by David Safier
Pre-monsoon storm clouds are hovering over the 11 courses forming the proposed TUSD Multicultural Curriculum. According to the right wing Arizona Daily Independent, which I trust about as far as I can throw a pixel, the AZ Department of Ed has qualms about the curricula (h/t to David Morales for pointing to the piece). The article is so random, I can't pull much genuine information from it, but I would be surprised if Huppenthal Inc. doesn't do everything in its power to quash any reasonable attempts at multicultural education, especially if it's happening in Tucson. We'll undoubtedly be hearing more about this soon.
Then this morning, Dylan Smith of the Tucson Sentinel, commenting on my FB post about the curriculum, wrote, "TUSD staff have canned the ninth-grade course, at least for the time being." No details yet.
This is shaping up to be quite a battle, as expected.
In related news, the TUSD Board voted to look at one finalist for the Superintendent job, Ector County (Odessa, Texas) interim superintendent H.T. Sanchez. He's a young man of 38, and it looks like he has some experience that could come in handy in the upcoming multicultural battles. The progressive three, Adelita Grijalva, Cam Juarez and Kristel Foster, voted to make Sanchez the lone finalist. Mark Stegeman and Michael Hicks wanted more applicants to come to town for an interview. We may soon find out what the post-Pedicone era will be like, whether TUSD will display more backbone than it has shown recently.
Sanchez will participate in a public forum at Catalina Magnet High Wednesday, 7-9pm.