time in coming. Too long.

The bad news, the remaining choices are middling at best.

We will have a great deal more to say on this, but for the time being we have a member trying quite hard to give the committee input, feedback, and constructive suggestions. Whether they listen remains to be seen.

Cave Creek Unified Enrollment 2010-2011

2010-09-13T16:17:00.001-07:00

Here are the number for those interested. BMES took a huge hit.

Cave Creek Unified and the fallacies of the 21st Century Skills debate

2010-09-08T12:41:00.003-07:00

The superintendent has come up with her 'Suggested Goals for 10-11'. As part of this she is proposing the formation of the "Blueprint for 21st Century Learners" committee to create a strategic plan. We have summarily dismissed this as an unnecessary waste of district resources and committee members time/efforts with the results destined to be ignored or shelved, but we will address the fallacies of the 21st Century Skills debate.

We begin with this absurd but relevant 21st Century Skill example:

The Gettysburg Powerpoint Presentation

11/19/1863

HT to a commenter at Joanne Jacobs

Janet Busbee withdraws from Cave Creek Unified Governing Board race

2010-09-02T20:54:00.000-07:00

Assuming the Maricopa County Education Service Agency has not made a database error, Janet Busbee has withdrawn from the fall governing board election.

View November 2010 Candidate List

CCUSD strategies for improving achievement and why differentiated instruction will not work

2010-08-25T11:28:00.003-07:00

2 months after the district received the bad news of the precipitous drop in test scores and the loss of Excelling AZ LEARNS labels, the district is ready to present its plan to the governing board for improving achievement in the Cave Creek Unified School District #93.
You can view the pieces of the plan in the 8/24/2010 governing board packet here. When you boil it down the plan consists of:

Improve student engagement through differentiated instruction and articulation.
Improve technology in the classrooms to enhance teaching and learning.
A marketing brochure called ‘Framework for Excellence’.
A new strategic plan.

Very quickly it is easy to see that a new marketing brochure and a new plan will not have any bearing on student achievement. This will be a drag on the resources and efforts of the district and those unlucky enough to volunteer their time on another committee whose ‘consensus’ has a high likelihood of being ignored.

So let’s turn to 1 and 2. Number 2, the technology piece consists of:
~iPods in the Classroom
~Interactive Whiteboards
~Our Teacher Websites
~Blogging (secure)
~Podcasting
~Digital Storytelling
~ePortfolios
~Blended classrooms through Moodle
~Web 2.0 tools such as edu.glogster.com and Wordle.net

They have to be kidding right? iPods, blogging, and podcasting are a strategy to increase achievement? These are fringe activities that may help increase engagement, but they are not a strategy. Teaching ineffective content on a Smartboard does not increase its effectiveness.

So 2, 3, and 4 are pointless, so what about Number 1, differentiated instruction. Surely this strategy will help improve student achievement. It is a big complicated eud-phrase that will dazzle parents/board members and lead our kids to the promised land of testing mastery and student led learning/discovery. Right!

Well, sorry, this is not the case. Differentiated instruction is a fad, is difficult to implement, but above all else it is nonsense.

A Fad

DI (not direct instruction [we wish], we refer here to differentiated instruction ) is the philosophy that “because each learner comes to school with a different set of learning needs, examples of which include differing educational, personal, and communal contexts and varying degrees of academic skill development differentiated instruction advocates that the educator proactively plans a variety of instruction methods so as to best facilitate effective learning experiences which are suited to the various learning needs within the classroom”. Thank you Wikipedia for the concise explanation.

In early 2000, education researchers led by Carol Ann Tomlinson (pictured above, obviously with little classroom experience) came up with this approach, and since the mid-aughts schools have been passing this off as the latest and greatest thing since open classrooms to increase excellence in our schools. What schools are finding is that DI is difficult to implement, has too many meanings, and overwhelms teachers. Of course CCUSD is trying to latch on to at the end life of this fad, and it too will come to the same realizations in about 5 or so years. We guarantee you that those who set us down this path today, will be long gone in 5 years.

