by David Safier
Big news from last night's TUSD Board meeting. Those 7 books that were banned from classrooms when the Mexican American Studies program was disbanded have been approved as supplementary materials. Hicks and Stegeman voted against the approval, natch, but the other 3 board members hold the majority.
A note: Three Sonorans' David Morales pointed out that the Star adopted the "banned books" wording which many of us have always held is correct. The books weren't banned from TUSD entirely, but they were selectively banned from use in certain classrooms, maybe all classrooms. That fits the definition of the word "ban." Kudos to the Star for using the right wording. Let's hope the paper isn't forced to print a retraction tomorrow. Second note: Reinstating the 7 banned books is like waving a red flag in front of Huppenthal, but he's stated that he has no problem with the use of specific books, only the way they're taught. So we'll see what we hear from Hupp on this. A strong part of me thinks he's holding his anti-TUSD cards close to his vest, ready to play them when the Ed Supe campaign heats up, either during a primary challenge from the right or a general election run against Dr. David Garcia.
Other important news from the board meeting. TUSD has retained the magnet status of schools that were in danger of having it taken away. This sounds like good news to me. Reading between the lines, it sounds like Superintendent Sanchez sat down with the person appointed by a federal judge to oversee the deseg efforts and cut a deal to improve the schools' outreach instead of stripping them of their magnet programs. If I'm reading this correctly, it speaks well of Sanchez's ability to work with people, negotiate and make positive things happen.