001don't put your name on it i will be taking that feedback to the board in their exact session following this forum and all the feedback will be read to the board so your voice is very critical and very important the way we're going to work our forum is we'll have each of your finalists take about three minutes to introduce themselves and then we'll start with the questions and i will read the question and then the finalists will take turns going first answering the question okay um we usually don't have to do this but if there is about two minutes per question but i'll be the person that says that we need to move to the next question we want to get as many of the questions done in this hour as we can again your
002voice is very important so please make sure i get that card before you leave and again on behalf of the board thank you so much for coming and we are gonna go ahead and start and we'll have each of your finalists take about three minutes to introduce themselves okay my name from tucson is born and raised in tucson arizona and first and foremost i want to thank you for for welcoming me to your beautiful community i wanted to also extend uh for these past two weeks this has been truly a great professional learning experience a little bit about me i've spent about 21 and a half years in k-12 public education i've also served for nine years as an elected official with the city of south tucson as a council member so i taught different
003grades in my 21 and a half years i've been a bilingual kindergarten first third grade teacher i've also worked as an eighth grade social studies teacher and beginning spanish teacher i had experience on the classified sector in k-12 public ed working as a campus monitor teacher assistant and substitute teacher so that really helped prepare me for when i began my career as a teacher in early childhood i've been very fortunate to work as an assistant principal at the elementary and middle school level working for a couple of years at uh elementary middle school in tucson unified school district i've also served for 10 years as an elevation principal tully elementary management school in tucson university district and also my most recent administrative position in educational leadership was as a middle school principal wade carpenter middle
004school in nogales unified school district i've been very fortunate in my graduate studies at u of a and also at northern arizona university so this has been a great experience i look forward should i have been given the honor and privilege of serving the homeland of high school district to work every day making them making making sure that every decision i make is based on what is best for students my vision includes high expectations relationships and professional growth for all staff through ongoing and uniform professional development that is teacher center student center and then the professional development is a script it has to have the important features of focusing on content collaboration feedback and reflection and also personalized coaching and support so that's a little bit about me i don't want to go work in
005three minutes because i can if i if i had to but i want to keep it short and sweet and give your finalists his three minutes as well thank you roman originally from saint johns arizona a small town of northeastern arizona raised four great kids put [Music] the majority through college junior college the university level spent most of my time first 20 years i have a retiree from american telephone telegraph uh selling fiber optic cables so i did that for 20 years uh was recruited into education uh because my passion in everything that i did drew me towards educating uh children uh and i worked at the elementary level as a principal at the interim superintendent level at the superintendent level and just a little bit about me was recruited at the arizona arizona administrators
006association got in tucson uh by a group of administrators and became what they call a turnaround principal working in conjunction with the arizona department of education uh if you don't know what a general principle uh is or does you go to the family school districts it's great to hear that uh the work that has been done here is at a c level uh that's that's always great news to hear and we're going to uh failing schools and basically they would give me a little time typically about two years to improve and empower the teachers and the staff to come together to do the things that are in the best interests of children and that's learning i'm also uh with western i i finished the work by mba so i have a finance background from the
007western international university i've also spent time at arizona state university as well as the university of arizona and the university of phoenix so i'll leave the uh questions and hopefully we got some uh we can engage in some great dialogue this evening uh with the uh the community here uh just a privilege here to be a part of this finalist even myself nick i want to thank you there was a arizona school board association for this entire process it's been a great process and if given the privilege to serve this community would do that the best capacity and always putting the children first and always being compliant with the state and thanks so much so we're going to start with mr madrid um and the i'll read the question and then we'll want to try
008to stay within a two-minute answer so we can get in as many of the questions as possible so first question for our finalists what action will you take to hire and retain highly qualified educators well thank you nick this this question in itself when you look at the uh website and you look at uh apparently uh if the website is up to date 3011 vacancies uh right now in the school district uh that could change that problem changes on a daily basis uh i'm sure that the uh the team is problem put some people in place but hiring is is one thing but to hire a highly qualified uh teacher uh is another thing and uh as i shared with the board when i'm sharing with this community uh it's important to have a grow
009your own time of mentality in looking to have have people that have graduated here from the community uh go up give back to the community the process of hiring comes from a number of different levels uh from the local level uh it's important to ensure that you're reaching out to the folks and two some folks in phoenix and to do this at a national level uh and sometimes we have to go in the direction where we're doing j1h1 these are basis a lot of great international teachers out there but it's certainly something that every school district not only offers but many school districts in the united states as you know has got a teacher a shortage right now so we're doing our best to work on that and that's where we're at right now with
010the school district right now thank you sir that that's a very uh key uh question hire and retain highly qualified educators i think first and foremost what i would look at and i really believe my experiences without is just getting down and being involved yourself as as superintendent in the process of interviewing candidates you yourself going out of but having your staff with you that's where you get to look into uh the eyes and the hearts of every candidate you want to see if they have the heart or they have that passion for the students not only for the students but for the families the families and the communities that they serve you also when you when you recruit going through the documentation process you want to make sure also that they want to be