Difficult

So every learner has different needs, states the DI philosophy. So it sounds like a good DI teacher will come up with 30 or so lesson plans for each student right. Of course not, but lesson plans must be created to cover at least some of the supposed ‘learning styles’. So when are the CCUSD teachers supposed to do this? Right now our CCUSD teachers are burdened with:

Providing enrichment activities to help students exceed state standards
Teaching to the AIMS test
Implementing the gifted cluster strategy
Managing ever expanding classroom sizes
Manage IEPs and ILLPs for those mainstreamed students
Fill the holes and supplement a curriculum that does not meet even state standards
Work on their own professional development

So what hour of the day is a teacher going to have to develop and work on DI strategies for all the different learning styles that show up in August? Do new and inexperienced teachers even have the ability to manage all of the above much less trying to implement DI? Most don’t.

In addition to the difficulty to the classroom teacher, even the district itself will find it hard to ‘teacher the teacher’ effective DI strategies. The great DI leader, Carol Ann Tomlinson, said just last year that…

Professional development for differentiation is really critical. It shouldn't ever be thought of as one-shot or a couple of workshops. Learning to differentiate is like learning math or a new language. It takes place step by step over a long period of time--and needs to be tailored to the teacher's readiness, interests, and ways of learning. Follow-up should be a given--and should happen for a long, long time into the future.

Good luck CCUSD with that. Our students don’t have years to wait for professional development to catch up. We need effective strategies that will work now.

Nonsense

Our favorite edu-blogger Ken DeRosa said it best so we will send you his way, but here are the highlights:

There is no empirical support that DI is effective
DI turns classrooms in a mess
DI mostly involves dummying down the curriculum to the lowest performers

Number 3 is what worries us the most. Dummying down our already substandard curriculum would have disastrous results, but this would be a quickest way to try and deploy DI.

Don’t forget that we have pushed ability grouping as an effective solution for CCUSD to not only increase achievement and serve the gifted, but to help with class size issues. Of course this will never happen because of the issue of fairness, but you can rest assured that at the Watch HQ, our children do attend a school that does ability group and it works fantastic (that of course is anecdotal evidence).

So bottom line, none of these items in the district’s Goals for 2010-2011 will be effective for increasing achievement and one could be expensive and disastrous.

Cave Creek Unified leadership participating in political activities?

2010-08-23T08:43:00.002-07:00

We'd love to know how this blurb below from a school newsletter written by a long time district leader is not 'engaging in political activities'. Recuiting volunteers for a politicial action committee from a leader who has direct influence of a parent's child. Shameless. The arrogance in this district is off the charts.

Too bad the district and other district advocacy groups do not put as much effort and resources into the improving the curriculum and achievement, but of course that is not what they want. The want to protect their fiefdoms above all else and coast on the backs of our demographics.

Miss me yet?

2010-08-19T03:59:00.001-07:00

We are still trying to confirm that this billboard was erected yesterday at the northeast corner of Cave Creek and Rancho Paloma roads.

Don't believe us? Cave Creek Unified teacher who says that 'CCUSD is falling apart'

2010-08-18T16:37:00.000-07:00

This Cave Creek Unified teacher wrote a letter to the editor and makes the same claims that we do about the curriculum. We agree that the curriculum is MIA and on the website all you will find is cut and paste jobs of standards documents from the Arizona Department of Education and claims of standards alignment reproduced from the work of the the textbook publishers. No evidence of any vertical alignment or any proof of how our Teaching and Learning department intends to have our students exceed the state standards.

CCUSD is falling apart

As a teacher in the Cave Creek Unified School District, I may be a bit iconoclastic in my views, but I suspect that I do not stand alone in my criticisms of our school district. As a long-time member of Cave Creek community, I have never seen educational morale so unspeakably low.

Students are unchallenged and unmotivated, parents are discouraged and disappointed, and teachers are exhausted, overwhelmed, and severely underpaid. The only person who still seems to have a smile on her face is Debbi Burdick, and that’s probably because she was undeservingly signed on for another three years as District Superintendent. Our district is falling apart from the inside out.

