planPHX - Big Question #2‏

IMAGINE PHOENIX IN 2050. WHAT DO YOU SEE?

Go to www.phoenix.gov/planphx and go to Events to find a Visioning Workshop during the month of November.

The Phoenix Central Neighborhood Association participates in the Encanto Village group.

Source: City of Phoenix Planning Department

METRO TECH HOSTS FALL GARDEN FESTIVAL & COMMUNITY FAIR

WHAT:

Metro Tech has turned an annual Fall Garden Festival into a full-scale community celebration to showcase the high school to neighbors, prospective students, and parents.

Students and staff will showcase the unique school, which features over 20 Career and Technical Education (CTE) programs, as well as a four-year academic program. This year Metro Tech has been awarded a grant from the Science Foundation of Arizona to create educational projects to help reduce our carbon footprints. This Festival will include a new interactive presentation area that showcases eco-friendly ideas in addition to our famous plant sale, crafts, food, silent auction, rummage sale, kids play area, student art show and exhibits, and portraits at affordable prices. Student organizations such as Future Business Leaders of America, DECA and SkillsUSA, and local businesses will have booths and displays.

Seminars with Metro Techs’ new partner HealthCorps® will also take place.. HealthCorps is a non-profit organization founded by renowned heart surgeon and talk show host, Dr Mehmet C. Oz, to educate and empower students in high schools across America to take charge of their health. Metro Tech is one of only 50 schools nationally offering this groundbreaking program. The HealthCorps curriculum is focused on nutrition, fitness and mental resiliency. Health Coordinators, recent college graduates who defer studies in medicine or healthy policy for two years to mentor teens, carry out the mentoring program.

Metro Tech High School is a comprehensive magnet high school in the Phoenix Union High School District serving 1,420 full time students and almost 1300 dual students from other Phoenix Union schools that enroll in morning or afternoon CTE classes as juniors and seniors. CTE programs are designed to prepare students for entry- level career opportunities, as well as technical, college or university studies. The school also offers evening classes and vocation programs specifically designed to the meet the needs of special education students.

Metro Tech is a Performing Plus school, and Meets Adequate Yearly Progress in state and federal accountability rankings, reflecting its strong academics and student achievement.

WHEN:

Saturday, October 24th, 8 a.m. to 2 p.m.

WHERE:

Metro Tech High School
1900 W. Thomas Road in Phoenix. (corner of 19th Ave. and Thomas)

WHO:

Metro Tech students and staff, parents, community members and local businesses

CONTACT:

Mary Throop Metro Tech Practical Horticulture Teacher (602) 764-8183
Chris Liebelt-Garcia, Metro Tech Business Teacher (602) 764-8376

Source: Phoenix Union High School District

Vote NO on Your School Override on Nov. 3rd‏

Half of the school districts in the state are holding override elections on November 3rd. (Early ballots have already been mailed to voters.) In some cases, school districts are asking taxpayers and voters for more money. In other cases, they are asking taxpayers and voters to maintain spending at current levels.

The truth is that your school district has plenty of taxpayer money--more than enough to pay for excellent teachers and good administration. The simple fact is that they are WASTING MUCH OF YOUR MONEY.

According to page 6 from the Annual Report of the Arizona Superintendent of Public Instruction, school districts in 2008 had revenues from all sources of $9,232,916,095:

http://www.azed.gov/annualreport/AnnualReport2008/Vol1.pdf


On page 8 of that report, you can see that Arizona school districts in 2008 had 951,117 students.

Do the math, and you find that Arizona school districts had resources of $9,707 per child.

(Beginning on page 58 of the superintendent’s report, you can look up the figures for specific school districts, which are organized by county and then in alphabetical order by district).

If your child’s average classroom has 25 students, that means there is $240,000 of resources in that classroom. Think about that for a moment.

There is enough money in your child’s classroom to pay your child’s teacher a very good annual salary-and-benefits package of $80,000.

There is enough money to also have a special education teacher assigned to those students, and to pay that individual $80,000 a year. And, there is enough money left over to dedicate $80,000 for administration, athletics, facilities, and other overhead.

The problem is that your district is mismanaging that money. Much of the blame goes to labor rules imposed by the teacher unions. Good teachers are not paid nearly enough, and bad teachers are not given the pink slips they deserve. Instead, under the union pay scale, good teachers and bad teachers are paid the same. Also, most school districts are very heavy on bureaucratic overhead. Further, Arizona’s school system has spent lavishly on capital projects.