011a team player and they want to be in there for the long run more than the first two or three years and to retain the challenge of retention is taking place like my colleague said throughout the country and and i would have drawn my experience that in previous educational leadership positions you have to provide a personalized mentoring and support program you have to you yourself have to lead it in your role as superintendent working with the school leadership one of the more effective vehicles for retention is just having really good in-depth focused conversations having book studies and these book stories where you touch into the motivation the positive enthusiasm but just the support just the support that new teachers need it's critical coming into a new profession into a new environment that they're going to
012know the content they're going to have the steps involved for differentiating instruction for scaffolding and all the other technical masteries that are needed but you have to provide that support system you have to make sure that that they're motivated on a daily basis and you have to lead by example and it's it's a strategy that i've used in the past that i would use it again you have to be their short support from when you first ask those interviewing questions you look into your eyes to see if they're the best fit for your community in your school district but also to provide support on a regular basis it is very critical and the research and the studies support that that is one of the most important features for the group and retention of the teachers
013into the christian district what is your best idea about how to deal with bullying in a way that makes you stop well first and foremost dr clement was critical is there has to be ongoing um as i stated earlier that professional development must be taking place at all times to where the staff is always involved always informed not just in the board policies but also the strategies that are out there not just for staff but also for students students come to the school in many different occasions and they're looking for help maybe some students say it in different ways so what can we do as district leadership what can i do as a superintendent with my instructional leadership team what kind of training can we provide to the staff not just the policy but whether
014it be through professional development whether it be through webinars that are available from all different resources whether it be through arizona school boards association whether it be through what asiana's the association for latino administrators and superintendents what is out there for us to see to look at to share with our staff so that they can be able to identify and notify them when there are students coming from adverse childhood experiences and then what are the steps after that that we have to take place first and foremost it's it's a very important issue that cannot be tolerated we've talked about academic achievement being critical but i really believe student achievement and school safety are one-on-one you cannot have one without the other you need to have a safe environment the students have difficult safe and the
015families and us families in the school community you have to feel that we're doing everything possible at the school level to you are entrusting us with your treasure with your childhood for education and your safety we have to make sure to have communication with you at all times whether it be with our monthly parent meetings our monthly parent council meetings to work parents are also being informed being shared the same information that we're sharing with staff everyone needs to be on the same page moving forward to provide the safest possible environment for all of our students from kindergarten what is your best idea about how to deal with bullying in a way that makes it stop you know uh we have high expectations of of our children and we do not have control an either
016today of some of the things that go on uh outside of the school meaning that um there are so many things kids are traumatized they're going through situations uh where they do not have a home and we expect them to shake all of that off at eight o'clock in the morning and start learning this is a very very difficult thing for any child any teenager to do it's such an appropriate world that we live and one of the things that i've done in the past is that i have uh worked with kids with autistic behaviors for those of you that are aware of the autism spectrum uh we've used everything and empowered staff to use everything from the zones of regulations which helps them show self-control which helps them be in a different zone i've
017also used the keeping it real program and i've worked with the social workers i've worked with the counselors i've used resources that are available at my disposal to bring those programs in to bring these therapists and with merit approval of course to allow us to talk to the children and those are some things that beyond the handbook that the handbook and the parent handbook are one thing but we certainly have to take another look at the cyberbullying that goes on uh some of the identification sexual orientation uh which is title three that everyone is entitled to a great education and that means that there are things in place i would use my professional background as a secretary treasurer of the arizona school administrators association uh to to to to bring programs that are cost effective
018to this community and remember parents are parents are the first teachers and it does start at home so it's important to understand that we have a professional working relationship with each and every parent in this community and to look at our allocations whether the title one and title two and even title three and there's some vibrant uh funds that are available as well to address these types of things we also have johnson o'malley uh with the uh tohono uh odom uh reservation that we can utilize different resources to bring those programs in it's all about preserving the maintenance and operation budget and those funds and it's important to have programs in place that address the social and economic static of the social and emotional learning of each and every child so that's important to understand
019is that there's funds available to do that i utilize myself i utilize my staff i utilize the community and everyone within the capacity to assure that it is a safe place and learning cannot take place until students feel safe how do you feel about school you know the sports program uh was an athletic uh director for some time and you cannot uh you know it's a very challenging thing not to be able to play sports right now we've just gotten out of that with the coke at 19. uh things are loosening up they're starting to pop loose uh and i i remember playing a sixth grade football tackle football and these are things that uh uh the smaller communities do the arizona interested alaska association uh you know there was a i wanted to be
020a part of all those decisions and they noticed madrid because mr madrid is in on the scheduling of those games and randy down at the canyon athletics association which is is now uh part of this organization uh whoa fernando's here yes uh mr good is here we want a fair shake uh part of the scheduling and we need to be a part of that so uh intramural sports athletics is a part of any small community it's about who we are uh you will find folks that will take a little hitchhiker to get to a game and you will see them there and that's why we have these uh van pools and all of these things that are very important there's a lot of parents that feel uh hey it's not it it's my investment i've
021got an athlete here and i'm going to take them to a school or school district that offers programs that are conducive to that these are the things that the superintendents are faced facebook that i have been faced with and it's an understanding of us working together to assure that we have programs in place uh but remember you're a student first and an athlete second it was a very good point um school athletics is is very great it builds uh self-esteem in students it builds discipline but not only that it really builds motivation it builds character and and i went through school athletics myself in middle school and high school the the connections you develop with your teammates can last a lifetime i mean to this day i'm thinking over 30 years ago when i played
022ice crescent works at football high school i still keep in touch with my best friends today so at the same time in my experience as a school administrator i've also served as athletic director it's very critical to have grades to have good grades and to have that student-athlete connection that's something that needs to be there as well but i want to also talk about something else i really believe there's an overarching theme separate from that it brings the community together and and there's nothing like a great friday night football game there's nothing like a great basketball game a baseball game against your rival and so it's critical it's critical i think it touches on the social and emotional well-being as well for all the students but not just for the students for the staff for
023the adults it gives you something to rally around the built-in school spirit you have a more productive environment school spirit the students are giving their extra to have the best possible grades and i only said because that's what i went through myself so i'm a strong believer in athletics i believe it's very incredible it helps all students come up from all backgrounds that they can achieve success success whether it's on the baseball field basketball court football field track and field there's so many different sports that the students can take advantage of so it's necessary it's critical i'm the strong support of it at the same time getting out of the open 19 endeavor era there's so many changes that take place but but maintaining school sports in a school community in school district community is
024very very critical there is a huge number of parents community members and school staff eager and hopeful for change that a new superintendent can bring high on the list of desired change is how the district treats teachers specifically less creatively not a culture of fear but a culture of collaboration a new environment will go a long way towards reducing high staff and future attrition i believe that people rise to complete expectations of treated respectfully and professionally are you the candidate to foster a new more positive environment why that's a very good question um i believe i am the candidate and listening to some of the the undertones from from the question from dr clement i'm going to talk about my experience going to an environment where you're serving as a new educational leader i feel
025very confident in my training i have received training and restorative practices years ago in my role as principal of tucson infant school district i received training and restorative practices in bethlehem pennsylvania i brought that training back to tusd with other traders we had a trained trainer model the focus was on on building restorative relationships and you do that one person at a time at the same time though it's very critical to stay in that social discipline window of doing things with people and staying out of that punitive window of doing things to people if i listen to the question correctly that sounds like the main focus in that question my background also involves having conflict resolution training while i serve as a principal at wake parkway middle school nogales unified conflict resolution training is critical
026because we have to be honest we're not always going to agree on everything and we're gonna have to realize how can we as adults make the best decision possible based on not what is best for us as adults or convenient but what is best for the students what is best for the student learning at times when that is done it does cause discomfort with the adults in the building whether it be the school leaders teachers certified classified staff that's going to happen but the challenge is how do we learn to confront that how do we approach that in a restorative manner to where the next day we see each other we're collegial we're respectful i've done that before i know i can do it again one of the things i do in each of my
027previous administrative positions that i would apply here has just taken a basic survey he's taking a basic you know several question survey asking every every employee certifying classified everybody because everyone's voice is just as important as the next person asking what are the strengths of ahu unified school district asking what areas need improvement and third maybe the most important gives me a direct knowledge of each staff member in the district what are your professional goals it's critical to reach out and know where everyone is coming from where they are and where they want to be i believe doing that one person at a time one relationship at a time can address a lot of the critical aspects of the question that was just stated by dr clement i've done it before i've been successful and
028i know thank you roland that that in itself uh i personally also feel that i would be the person that would be in this i started off uh as a seventh grade seventh and eighth grade science teacher so i i was a teacher and as a teacher uh it's it's the most difficult job when it's done uh wrong it's the most difficult job when it's done right and through the wallace foundation uh through a number of superintendents that i was mentored by it's important to understand that things are going to happen and it's important to understand that some teachers that we have that we have gone through our educational process think about it just one second and i'm sure there is someone or more than one teacher that has been able to make a difference
029in your life those connections stay with you before your entire life and those learning experiences are important in the upbringing i had basically one word that was given to me i remember as a first year teacher and this was someone that was in place as my mentor that was a chair and they told me he just survived we'll just survive it was two words and so uh i had a great team that was uh that i was surrounded with and a great foundation of peoples i use this experience in my own uh working as a turnaround principal when you go into schools that uh are not functioning correctly it's a matter of going out and beating the bushes knocking on those doors and basically four words you know it's i need your help and uh
030when you do those things the ability to empower staff staff will do anything for you as well students but when you see the principal the superintendent in the classroom every day and listening to the concerns that teachers have of whether those concerns are basically an increase with 301 winnings whether those are parents that just have gone through uh the administrative assistant and right into the classroom they need safeguards that are in place and through the wallace foundation i found that when you have the professional development and you build a climate and a culture of trust and you have an open door policy that teachers will come to the understanding that it is all collegial uh like my colleague just stated is very collaborative and you have to have those critical discussions on what it's going
031to take to move these students from one level to the next it is not an easy process but it is a system that i have utilized over the last 15 years working as a chairman of principal interim superintendent superintendent and i would do the same and bring that to this community and uh that would be one of the first things that i would do thanks so much what will you do to brighten up school buildings and grounds and make sure that fields will be maintained year-round that's a great question i think the learning does start before you step off of the bus whether you're walking uh down a roadway or an alleyway and you are stepping onto the campus i think that all the bus stops need to be maintained in service i've utilized a
032number of different schools and resources the school facilities board uh right now some of the things that are uh they're very frugal with their spending they're very frugal with what's going on but i had founded along with the al garciullo dan martinez north american technical college this was an inner city school on 39th avenue and broadway road which would also have precision academy systems was which was a high school we would erect a building every single quarter from the ground up which would include framing which would include electrical wiring plumbing all the way to heating ventilation and cooling and what we would do is we would go out to schools and school districts and we would use our students and sometimes you have to be you know they have to be a certain age to
033be able to go on to certain uh federal buildings and things like that which are on federal tribal lands which i worked with the bureau of indian american department interior when i went uh to another school and became a turnaround school uh principal i would look for those programs through the maricopa skill center through the phoenix job corps and you supply the materials in this case we would supply the materials and we would beautify our campus and have those students while they are earning and learning and building and erecting they would be able to uh beautify the campus uh remember there are lots of sources out there for funding different sources everything from pacific gas and electric to software project arizona public service and uh what i've done is work with those uh legislators to
034let's look at different types of funding sources to bring those types of programs here uh we just got done with a beautification project on arbor day uh planted trees all over the place i worked with arizona arizona state university the maryland fulton graduate teachers colleges changed its name a couple of times but it's important to have these programs in place and to understand if we and a lot of times we i've got donations with the help of a lot of different uh political and uh folks that have the foundational money to do that uh to uh briefly refurbish uh buildings i understand that there's some things that need to be done here i would utilize all those tools and all those resources necessary to bring those types of programs here to our school district well
035that's that's a very critical part it has to start first uh you have to have pride in your school you have to as the school leaders um from the very littlest thing to you see a piece of crash on outside kind of class you set the example and you pick it up that's what i used to do as a principal it's something small but it sends a message that every little thing is important and if you as a school or school district leader are willing to do those little things that maybe other people don't think about before you know it you have two or three other staff members two or three other students but it has to start with you you have to set the example you have to have a great deal of pride
036your school should look beautiful the grass should be green you shouldn't have weeds but it also goes a step more than that you have to also be very proactive a superintendent you have to look for partnerships there's a lot of partnerships out there it's just a matter of finding those partnerships whether it be with pima county whether it be with the business sector whether it be with the local or the state elected officials tap into as many resources as possible because at the same time you set the tone and you get it started but you also need help every little bit helps reaching out to your parent council your parent teacher organization getting them involved to help you also getting the school involved you know many times i'm sure my colleague and myself have both
037taken the initiative and cleaning up the schools on saturdays everyone out there students involved also every little bit helps because students staff families everyone deserves to come to the school when you see the school your shoulders are up your head's high your grass is green our football field should be just as green as any other football field whether it's a one eight two eight three four a five a six a school it doesn't matter that sends a message to our students when we do anything possible anything is possible they're going to have that priority and so it's also a matter of looking into the facilities budget what are budget projections what can we do what what what i'd be able to do as superintendent as your school district leader believe me i've shared this with
038uh over the last few weeks with some of my uh some of my feedback is that i may not have the answer either way but i can promise you this that i'll find out i'll research and see what else is out there to make our fields the best looking fields anywhere anywhere because our students and you as the families that they not just student safety but it starts with when you come into your school every day it should look like a beautiful absolutely and um that's a very good one tell us about your experience if you have had anywhere under achieving students rose to great level expectations i'll give you two different examples of and my colleague has made a good point using the term turnaround principles it's something that i've done also as a
039principal at tully elementary and tusd as the principal of a carpenter middle school at the dallas unified school district we went from a performing school at tully elevation our first assignments principle for one year the next year we went to excel that was back during the ames testing we you go from performing to performing plus signing performance we're the only school in pima county to jump through levels how did we do it data analysis that's it's i understand that there are so many other things going on in the school besides the debt and i get that but the reality is you have to address that issue we had internal assessments it wasn't just the state assessment and then the quarterly assessment every three weeks to coordinate benchmark assessments internal assessments in between to see where
040all students are advancing the students that need extra tutoring or re-teaching or the students that have enrichment that have it they need to be challenged even more how can you differentiate that instruction we did that we went to excelli and we went to highly performing for many years and my role as a principal at sally elementary by wayne carpenter it's probably the hardest work that i ever did but it was the most fulfilling uh during my five years there in my first year at lake carpenter we had f level scores on convince from the azmerit test that just started ela was at 13 proficient matches at 15 8th grading science was 24 and several years we made the jump we made the jump from an f to a c we improved our our math proficiency
041by narrating 18 our ela proficiency by nearly 10 and our eighth grade science proficiency by 13 but once again it took everyone to work together we implemented an instructional focus on variety across all core content areas ela math science social studies fine arts and resources everyone was teaching those writing strategies and all grades in all subject areas it takes a complete transformation when it's possible we did that i'm very proud of that we had a great staff but we had great students and we had i can't stress this enough it takes strong family engagement as well at the school level you have to be willing to be committed to have those monthly parent meetings parent engagement family engagement we made our ell subgroup data a priority we prepared our students for the big year end
042of the year arizona english management or assessment we shared with every single parent who came to our ell family engagement nights the scores of their child on the three by five card we put it in black and white anticipated connect with each parent this is the score that your child has this is what you need to get to go to that next level that can help the overall school grade and it did it takes a lot of work but with the school staff and parents working together anything is possible and we saw great results in both occasions in my role as principal the elementary and middle school level well thank you uh you know this is something that i have uh lived uh since uh as a as a science teacher science and math go
043very very uh close together the mission here is that every student graduates college and career ready and that starts the minute someone is able to uh basically be enrolled in the kindergarten program that starts with early childhood and that's it starts with breaking down all of the data and in a school with this science what you do is you disaggregate the data you look at the data and you take a few steps back and then you look at it again one of the things that i found myself doing in those positions is finding a roadmap they call a mains blueprint they call it blueprints those have not changed so it's a matter of talking about data each and every day it's a matter of students and the teachers showing that the responsibility does not just
044lie on the teacher but students need to take a responsibility in their learning i've done programs as every uh with the every student succeeds acts as you know that was no child left behind my doctoral studies at arizona state university were on the awareness and attitudes of educational administration what that basically says is do students try hard enough when they are given these types of assessments the surveys that i did in instruments that i sent out came back as you don't necessarily have to be the most popular person on the campus but if you are respected you will find that the parents will engage their children more that students will try just a little bit harder and you are always having these meetings that are very productive uh associated with data this is where we're
045at we have a pulse on how we are doing we were able to get even the nominal scores and improvements are celebrations and these are different conversations that you have at the kindergarten level kindergarten the primary level the intermediate level we have kate of pre-k through third grade as the primary israel intermediate 456 and secondary level we are always having those conversations at each of the schools that i've worked at uh that is why i've been able to be recruited and retained uh in new mexico and southern utah um in northern arizona apache county yavapai county uh navajo county i'd like to do the same here in pima county as well so it's a matter of really rolling up your sleeves putting the data up having those conversations with the governing board to let them
046uh let them know this is the direction that we are going in right now we need to stay the course it's like any good captain uh being a parliament we need to stay of course and we need to assure that the wind is going at our back in the right direction so it's a matter of really rolling up our sleeves parents are a critical part of this we can't get this done without the success of the parents but there are things that we can do in the regular school day to ensure that every club if you want to be on the sports program you have to do these things in order to be eligible to play sports there are a lot of things where kids are are resonating and rising kids will rise to any
047expectation that we set let's raise the bar to grade levels in anticipation that we will not get to where we need to be because remember our scores have been tabled right now for the last two years so we have to take a an initiative and we have to have a campaign the campaign is driven by data and the data is what my decisions are based on in the best interest of each and every student here in our home have you ever been involved in developing or updating a teacher's salary schedule please explain you know that's a that's a crude you know that that kind of uh doug tells off one of the questions that was just asked uh yes i have a dr clement uh that's a very important piece when you look at the
048salary scale you look at the latter educational scale and if there's if there's one thing that i've done is to assure that we can incent and increase those percentages uh to not only to recruit but to retain the very best teachers i've done some committees uh some school uh finance committees where we have looked at a number of different things but when it comes to preserving uh those teachers salaries those 301 monies that's one thing that you will find me uh i i would uh get some pushback when it comes to them wanting to uh cut some uh percentages off the teacher's cell if there's anything that we need to do it's one like i said before it's the most difficult job when it's not done right it's the most difficult job when it's done
049right when it's done wrong those things are important for us to understand a lot of times parents don't understand the reality of what it takes to teach a classroom to get into the classroom to prepare those lessons and to visit that lesson and i found myself doing that as a teacher like i said i was a science teacher and as a teacher i went on to also get a cte endorsement in business and marketing remember i have a background in marketing i also have an industrial technology cte certification i also have a history of certification this just goes on and on and on with supervision and all these different things but when it comes to teacher salaries we have to look at those stipends and those increases and we have to uh truly make sure
050that this particular teacher is the right fit for the office school district and sometimes you have to revisit that and that's why i said this job actually starts the second that the contract negotiations are offered is that we have to look at teachers and we have to look at increasing the pay and uh to retain those teachers with this beautiful community here and there's no reason that the teachers cannot stay here i will say one other thing in addition to teachers with that plan goes a plan with teacher housing when you go down to laurel lane over here you go over to about the side you look at the apartments but when you go down the the street over the hill you also come up to mesquite now this is the housing that uh is