Curriculum information is non-existent which leaves the schools disorganized and every teacher compiling their own curriculum. There is no alignment and no consistency. How are our students supposed to build on prior knowledge when everyone is learning something different? Visit the website for any other school district and you will find curriculum maps, scope and sequence, district goals, and content area expectations. Go to the CCUSD website and all you will find is a plethora of misleading animations advertising our excelling schools and state-of-the-art programs. Where are our curriculum leaders? Where are our curriculum maps? How are teachers supposed to know what to teach? How are we ensuring alignment to the state standards and building off of prior knowledge? The CCUSD website is a perfect analogy of the dynamics of this district: let’s look pretty on the outside and maybe nobody will notice the disaster on the inside.

Jobs Bill: Cave Creek Unified likely to get $1 Million

2010-08-11T08:17:00.000-07:00

With the signing of the $26 billion jobs bill (AKA union payback) yesterday, Cave Creek Unified is likely to receive around an extra $1 million to add to its M&O. $10 billion of this money is a passthrough directly to schools to 'save' teacher's jobs, not that any of our classroom teachers in our district were actually let go because of the budget. By our calculations the district will now have an extra million or so. We can't wait to hear how they decide to spend it. Last time the district received unbudgeted amounts (ADK state funds), they gave across the board raises.

Education Jobs Bill

Arizona allocation: 211,824,489
Less 2% for State overhead: 207,587,999
Approximate Cave Creek Unified's Share (.00524) = 1,087,761

AZ LD 8: House Candidate Michelle Ugenti

2010-08-10T06:51:00.000-07:00

Here is a statement from Michelle Ugenti, House LD 8 candidate. We have invited all candidates to post a free form statement on education and their campaign. All statements are unedited and feel free to comment below.

House: Michelle Ugenti

Phone: (480) 213-0046
Email: mugenti@hotmail.com
Website: http://michelleugenti.com/
Facebook: http://www.facebook.com/pages/Campaign-for-Michelle-Ugenti/110923558921553

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We are blessed to live in a community that values its schools, and we need to be sure that, while we deal with our current financial crisis, we safeguard our schools and ensure that precious funds make their way to the teachers and classrooms, not constantly growing administrative bureaucracies.

I support eliminating legislative mandates that decrease school districts flexibility to respond to its particular needs. Such as reallocating money from bloated administrative budgets to the classroom.

I support school choice, which is crucial to a competitive educational environment. School choice also empowers parents so they can make the best decisions based on their children’s needs.

I support school vouchers and private school tax credits, so long as they save the state money.

This past year lawmakers have made great progress in the area of education. They were successful in passing the following pieces of legislation:

1) SB 1286 - A letter grade of A, B, C, D, or F will now be issues to schools.

2) SB 2298 - Experts in specific fields like math can now teach in schools without having a teaching certificate from a college of education.

3) CB 2732 - Eliminates social promotion for third graders who have yet to learn the basics of reading.

I believe that the new laws mentioned above highlight that progress can be made without raising taxes. These are just a few of the steps made by our legislature that will increase accountability and transparency on behalf of our schools as well as send a message to parents and taxpayers that Arizona can improve and is dedicated to providing the best education possible for its students.

Finally, while it's not what you might automatically think about, we need to ensure a strong education system from kindergarten through our vocational and college systems. Employers are going to to want to know that they are moving into a state with a strong and educated workforce, so the quality of our educational system will play a part in their decision-making precess as well.

Please visit my website to learn more about me and my position on other issues. http://www.michelleugenti.com/

CURRICULUM: THE MISSING LINK

2010-08-09T09:34:00.000-07:00

We can't say it any better...

But, aside from a few enlightened souls, most of education’s brains trust still fail to recognize that curriculum is where the rubber hits the road. The road is about implementation and implementation requires curriculum – that is, the selection and sequencing of essential content knowledge so that teachers can produce a sensible year’s worth of expected learning in the core domains of math, literature, science, history, civics, the arts, foreign languages, and health and physical education.

Read more...

http://shankerblog.org/?p=346

Cave Creek Unified CCUSD 2010-1011 School Year

2010-08-09T09:16:00.000-07:00

Welcome back to all Cave Creek Unified students and staff. We hope that you have a fulfilling and successful school year.

Let’s Fisk! AZ LEARNS/AIMS/AYP Presentation to the Board on 8/10/2010

2010-08-08T11:41:00.007-07:00

The administration is making a presentation to the board at Tuesday’s board meeting to ‘explain’ the results and we assume answer why some (all?) of this information was withheld from the board until after it granted the superintendent a new 3 year contract.

You can find the presentation starting on page 43 of the August 8 board packet.

Let’s start with slide 2 where we find (click on any picture to enlarge)…

Of course what is left off here is the next sentence and an important part of the direction from ADE which states.

“This information may be shared with staff only on a need-to-know basis.”

You can find the full information and direction here.

What! Need to know IS ok! The governing board of our district is NOT on a need to know basis. They don’t need to know this to make effective decisions about the leadership and direction of our district. They don’t need to know that our schools have failed to meet a huge federal mandate (AYP). They don’t need to know that is the first time in four years our schools have slipped even the ridiculously low bar that the AZ Learns labels represent.

They can argue all they want that the governing board is not staff, in our opinion this was clear and plain deception, both on this slide and on hiding information from the board.

Next we get a slide with the embargo dates…

Here we see that AIMS scores were released to the public on July 14, the day after the awarding of the three year contract to the superintendent, and that the schools have had them since June 21. But the disparity here is that the superintendent was quoted in the paper as saying…

“The board was fully aware of the AIMS results when they did my evaluation and extended my contract.”

So the superintendent is claiming that the board had full access to the AIMS results which were still embargoed, yet the AYP and AZ LEARNS where not revealed to the board because they were embargoed. So why did they ‘supposedly’ release (fully aware) the AIMS scores on one hand but not the AYP\AZ LEARNS on the other. Both were still under embargo. And regardless, a board member we contacted when asked if the board had been provided those scores and the labels, the reply was, “No we were not…”. So let’s have it, CCUSD. Produce the ‘fully aware’ results that you provided to the board (no longer embargoed) for the public to see so we can see who has misspoken.

The slide show continues with explanations of AYP and AMO and tries to set up an ‘excuse’ for the district loosing its Excelling labels.

Of course this is not the true reason, this is the effect. The cut scores were changed to align with the new math standards put in place in the Summer of 2008. The cause is the fact that our math curriculum is failing our students and is not meeting the new state standards. The district's attempts at professional development and supplementing are not working either and the district failed to prepare the students for the new standards, standards that they themselves were part of. Adn let's talk about the 'drops in so many profiles' acorss the state. That may be the case in the state, but it certainly was not the case in Northeast Phoenix and Scottsdale.

The slide show continues with the elementary math, reading, writing, and science scores presented and we find something curious with the math scores. They don’t match what the state released for 4th grade. In fact they are significantly higher as presented and they don’t even add up to 100%:

From the state…

Maybe the scores from the state were wrong and those presented above are correct. We have no idea, but they should at least add up to 100% or 101% based on rounding, not 117%. As far as the other math scores, you can see the across the board drop.

Next up is reading...

What the heck happened in 4th grade? A 12% drop in passing. We thought the cut scores, old text books, blah blah blah is\was the problem. Got an 'explanation’ for this? When you check the state results they claim that we had a 92% passing for reading for the 4th grade reading for 2010.

Finally the elementary scores finish with writing, you know, the same writing that has been a huge academic focus for the past 3 years, but of course we have a drop there too…

Elementary science scores are up next and they look great. Then we get some useless graphs showing were are not sure what and a comparison to Arizona averages, as if that matters.

So now the presentation is on the the middle school where our students showed large loses in math scores, proving that after 6 years of Everyday Mathematics and a year or two of Connected Math, our students are failing behind their peers.

So with the first slide showing the middle school math scores we find…

No error there, the presentation does not show the AIMS scores for middle school. Probably a good strategy to hide the horrendous middle school scores, but not really that intellectually honest. We have no doubt that after this post they will be added back (‘oversight’) to the presentation, but you get our drift.

The next slide covers the Stanford 10/DPA results with an explanation that they are not comparable to last years results which used the TerraNova. While true, as a norm-referenced test they are comparable to EVERY STUDENT IN THE US which certainly would be helpful in determining how our district is performing. They have not been released to the public by ADE (budget issues they claim is the hold up) so we can’t wait to see these scores. In the presentation we find the Stanford 10 test scores are…

Yup, those scores are missing too. Nice.

