Higley board hopefuls have work cut out for them

Parents and teachers in the embattled Higley Unified School District are looking for more as they size up the five candidates running for the governing board. More support for teachers. More communication within the district. More teacher and staff retention.

And more than anything else, an improved image for the rapidly growing district of two high schools, seven elementary schools and 10,000 students.

"I think Higley can be so much more than it is," said parent Gigi Roberts-Roach, a real estate agent who has two children enrolled in Higley schools. "I hope we can get past the battling of parents and the school board."

Five candidates - incumbent Denise Standage, former board member Greg Land, and newcomers Taunya Lofgreen, Paul Howell and Geoff Johnston - are vying Nov. 4 for three open seats on the Higley school board, a body that has seen its share of conflict in the past few years.

Gilbert mothers involved in the parent group Change in HUSD said earlier this year that some board members are not voicing concerns or questioning the district like they should be.

Board president Ed Moore called the group members and the other 200-plus parents and staff who came out to a May school board meeting a "mob." He has since apologized.

At the May meeting, Michelle Rigby, one of the Change in HUSD mothers, asked for Superintendent Joyce Lutrey to step down after she discovered inconsistencies regarding Lutrey's title online.

Lutrey received her doctor of education degree in educational leadership on April 27 from Eastern Michigan University. Lutrey said only after her dissertation defense on March 7 did people start calling her "Dr. Lutrey."

That contentious meeting was just one of several incidents that made headlines for Higley.

The district got national news coverage after a Williams Field High School teacher was featured in a YouTube cheerleading video last year. And the district received a lot of attention after Gilbert police released a video in February of a fight on a school bus between a Williams Field High School student and the bus driver.

Crystal Palmieri, who has three children in the district, wants to see a change in the district's image and wants something done to retain more teachers.

"I know of two good teachers who left last year because of bad news that happened in the district," Palmieri said. "They were concerned they wouldn't be able to find another job."

Howell said everyone needs to work together and be willing to have positive working relationships.

"I would like to see a change in attitude from the top to the bottom," Howell said. "I would like to see better customer service. Parents need a place to give feedback on schools, teachers and administrators."

Lofgreen said she wants the community to know about the good things going on in the district.

"A high level of distrust" between parents, teachers and administrators comes from a lack of communication, Johnston said.

"I think the administration has done an atrocious job at marketing itself to teachers and families," Johnston said. "It's created an utter lack of communication between families, teachers and administration, and caused a tremendous problem and culture of distrust."

Johnston said teachers and families don't feel supported by district administration, and they need to feel that their opinions matter. He said some parents feel their concerns are being dismissed.

"The way you make parents happy is to listen to them," Johnston said. "Parents are the customers. An unhappy customer will be 10 times more vocal and will have more memory of their bad customer service."

Lutrey said she wouldn't comment on this.

"There's nothing there to comment on," Lutrey said. "I don't know the circumstances."

Standage said she also wants to see a change in Higley's image. However, she feels the district has a handle on problems.

"I think the district is aware of the changes that need to be made," Standage said. "I really feel they're trying to deal with these issues."

Parents have complained about high teacher turnover in Higley schools. District officials say the numbers are improving: 80 teachers left Higley during the 2007-08 school year, while 97 left during the 2006-07 school year. Six administrators also left the district last school year.

District officials began conducting exit interviews last year. They hope to use the information to retain teachers.

The interviews showed low salaries, poor communication and district disorganization are just some of the reasons Higley experiences a steady turnover of teachers and administrators.

Some employees said they wanted to work closer to home, needed time to raise their children and left the district on good terms. But more than half said they wouldn't want to return to the Higley district or recommend the job to another teacher.

In July, the school board approved giving teachers a 2 percent to 6 percent pay increase, based on the teacher's years of experience and completion of additional college course work.

Land maintains that "too much micromanaging" and setting up principals for failure is causing the turnover of teachers and administrators. For example, he said, the district's special-education director and legal counsel are running meetings that would normally be run by each school's special-education department.

Lutrey said she could comment only on specific instances. She said administrators go to some special-education meetings. She doesn't agree that principals are being set up for failure.

"The role of district administration is to support the learning that's happening in the buildings and to facilitate that in the best practices, resources and information available," Lutrey said.

As she looks toward the November election, Jodi Pietrowicz, a sixth-grade language arts teacher at Coronado Elementary School, wants to elect someone who will lead the district in a positive way, someone who will support teachers, administrators, the community and the children, and someone who has the knowledge to be a good board member.

The Higley district needs to find ways to keep teachers, she said, and there needs to be consistent communication between administrators, teachers and the community.

"I'm really impressed with all the candidates and think we'll have a good election," Pietrowicz said. "All five, I think, were pretty positive and can lead us in a good way."

Two parent groups, Change in HUSD and PAC-HUSD, are endorsing Land, Johnston and Howell.

Stacey Christensen, one of the moms in the Change in HUSD group, has four children in the district. She said what's most important to parents is "having a governing board who first realizes they have a responsibility to the voters, and then second is to keep the balance of power in check with the superintendency and the schools."

Carolyn Starr, a parent of three Higley students, is voting for Howell, Land and Johnston because of their involvement in the district and their background.

Johnston writes a Higley schools blog, has three children at Cortina Elementary School, and has an MBA from San Diego State University. He also runs an Internet consulting business.

Howell has four children at Coronado Elementary School and a son who graduated from Higley High last year.

Land, who was a Higley board member from 2004 to 2006, has two children at Chaparral Elementary School. He owns a home inspection business and has lived in Gilbert for 23 years.

The Higley Education Association, the district's teachers union, is endorsing Howell because of his education background. Howell is an English teacher at Mesa High School with a doctorate in educational supervision and administration from Arizona State University.

"His ideals matched closely to what the teachers' ideals are," said Lawrence, the association president and Higley High social studies teacher. "We're interested in having a board member who will take teacher and staff input and use it to make decisions."

It's a tough, unpaid position school board candidates face. They have long meetings to attend, lots of board packets to read and lots of concerns to listen to.

But in return they have a hand in making big decisions and a voice in what happens.

Lofgreen said she's running for the Higley board because she sees a need for change and feels she can find solutions.

"I'm not worried about going in and shaking things up," said Lofgreen, who owns a land consulting and title work company and is a commercial real estate agent. She has three children in the district.

Land is unhappy with the way the district has handled communication within the district and with parents, problems in the special-education department, and inequitable support for athletics and the arts.

"I feel like I can contribute and help make positive changes in the district," he said.

Howell said he knows there are problems in the district, but that isn't the reason he decided to run for the board. He wants to be a role model for kids.

"I really believe with some positive culture and a change of climate this will be a wonderful opportunity," he said.

Johnston said he sensed things weren't going well and thought his best chance at helping to solve the problems was to volunteer his service.

Standage, who is seeking her second term, wants to use her experience on the board and with the Arizona School Boards Association to continue working with the Higley schools.

"I've always had a passion for education," said Standage, who home-schooled her four children. "I may not have kids in this district, but it's important and it's my community."