051through the arrows uh that's through the united states government it's for our board patrols i'm very familiar with teacher housing and let's put these teachers in a place that they can afford and uh the renovation of the city is wonderful it's beautiful but let's make sure that our teachers are comfortable as well and we do that by working together and using all the resources to increase teacher pay this is a very critical issue i'm going to be transparent with you and be direct have i myself specifically been on a teacher salary schedule committee or involved in the negotiations no i have not but i have been a student of of the corpse and the summaries from my previous superintendents uh as i have shared before in the last few weeks if there is an if
052i cannot if i do not have an answer on an issue i will research it and my past has always helped me research effectively to find the right answer and then make the best informed decision some of the committees that i have now though just to share with you just some of my background that i don't really prepare me for a salary schedule committee i've worked with a teacher evaluation committee no dallas unified school district on the best possible evaluation for for certified staff i'll also work on a boundary review committee looking at different attendance zones for schools i served as chairman of that boundary review committee in tucson unified school district i have also served on a strategic plan committee a diversity subcommittee so that experience i i am completely confident i have no
053doubt will help prepare me to make the best informed decision look at all the data involved when involving all the stakeholders the teachers involved in the salary schedule important topics governing board members community officials employee groups all that comes into play all those stakeholders play a critical role so my past involvement on committees my doctoral studies research had to do with the very important component that conflict salary schedule is is working with employee groups and so having done the research for my doctor at the university of arizona had to do specifically with working with employee groups in the large southwest urban school district so i have no doubt that would prepare me to make the best possible informed an effective decision and absolutely teachers need to get paid comparable settlements to other professions they have
054the most important job they teach all the doctors we have in the world now they teach the lawyers they talk to judges they've got all the elected officials it all started in kindergarten and so absolutely it's a very critical profession and the salaries and benefits have to be at the same compensatory level that other professionals receive in other capacities absolutely they deserve it what do you consider a good school culture and how can you build that i think a good school culture starts first and foremost with with my role as superintendent um you need to see me coming in every day first of all you need to see me coming in every day okay um i i i i don't miss work i don't know how to say that the question is the physical cultural
055has to start with your leader coming in and my previous roles as an educational leader um i take a great deal of pride in sharing this with you in my 16 years in tucson unified school district i had nine months of sick leave when i left to usd and my five years five years before dallas unified school district i had almost two months of sick leave that i did not take with me i love to go to work but it doesn't just involve going to work if you have to set the example you have to get there with your shoulders up with your head up you have to have that positive energy you have to have that enthusiasm um there's a saying in spanish you have to be proud of what you're doing and the
056reason it starts with you with the culture is because every staff is going to see it every teacher is going to see it every custodial maintenance staff member is going to see it and more importantly every student's going to see it if the student sees their leader coming in not [Music] no positive energy not transmitting that they're enjoying that day and why they're enjoying that day how are we going to expect to improve academic achievement how are we going to expect to make our schools the best possible the most beautiful schools that we can possibly have but it also has to go with empathy you as a leader have to have empathy you have to understand what it's like to be in other people's shoes you have to have integrity you have to do what
057is right and honest at all times you have to also be willing to empower those that you work with you have to build leadership capacity with your leadership team with your teacher leaders with your parent leaders you have to have simon said it talks about that about this leadership class you have to create a circle of safety as the leader you are the leader your staff your students your families your school community they want to see you create that circle of safety where everyone feels value everyone on your team has to feel value that they're important they have a voice there has to be communication of your vision everyone has to know what your vision is at all times all the time there has to be collaboration with relationships and maybe the most important of
058that circle of safety from simon says new year's eve you have to build trust and you build trust by being transformed you as the leader you want that culture you want that positive culture that positive energy you have to have trust you have to show trust to the people you're serving they have to know that they can come and talk to you and then you talk with him at a meeting anyways you perform email communications whatever it might be there has to be trust and you have to be transparent that time that community that culture of integrity thank you a great question and in order for us to uh and i can't we must have almost uh some pretty similar uh vacation times that we've built up that we have left school districts with uh
059that you could only carry so much and that always concerned me as a superintendent is that somebody was going to create such a void uh with having two or three months if they were to leave and you have to take a sense of pride uh in that office uh so that's a that truly is a matter of showing up to work each and every day that's also uh assuring that any any climate that you have that needs to be changed needs to start in the superintendent's office and principal's office and i've always said hey you need to answer that phone on or before the first screen how many times have you done that and you picked up the phone to make a phone call maybe not so much anymore but there's somebody on the opposite
060end so it's important to understand that when you have a professional learning community i've gone through the solutions tree training i've also done this at the uh as a as a faculty for western international university for navajo technical university for today college and it's a matter of building into her interpersonal skills when you when you start walking with a spring in your step uh and understand that the self-esteem uh is very contagious in a very positive way your students will see that and they will come to know that as well as the classmates that the certified staff to see that uh a mercenary has a certain understanding of what it takes to be in this administrative role not as an administrator but as a person as a teacher and to understand that each and every