Lastly, we get the slide that the district loves so much, the NVEC comparison (isn’t the NVEC a middle school sports league?). A slide comparing CCUSD and our 6000 students to districts that are up to four times the size of CCUSD and have no where near the generous demographics that we have. Talk about apples and oranges. And BTW, what the heck do we care what the test scores in Higley or Dysart are. Does that help us beat them in volleyball? Where is the comparison to districts and charter schools north of Bell Rd? We have them, why aren’t they shared with the board? Those are the schools that we compete with and take our students.

This slide is pointless and to us just shows that the administration feels the benchmark for them is that they just need to beat other district's averages, while our students are really competing with not only neighboring schools, but eventually our students will be competing internationally for college admissions and for jobs. This should be the true yardstick and it is the one that our educators eschew.

Regardless of the flaws in this presentation, what we need are solutions, not explanations. Despite the missing test scores, what really is missing is what is the district going to do to fix this. They have had these scores since June 21, they have had plenty of time to formulate some (any!?!?) sort of strategy for improving achievement and one would think that the board would demand it.

As of now, we see no plan and no demands from the governing board, so it is likely Cave Creek Unified School District 93 will stay in its mediocre state for the foreseeable future.

Stephanie Reese pulls out from CCUSD Governing Board Race

2010-08-06T17:04:00.000-07:00

Update:

There was an error at the county and Ms. Reese is still a candidate.

--------
Good Afternoon,

Stephanie Reese is a candidate. There was an error in the database; the “withdrawn” checkbox was erroneously checked. The error has since been corrected.
Regards,

Hope Olguín
Elections Specialist

Maricopa County
Education Service Agency
4041 N. Central Ave., Ste. 1100
Phoenix, AZ 85012

Hope.Olguin@mcesa.maricopa.gov
(602) 506-3978 - Office
(602) 506-3753 - Fax

--------

According to the Maricopa County Superintendent of Schools, Stephanie Reese has withdrawn from the Cave Creek Unified Governing Board election this fall. Two 4-year seats are up for grabs. The deadline for filing was yesterday, so the final ballot will look like...

BUSBEE , JANET 4 year Dist #93 Cave Creek Unified District - Incumbent
CLANCY , SUSAN 4 year Dist #93 Cave Creek Unified District - Incumbent
WORKMAN , KARI E 4 year Dist #93 Cave Creek Unified District

Cave Creek Unified CCUSD to teach with materials that maybe Communist propaganda

2010-08-06T16:28:00.000-07:00

We heard rumors that the new Mandarin program at Horseshoe Trails and Lone Mountain was working with the Confucius Institute, but today we receive confirmation. At the CCUSD twitter account we learn that the district is getting $20,000 worth of materials.
"Congratulations to HTES and LMES for receiving their Confucius in the Classroom Grants. Each school will receive $10,000 for materials."
The problem is that these materials come from the Chinese government itself. Many schools and universities have rejected these materials as soft propaganda put out by the Chinese government to, "win the world's hearts and minds, not just its economic markets, as a means of cementing power".

What we would really like to know is if Hanban (a direct Chinese government group that runs the Confucius Institutes) is paying for these the teachers who are coming to our district. Should we have Communists directly teaching our students? We don't think so.

But frankly we could care less. We see nothing wrong with our students learning about other cultures and languages, but again this shows what is wrong with our leadership and direction.

Just because someone is offering you money for your programs, doesn't mean you take it. First you do the research to see if it is effective, if fits in with the current program, and meets the students academic needs. We see no evidence that this meets our students academic needs, fits in with other offerings, or is effective.
Focus like a laser. Spinning your wheels on this is not focus. We know its tired but "reading, writing, arithmetic."
Where is\was the governing board and public input? Not a peep of this outside of the a small group at HTES until it was fully unveiled in the Arizona Republic. Will the public have a chance to review these text books and materials. Where is the required text book adoption and public review?
This will be a PR nightmare. Given the conservative leanings of our community, when they get ahold of it, it will haunt the district for years.

