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TOMBSTONE — The Tombstone school district governing board is growing accustomed to hearing objections regarding the seventh- and eighth-grade academy at Huachuca City School it approved for the next school year.
For two weeks in a row, parents — and Wednesday night a student — from Walter J. Meyer School have voiced their disapproval, anger, or dismay over the prospect of being combined with their grade level counterparts across the river.
Objections include Huachuca City’s “report card” from the Arizona Department of Education as “Underperforming,” while Walter J. Meyer is ranked “Performing.”
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One parent said he would withdraw his son if the district goes ahead with the plan, and another parent suggested that the academy be located at the new high school — which was designed for approximately twice as many students as presently attend — and could make for an easier transition when they reach ninth grade.
The Walter J. Meyer seventh grader read a statement saying that when the two schools play each other in sports, the Huachuca City school kids put up mean signs and say nasty things to the visitors.
Implying that the rivalry is too much to overcome, she stated she and her friends didn’t want to go to a school where the other students would hate them.
She received a round of applause from the 20-or-so citizens and students who attended the special meeting at the new high school.
Among the action items on the agenda, the board took up two interrelated recommendations from its Budget Reduction Committee: the possibility of consolidating administrative positions in the district from six to 4.5, and whether or not to hire or post a position for a full or part-time superintendent for next year.
Legal counsel Candyce Pardee said she had not found anything in Arizona statutes that would preclude the district from not hiring a superintendent, but couldn’t say if there might be ramifications on any federal funds the district receives.
Other concerns regarding no superintendent and consolidation of existing administrative responsibilities are whether it would raise issues with accreditation and if the business of the district could be performed in a thorough and timely manner.
But with no clear proposal on what jobs might be split, merged or meshed, it was decided that board president Benjamin Barber and superintendent Ron Hennings will meet with district administrators to develop one or more options of how it might be accomplished.
Hennings was also charged with contacting the member services director of the Arizona School Board Association, and requesting he come to Tombstone for a consultation as soon as practical.
In an update on the district’s Reading First grant, the board learned that grades one, two, and three at Huachuca City school are in the top 10 percent of improvement in the state, and that the second grade is at the top of the list for most improved in all Arizona.
The board adjourned into executive session, not open to the public, to discuss with legal counsel her instructions and parameters for negotiating the sale or lease of the old high school building to the Town of Tombstone, and to receive advice from her regarding the matter.
Board member Anna McMurtrie was absent.
CINDY SKALSKY can be reached at 515-4611 or by e-mail at cindy.skalsky@svherald.com.
Tony P wrote on Nov 25, 2008 12:24 AM: