By L. Parsons Last week, the Winslow Unified School District governing board met to discuss the school calendar for the 2021-22 and 2022-23 school years. During the discussion, Superintendent Kathryn Zanin explained that a survey had been distributed to parents for their input on the calendar. She then outlined the options provided to choose from on that survey. “The first option provides a two-week break at fall, winter and spring. It is a modified year-round schedule. Option two is one week in the fall, two in winter and one in spring. The advantage to this one is that at the end of each quarter, there is a Friday that teachers are given an inservice day to plan for the coming nine weeks. Option three is similar to two where there is one week off in the fall, two at winter and one week in the spring.” According to Zanin, there were 198 responses collected from the survey and 50 percent of respondents chose option one. She continued, “The feedback that we did get there were quite a few people that liked option one and option three. Parents’ comments were basically stating that working families cannot afford a two-week break.” Other parental concerns were directed toward teachers and their struggles to keep curriculum momentum during the longer breaks. In the past, the district has opted to shorten spring break to one week in order to allow teachers and students to prepare for standardized testing usually administered in the spring. Washington Elementary School Principal Amanda Leonard said, “We could theoretically move our testing around but it never works that way as all the grade levels test at different times. Even though we have a four-week testing window, we would never put all the tests in one week.” Governing Board Member Dodie Montoya said, “I would like to have a little more discussion with the staff to make sure we are doing what is best for the students as well as the teachers.” President Sharon Greenwood agreed. “I do think we have time to discuss this and I do have priorities. I want to make sure this calendar is great for our students and their education, and then if we can, make it good for families and their vacations. I think we should make sure we have everyone’s input.” Vice President Joseph Hartnett suggested staying with the current schedule, which features two weeks off in the fall and one week in the spring. He then said, “A lot of railroad families have said that it isn’t always possible for everyone to get that same week off.” The discussion on the calendar will continue, as the board decided to table the issue. The opportunity to provide input is available on the district website at www.wusd1.org. The call to the public portion of the meeting featured two commenters. The first, Mardi Sanchez offered her concerns in an email read aloud by governing board clerk Allen Leonard. “I have concerns over recent outbreaks of COVID at the school. Who is in charge of contact tracing and follow up for return to work and school? Who do we contact for immediate information and concerns?” The second commenter was Stephanie Lugo, who spoke to the board in person. Her statements were a follow-up to a previous call to the public appearance in which she addressed issues of transparency. She explained that she had been requesting public records concerning contract information for the district’s new human resources director. She began requesting the documents in September and as of the meeting on Oct. 21, she had not yet received them. “I did receive an email from James Ledbetter,” Lugo said, “the district’s attorney stating that he would review my request and get back to me in a reasonable amount of time.” Lugo offered to pay for the records and has continued to pursue the request. She said, “My question is, why am I having such trouble receiving records that are public? I am becoming very frustrated as I know these records exist and I would request that the board look in to why these records have not been made public.” Lugo continued, “My next concern is that there have been two staff members at WHS who have tested positive for COVID. Not one text blast or phone call or letter was sent out to all parents. Is the district trying to downplay the situation? I have also been told that the staff wasn’t even notified. That is very concerning.” Because the concerns were brought forth during the call to the public, there was no direct response from the governing board. However, later in the meeting, Zanin did mention the lack of notification of the staff to the survey that was available for the calendar. “The teachers did not get an alert as to their input, that was an oversight on our part. When the text message survey went out, I was under the impression that it was going out to everyone. I was not made aware that teachers did not see this until days later and at that time, I had our media relations send out an email to let teachers know that it has been on the website the whole time and it is on the very front page so I’m not sure why our website doesn’t come up automatically for our teachers when they turn on their computers.” In other business, the governing board: * Ratified vouchers in a routine procedure that allows the board to submit voucher to the county superintendent between meetings. * Approved the hiring of Bryce Barris as a paraprofessional at Winslow High School; Krista Bush, substitute teacher; Taura Rush, social studies teacher at WHS; Terri Crocker, eighth grade volleyball coach; Kyra Lyons, seventh grade volleyball coach; Bryan Larson and Kendal Ybarra Jr., each as wrestling coaches. Also approved were Michael Shumway, Winslow Junior High School wrestling volunteer coach; and Laura Carrell and Betina Reinhardt, WJHS spiritline volunteer coaches. * Approved an extra assignment for Kyle Decker, a food service employee. * Approved extra duty stipends for Sharon Vasquez, Alisha Jones, Christa Knox and Debra Smith. * Approved Greg Schalow as the district’s hearing officer for student discipline hearings. * Approved two new policies regarding student dress codes and visitor requirements. New language in each new policy requires facial coverings be worn by all students on all campuses as well as all visitors to all campuses. * Tabled an agenda item relating to Proposition 301 due to lack of information. * Tabled an agenda item relating to district level sick leave due to the lack of clarity and information. * Discussed adoption of a standards-based grading system. No action was taken and the discussion will be revisited at a later meeting. * Heard the financial report for September in which business manager Shirley Lomeli informed the board that 25 percent of the school year had been completed and 15 percent of the budget has been spent. * Approved, contingent on School Facilities Board approval, two contracts for improvement projects at WJHS. The first, a roof replacement contract was awarded to ALCC Corp., in the amount of $528,400. The second, an exterior weatherization contract awarded to EDGE Construction in the amount of $179,000. * Accepted donations of $500 from Arizona Public Service’s “Supply My Classroom” project to Lynne Sawyer at WJHS, Terrirae Milligan at Washington Elementary, Deb Stacey at Washington Elementary and Michelle Jones at WHS. * The next meeting of the Winslow Unified School District Governing Board will be at 6 p.m. on Wednesday, Nov. 11, in the district meeting room, located at 800 N. Apache Ave.