So good luck with all of that.

Next week's Sonoran News headline, "CCUSD to teach Communism to kindergartners".

News: Burdick awarded three-year contract despite dismal performance

2010-08-04T14:12:00.006-07:00

We mentioned that it appears that the Cave Creek Unified Governing Board voted to award a three year contract to the superintendent on July 13th, but that the district withheld full disclosure to the board of 2010 AIMS\Stanford 10 test scores and the preliminary AZ LEARNS labels. This data had been released to the schools on June 21.

The Sonoran News has picked up the story ~~and will have more details in its issue to be released toda~~y. The headline reads...

Burdick awarded three-year contract despite dismal performance

Three schools loose ‘Excelling’ label, while one in three sixth graders are unable to pass math portion of AIMS

In the article board member Clancy states that she...

"only learned about the AIMS results when they were released to the public on July 14, which was the day after the board renewed Burdick’s contract. "

We can also confirm from a board member that these scores and labels were not provided to the board. Interestingly, Dr. Burdick says that...

"The board was fully aware of the AIMS results when they did my evaluation and extended my contract. One of my goals was directly related to AIMS results so we delayed the evaluation from May to July until we had the results and they could be shared. However, the AYP and AZ LEARNS profiles were still embargoed by the Arizona Department of Education when my evaluation was done"

So who is misspeaking here?

And in fact the labels were withheld from the board because she claims they were 'embargoed', yet she made the board 'fully aware' of embargoed AIMS scores. Sorry you she can't have it both ways and there is no doubt that when the Arizona Department of Education claims that something is embargoed, that does not mean to withhold it from a district's governing board.

Finally the Sonoran News reports...

In light of the district’s dismal AIMS results revealed one day after the board voted to renew Burdick’s contract for three years, Clancy said she has requested a vote to reconsider Burdick’s contract be placed on the agenda.

Another test for the governing board to prove that it is out for the students and not the administration. No doubt, they will get an F.

One more note. Seems suspicious that the video of that July 13th board meeting is missing from the http://ccusdbg.org/ website. Just saying. Read the full story here...

Sonoran News

[Again, we are not out for anyone to get fired, quit, or recalled, we just want the achievement and the education of our students to be the top priority, not buildings, protecting jobs, or playing politics]

Northeast Valley schools slip in latest AZ LEARNS ratings Cave Creek Unified CCUSD

2010-08-03T15:29:00.001-07:00

Mary Beth Faller and the Arizona Republic finally get around to covering the AZ LEARNS profiles that were released to the schools in June and to the public last week. Of course we get some words and thoughts from our leader...

"We're understandably disappointed after having three years of all 'excelling,' but we're aware of where our focus needs to be," Superintendent Debbi Burdick said. "Everyone will have a laser focus on the classroom and student achievement, and we're going to put all of our efforts there."

Hey, we mentioned that 'laser like' focus on achievement here and here. Nice to see that the super is a reader.

And WOW we finally get an admission that Everyday Mathematics is failing our students. Too bad you did not heed our advice long ago.

Burdick cited the tougher math standards for AIMS as one reason for the slip in ratings at the middle schools, as well as outdated math teaching materials. The district will begin a math textbook adoption process this year, she said.

Regardless, tougher math standards are not an excuse. The district has known about the new standards for three years when the process to revise them began. In fact we warned the district about the new math standards but the district chose to focus on writing instead. The joke here is that written on inside cover of the new Arizona State Math Standards issued in 2008 you find this...

So CCUSD was a participant in developing these new standards but the district leadership did little to prepare our students or make any efforts to improve the curriculum to meet these standards and the governing board sat by satisfied that our district is a jewel in the desert and our teachers and leaders are nothing but the best.
So where is the accountability? Who is being held responsible for this? Who is making sure that we get back on track? Sadly the answers are no where, no one, and no one.