061day is a different day those students that have a very tough time and teachers that have a very top uh tough time and understanding that one day is not going to be the same as as the next and that's a good thing these are learning experiences that i have utilized but i set the example by having basically an open door policy basically almost no door policy where i've actually taken the door off my office and that doesn't always work in certain occasions but you need to assure the community that that vehicle that mr madrid is driving each and every day is that is there those teachers need to understand that mr madrid is visible he's in and out of the classroom every single day would need to also understand this madrid is a part of
062who we are it's a sense of pride in this community it's also a sense of pride and understanding that it's important to show up to school each and every day your parents have a job most of them do those that do not have a job your school is a safe haven for you the only job you have is to get an education and that starts up the superintendent's office work with you and we will work together to ensure transparency is always the key but it's those professional learning foundations that i've been a part of solution stream is a big part of it i've been i've worked with before i've worked with all of these great educators in the past and also at the arizona school administrators association to ensure that uh not only do we
063have a place to build a climate but to transform the culture and that's whatever school that i've been at very proud to say that uh it's always been a positive uh positive experience do you know the financial condition of this district how would you describe our situation i have uh like i said uh coming from a finance background uh dr clement you know gone over the finances uh i got over the the school finances i've looked at it and broken it apart i've looked at the 2100 i've looked at 1000 i've looked at the carry over items i've looked at the title one the title to looked at all the different programs where things can be a little top heavy in some areas and we need to assure that the most important thing in the
064school district is to maintain a balanced budget and to be fiscally frugal that means that once again i said this earlier is that we have to preserve our maintenance and operation funds things like lighting uh things like electricity uh toilet paper uh paper towels dispensers open purchase orders to be able to replace uh everything from uh something that happens in the restrooms to uh water main breaks that occur but there is a uh there's a certain amount of funding that goes billion into budget that we need to preserve now when you look at the budget there is a system and there's a processes that peter senghe uh and i myself through the wallace foundation utilize that there are steps that we use to protect our banknotes and operation budgets it's a process it's a system
065and uh we work together with your finance director but i would also like to say that i've also been a finance director and engineering business manager my south federal projects uh manager as well and uh i understand the process that it takes to uh to preserve your to preserve your your monies and at any given time an emergency can arise where you are able to draw down those uh allocations but it's really a system of checks and balances it's a matter of understanding that we have to assure that certain things uh are there when we need them and uh that's that's soft capital that's hard capital those are salaries and uh and through the trust fund we work with the trust to uh bring down the expenses for our health care system so it's it's
066a big compilation a lot of different things that we have to assure that are taking place and those only happen in our checks and balances and that we're always showing uh that we're ready for every single audit that comes about our way [Music] that we want to do we can't do it if we don't have the financial accountability everything's in order that being stated i do have experience as far as looking at maintenance and operations budgets title one budgets what funding sources can be used for what activities is very critical whether it's a title three after school activity for english language learners in preparation for assessments those are very critical things that have to be in place what i would do first and foremost is just it's critical to have a strong instructional leadership team
067a strong leadership team especially uh speaking from from this perspective if given the honor and privilege to serve their superintendent the first thing i want to do is just go over financial projections over the first 90 days i have a 90-day plan that i [Music] would share with the governing board and it includes that i need to sit down with our leadership team whether it's the business managers special education director the school principal and just look at what do we have well what the reports are due when are they due what are some challenges that we may be facing the next three months six months nine months what are some critical decisions that that have to be made at the same time there's always uh my experiences helping find additional funding sources outside of the
068traditional maintenance and operations budget of the district title one funding of a district you have tax credits how can you look to those tax credits to help you as ancillary funding in your district but also i have experience with grant right now i'm very proud to say that in in my final three years at big carpenter middle school we had a school safety program grad with the arizona department of education three years four hundred thousand dollars where we were able to secure funding for a full-time uniform nogales police department on campus eight hours a day every day for three years we related education two students he was in classrooms 140 hours a year 20 hours of planning 20 hours of presenting to parents and staff so what can we do what can i do in
069my role as superintendent not just to be current to know the financial projections to talk with my leadership team and going back to what i mentioned earlier having that trust i did have trust in people who have been with the school district for many years how do our financial projections look but then at the same time looking at other resources i would also draw my experience with arizona department of education this past year i was very fortunate to work as an education program specialist with the elementary and secondary school emergency relief the esser fund which was a product of the american rescue plan for president biden in march of last year arizona was allotted i believe 2.3 billion dollars for elementary and secondary school emergency relief will spend during the pandemic to address these issues
070i gained a vast amount of knowledge by looking at grants and improving grants whether they were one hundred and thirty thousand two million or thirty or 40 million so what are some additional funding sources that are out there what can i look for but also i would i would also turn to my team and and have that trump on my team and just have good discussions about what do we have what are the projections what are the deadlines that we have to meet what are some possible challenges over the next 90 days of six months and nine months so this will be our final question so that we reserve some time for the finalists to be able to have some informal uh meet and greet with you [Music] your closing statements with this this question