Powerful lobbying groups, such as the Arizona Education Association and the Arizona School Boards Association, promote the BIG LIE that Arizona schools do not have enough resources. Your newspaper editorial boards then repeat that BIG LIE. They tell us that Arizona is 49th in the country in per-pupil spending. Even if Arizona was 49th in the country, $9,700 per child is more than enough money to give Arizona the best school system in the country.

Again, the problem is not a lack of money. The problem is mismanagement.

On November 3rd, when it comes time to vote on your school district’s override, do not be bamboozled by promises that more money will lead to increased student performance. There is no evidence whatsoever to support that notion. If you give more money to Arizona school districts, they will very likely continue to waste that money.

America ’s government schools have sucked up more and more money for decades. Since 1970 we have more than doubled per-pupil spending, in constant dollars. Sadly, we have very little (if anything) to show for those investments when it comes to student performance:

http://www.heritage.org/research/Education/images/b2179_chart4.gif

If your school district is asking to renew an existing override, do not be blackmailed by the myth that the result will be drastic spending cuts. Even school districts that are trying to renew full 15 percent overrides will lose less than ten percent of their budgets if the overrides fail.

Even with a 20-percent budget cut, there would still be enough money in the average district to provide for an excellent education. Instead of an $80,000 salary package, the available resources in your child’s classroom could support a teacher and a special ed instructor at $64,000 each, leaving $64,000 per classroom for administration, athletics, facilities, and other overhead.

Charter schools in Arizona received $7,844 per child in 2008. That is 20 percent less than district schools. And yet, charter schools have proven to do a better job of educating kids, including disadvantaged student populations:

http://www.nber.org/~schools/charterschoolseval/

Further, many Arizona private schools provide an excellent education for tuition of less than $5,000 per year:

http://www.goldwaterinstitute.org/article/1851

There are proven ways to improve school performance, but they do NOT involve giving lots of money to mismanaged school districts. For ideas, start in Florida:

http://www.goldwaterinstitute.org/article/2577

The bottom line is that we need more education for our tax dollars, not more tax dollars for education.

Please join me in voting NO on the November 3rd school overrides.

Source:

Tom Jenney
Arizona Director
Americans for Prosperity

Step Up: College Going Summit‏

Two hundred Phoenix Union sophomores and their parents or mentors, and community and business leaders will attend Step Up: College Going Summit, Saturday, October 17 at Phoenix College, an event designed to prepare students in high school for success in college.

The full-day summit will include student workshops on habits of a successful college-bound student, elevating expectations and academic rigor, as well as parent workshops on a parent's role in college preparation, how to pay for college, and how to help their student build an academic portfolio. The summit is co-sponsored by ASU Vice President of Education Partnerships, the City of Phoenix, Phoenix College, Phoenix Union High School District and funded through a grant from America's Promise Alliance, which is holding 56 such events concentrating on urban schools across the country this year.

America’s Promise Alliance, founded in 1997 with General Colin Powell as its chairman, is a partnership of more than 300 corporations, nonprofits and advocacy groups whose top priority is ensuring young people graduate from high school, ready for college and life.

Besides individual workshops for parents and students, a community and business breakout session will include a call to action on how this segment can help with the mission followed by an action planning session focusing on ensuring schools, parents and community keep students on track toward post-secondary education.

Other community organizations include Be A Leader Foundation, Aguila Youth Leadership Institute, Helios Foundation, College Depot, Wells Fargo, ASU Undergraduate Admissions and Phoenix Union Foundation for Education. Phoenix Union teachers and counselors, ASU and Phoenix College staff will facilitate the workshops.

Phoenix Mayor Phil Gordon; Phoenix College President Dr. Anna Solley and PUHSD Superintendent Dr. Kent Scribner will participate, with keynote presentations by Chrystal Morris, America’s Promise Alliance Vice President of Community Summits, and Dr. Deborah Gonzalez, PUHSD Asst. Superintendent.

The event is 8:30 a.m. to 3:30 p.m. Lunch will include a college and community resource fair for participants.

Source: Phoenix Union High School Districts

Phoenix General Plan Update available for download

The Phoenix Central Neighborhood Association has requested the City of Phoenix Planning Department to make its presentation about the General Plan Update available online for download.

Click here to download a copy of this presentation.

FYI: It's a 4.6MB pdf.

Source: City of Phoenix