But back to the textbooks. We have been saddled with those books since 2001. EM even replaced the program in 2007 realizing that the old edition was flawed, but CCUSD failed to even upgrade to new version of EM, getting by on the backs of our students demographics. Well, with the new state standards, that free ride has ended and look for the CCSS to be even tougher. And what about the money. With all the money spent year after year on EM workbooks and consumables, we could have replaced the math textbooks twice over, but instead we kept the status quo and focused on Smartboards, a Mega High School, swimming pools, electronic billboards, and to save administrator and teacher jobs while enrollment declines. If anybody had bothered to do some research they would have found that EM is one of the more expensive programs and switching programs alone would have saved money.

We can't say that we are optimistic about the district making a good choice on new textbooks given its track record, but at least it is a tiny, tiny start.

The true price will likely be paid this fall in the form of lower enrollment but don't count on that changing anything.

Cave Creek Unified CCUSD just doesn't get it. State standards are not enough.

2010-08-02T11:54:00.000-07:00

Apparently CCUSD has set its goals for 2010-2011 and of course the district leadership does not get it. Let us repeat it for them: State standards are not enough for Cave Creek Unified students to exceed academically.

Does this look like a laser like focus on achievement or another flowery platitude? And yes we will have a post on whether those goals from 09-10 were met.

[This page on the CCUSD website was changed yesterday (a Sunday). Here is a before and after shot. Click to enlarge.]

The Cave Creek Unified Governing Board needs to act now

2010-07-30T17:05:00.004-07:00

[Updated] We are not calling for recalls or firings, we want productive solutions to start the district climbing out of the hole now. School starts in one week. This cannot wait.

The Governing Board needs to get off its collective butt and...

Call an emergency board meeting to:

Form a Board Advisory Committee (without any ex-officio members) to DIRECTLY provide the board with solutions
Call the superintendent on the carpet and tell her to focus 110% of her efforts on achievement and overhauling the curriculum
Insist on the immediate formation of a Curriculum Committee composed of district staff, parents, and outside subject experts.
Insist that all programs are aligned horizontally and vertically

Anything less is unacceptable and the time to stop hiding behind the micro-managing fear is now.

Was the Cave Creek Unified Governing Board provided test scores?

2010-07-30T16:35:00.000-07:00

Was the Cave Creek Unified Governing Board provided 2010 AIMS Test scores and the preliminary AZ LEARNS labels PRIOR to the vote to renew the superintendent's contract for three more years on July 13?

According to the Arizona Department of Education, these scores and the labels were provided to the schools on JUNE 21. (http://www.ade.az.gov/azlearns/memos/2009-2010.asp)

We are investigating to find out. Stay tuned.

Cave Creek Unified CCUSD no longer an all Excelling district

2010-07-28T07:44:00.007-07:00

STUNNED! So Cave Creek Unified is no longer all "Excelling!". DAMS falls to Highly Performing and STMS falls even lower to Performing Plus, but the biggest stunner of all is that BMES is no longer Excelling. These are labels primarily based on AIMS test scores and of course we know the low bar that AIMS represents. Anything other than Excelling is a failure.

Given the demographics of our students, this is a huge mismanagement of the education of the students in our district. Parents should be asking for heads to roll.

Update: If you are wondering, as far as we can tell surrounding PVUSD and SUSD (Grayhawk, Foothills, Pinnacle Peak, Explorer, Wildfire, Pinnacle, Cheyenne, Copper Ridge, etc.) schools have all retained their Excelling labels.

One more thing, both AIMS test results and these profile scores were provided to the district WEEKS ago. Whether they were provided to governing board before the 3 year renewal of the superintendent's contract is unknown. Be sure to ask when you communicate to the governing board your displeasure.

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2009-2010 AZ Achievement Profiles

Black Mountain Elementary School - Highly Performing

Cactus Shadows High School/PSH - Excelling

Desert Arroyo Middle School - Highly Performing

Desert Sun Elementary School - Excelling

Desert Willow Elementary School - Excelling

Horseshoe Trails Elementary School - Excelling

Lone Mountain Elementary School - Excelling

Sonoran Trails Middle School - Performing Plus

AZ LD 7: House Candidate Statement Kristin Burroughs

2010-07-25T11:35:00.002-07:00

Here is the first of the LD7, LD8, and Cave Creek Unified governing board candidate statements that we received. We invited all candidates to post a free form statement on education and their campaign. All statements are unedited and feel free to comment below.