071how can you convince us that you are the person for this job how much time do you have you're going to each have three minutes first and foremost i think school district you have two uh great finalists out there who i really believe uh carolina for you and your students and the school district community so um the governing board has two great people to choose from moving forward i believe it goes to to three things three basic things we've talked a lot about research that we need as practitioners like i we don't just you know we don't just get it in the morning say here we're gonna do this we have theory that guys are decision making we look at data but three things as to why i know i can come in here if
072given the honor and privilege to serve as your superintendent i would just share with the staff that we're going to focus on three things if we focus on three things only we're gonna have success you know and it would just it would be your family your health and the whole unified school district everything else we've talked about revolves around family your health and often high school district every decision that we can make is based on what is best for the training for all the staff whether it be trauma informed care training restorative practices training whether it be capturing kids hearts training whether it be a partnership with ben's bells a beat kind girl all that goes back to the family health oh unified school district um i believe i'm the best candidate for this position
073is my background in my experience whether it be as a bilingual first grade teacher whether it be as working in the classified center whether it be working on the city council in south tucson i've had experience looking at a 12 million dollar budget making the final decision as as as mayor and council the different funding revenues whether it be you know community programs for pima county how can i use that background and knowledge here in the school district we've talked about budget many times maintenance and operations title one well i'm very confident in my background whether it be as an administrator educational leader or as an elected official what quantum sources can i use to help address the challenges that we have but but just the fact that you got to have that love and
074that heart and that passion for students for your staff for your families and you you you and every day when i get up to come to my job every decision that i'm gonna make is not really based on what's convenient for me what's comfortable for me what's convenient for our staff what is the best interest what is the best thing we can do for our students it may make us stressful less brown talks about children your sons daughters nieces nephews grandchildren and that's what's going to give me the whole satisfaction that that every single day it goes back to the american association of school administrators their code of ethics i believe number one is making every decision based on what is in the best interest of the students that's how i know that it is
075going to be you know that i'm the best candidate for the position and that um i would perform it with pride with distinction and you'll get everything and i'll also make sure that all of our staff members give everything that we got for your students for the families and then and to make our whole unified school district not just the best school district in kima county or in the state but why not the country why can't you know that was said many years ago if not us who if not now why not why not right now thank you uh you know this this in itself uh in this position in itself uh requires not only an educational background uh but experience and uh i do they certainly feel as though uh that uh you do
076have two great candidates up here that the governing board uh will make a selection on but when i look at stephen covey's uh seven habits of highly effective people i have lived that each and every day for the last uh oh gosh since 1998 and i'm dating myself so one of the things that's important to understand is that aho needs to be the destination district that these sources that are outside the normal realm of funding that starts at the washington level with the united states department of education and that trickles down to the uh school improvement division and when you have a professional working relationship from the folks that are at the state educational level uh which i have comments uh the list goes on and on in virginia this is tom horn i've worked
077with uh the bishop i've worked with john coopenthal i've worked with janet paul when you establish these professional relationships they equate to a district uh getting a second look that second look comes from professional organizations that have been a part of uh that continue to be a part of the nba hispanic society that i have been a part of but also from the secondary school principals association all of the networking that i've done over the years has always equated to additional funding and that means your children the children here at aho unified school district will be given that we bring to the table and it's one thing to uh go out and stretch your hand out i said for every uh remember i come from a business background as well for every nine of those
078you'll get that template to say yes and being able to secure the 14 million dollars to have a wi-fi system available is important technology is important and those are the types of things that i am able to do for a school district is to work with those key corporations and to bring the additional funding and it all it all goes back to a happy campus children are happy they come to school every day when they come to school every day the learning takes place so it's a matter of really looking at all the perspectives that go into the superintendent position it's a very challenging position i've done this before in the past and certainly i want to do the very same for our students here in the office community and it's a matter of building
079and going as a progressive district and i think we need to take that uh one step further we do not plan on the next couple of years and we plan for the next 10 years and the next 20 years and some of those things that we need to do is be self-sufficient and the superintendent's office is the person and the organization that we need to bring fiber optics to the district we need to have our own standing powers we will not rely on anyone but we are the lighthouse we are the destination district and uh we've been privileged to be your next internship thank you so i want to recognize first called mr madrid and dr soltero you gotta this takes a great day of courage to put yourself on the stage as it were
080so kudos and congratulations to both of you for being a finalist the second i want to recognize the board the board committed to a comprehensive process that involved parent input community input staff input [Music] it's been a rigorous process this is my fourth visit um to aho it's been my pleasure to serve as the search consultant the next step in the process will be that the finalists will have some time with you make sure before you leave i get the feedback form the board is scheduled to reconvene their executive session in 10 to 15 minutes they will deliberate review all of your feedback review all of their notes from the multiple interviews and then um the plan is tonight to come out of the big sex session at some point and make a decision to
081enter into negotiations so i will also be around for a little bit so if you have any questions of me as their consultant and the board is here also visiting not this is not an official board meeting so again thank you for taking your time to engage and get your voice heard [Music] [Applause] city