House LD7: Kristin Burroughs

Phone: (480) 329-1411
Email: kristin@burroughs2010.com
Website: http://burroughs2010.com/
Facebook: http://www.facebook.com/pages/Republican-Candidate-for-LD-7-AZ-House-of-Representatives-Kristen-Burroughs/222591429371
Twitter: @hermeneutics
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The late House Speaker Tip O'Neill once said, "All politics is local."

This is no longer true. In 2010, the tentacles of the federal government reach deeply into the crevices of our daily lives, even into our local schools. We’re less dependent on local government and increasingly subject to the state and federal.

Today, “Most politics isn’t local.”

But it should be. We need to pull our government closer to home. Unless we can re-vision how we can be governed, we’ll never be able to right-size. And unless we can choose how we should be governed, we’ll never be able to persuade others of our vision of good governing.

As you know, I’m passionate about tax-reform and eager to work closely with current House leadership on all issues of taxation. Much of our taxes, particularly property taxes, go to schools. Everyone agrees that providing a good education for the next generation is vital for success as a state.

But, conservatives and liberals have a huge disagreement as to how we should provide a good education.

My liberal opponents, both Democrat and Republican, who are in the pockets of the teacher’s union, want to grab more of your family’s money and dump it into the education system without making sure we’re getting value for the money.

I won’t do that. Education is vital – but so is your family’s economic welfare in these tough times.

I believe we can improve education without raising your taxes through the roof. In fact, I believe we can improve education while lowering your taxes.

Here’s how. First, lets cut some of the endless layers of education bureaucrats.

Think outside the box. Why do we have all these educrats? Do we even need a school board in the 21st century? Do we need administrators? If so, why do most charter schools do so much better than public schools without layers of bureaucracy and boards? If your answer is that charter schools don’t have to provide X or Y, then maybe the typical public school shouldn’t have to provide this either.

Perhaps we can channel at-risk and special students into state-run, smaller schools, while letting the rest have a charter-like experience.

Why can’t parents vote on the curriculum? If parents don’t want “Everyday Math,” for example, should the educrats have the power to foist it on them?

The choice is clear. You can get what you think is best for your kids without tax increases, or fill the union’s pockets with more and more of your money and let them decide your children’s educational fate.

Remember, union-backed candidates have never seen a tax hike they don’t like.

If they win, you lose. Your family loses.

If I win, you win.

That’s it. That’s the choice you make in this election, pure and simple.

Arizona Republic: 2 Cave Creek schools will teach Mandarin

2010-07-20T13:30:00.003-07:00

From the Arizona Republic:

2 Cave Creek schools will teach Mandarin

According to the principal at Horseshoe Trails...

HTES is going to teach Mandarin this fall
LMES is going to teach Mandarin this fall
STMS will be teaching Mandarin
CSHS will be teaching Mandarin
HTES will offer the IB Primary Years Programme in 2013
STMS 'would probably seek to become an IB Middle Years school'

This is like a sick joke. So now we have STEM, K-8 Academy, Friends of Core Knowledge, the Horesy thing, Mandarin, Spanish Immersion, CSHS e-Learning, AP, HS IB, dual enrollment, multi-age, etc. There is nothing wrong with each of these objectives individually, but really, could we have some focus and some vertical integration?

And like the closing of DAMS, where is the cost benefit analysis of these programs? Are we just going to burn money on these things until the grants run out (remember the Desert Arroyo Accelerated program) without any thought to their value to our students and taxpayers?

Why isn't the administration studying what works best, at what costs, and then working to implement it from top to bottom, but more importantly why aren't we focusing on teaching reading and math at 100% proficiency and exceeding the state and international standards, then we can start worrying Mandarin and Horses.

And maybe Ms. Marlow should worry about the 22% of 5th graders in her school who did not pass the 2010 AIMS Math test.

AIMS 2010 MATH

School Name Horseshoe Trails Elementary

School Grade/Cohort 5

Math # Tested 88

Math Mean Scale Score 413

Math % Falls Far Below 5

Math % Approaches 17

Math % Meets 49

Math % Exceeds 30

Math % Passing 78