Guest Editorial
By ANGELICA PETERSEN | OCTOBER 15, 2014
My candidacy for CCUSD Governing Board
I am running for the CCUSD #93, Governing Board. I believe every child deserves a quality education. I also believe it is our responsibility as community members and taxpayers to ensure the education delivered in our classrooms includes challenging coursework, rigor and depth. Providing a thoughtful quality education will provide the tools for our children, our students, to carry us forward and become our future.
To date, the community does not seem to hold CCUSD in the highest regard. I find this to be rather disappointing. I believe the school district should be looked upon as the cornerstone of our community. While our demographics are much different than those of other school districts, our community understands the importance and the value of a quality education. We also understand and appreciate information.
As a candidate for the CCUSD governing board, it is my desire to build a bridge between CCUSD and the community. Although I do not have school age students in the district, I have followed the business of CCUSD closely and clearly recognize why our community has not whole-heartedly supported CCUSD.
I am an advocate for providing a clear and realistic understanding of expenditures to our stakeholders. I believe the School Board should exercise more responsibility in managing taxpayers’ money.
I fully support ballot question 1 which is a repurposing of money from a previous bond.
I do not support ballot question 2. My non-support for question 2 is reflective of the community perception of CCUSD. The $30 million bond up for approval is inclusive of a long list of building maintenance projects like painting, GPS Clock system, hardware, carpet, improve lighting, etc. Unfortunately, while the projects on the list are worthy, approving the bond is doing nothing more than accepting the lack of transparency offered up by the district.
This past spring, the CCUSD governing board debated spending approximately $1.4 million to expand the existing Cactus Shadows cafeteria. Through the Board discussions, it was identified that a portion of the school’s cafeteria roof was in need of repair. The roof repair seemed to be a motivation for the cafeteria expansion. The board approved $1.4 million for the expansion. However, repairing the leaky roof was not included in the expansion.
Maintaining our existing facilities and safety should be the obvious priorities. For me, it seems the logical and prudent steps would have been to use the $400,000 that was taken from the budget (and the $900,000 that was used from the proceeds from the sale of the old Black Mountain School) to fix leaky roofs and repair failing air conditioning systems. Asking the community to support a bond for additional building maintenance needs and a high school cafeteria expansion would then have been the responsible path.
When Arizona accepted the Common Core standards (recently renamed the Arizona Career and College Ready Standards [ACCRS]) my vision and hope for the future of education drastically changed. ACCRS (Common Core) is a federally mandated (one size fits all) method of education delivery. There is no adjustment for the uniqueness of the student. Regardless of the type of learner a child may be, visual, or hands-on most instruction is delivered with an identical methodology.
The Common Core State Standards Initiative (CCSSI) is a set of National K-12 standards developed without state legislative authority." To find out more details visit: www.arizonansagainstcommoncore.com
Embedded in ACCRS is the foundation for data mining. Some states have already agreed to adopt the data mining process, with parents having no say in this decision. Is this what we Arizonans want? Are parents aware their child’s history and theirs will be collected?
I emigrated from Cuba, a communist country. My Cuban education included social indoctrination regarding the communist party. Additionally, data mining of all citizens, children and adult, was a standard practice of that government.
As a conservative Christian, wife, mother, grandmother, and former business owner, I envision true freedom of education for the children in this school district, this state and this country. Every student should have the opportunity to decide on the path they will pursue. It should not be predetermined by a federal government agency. The ACCRS is a progressive ideology which leads to elimination of educational freedom.
As a member of the CCUSD governing board, it would-be my intent to draw attention to ALL aspects of the ACCRS curriculum and thoroughly vet the curriculum to ensure it is appropriate and parents are on board.
The fact that Common Core Standards require children’s personal information be kept in a database that can be sold to or shared with unspecified companies is worrisome to many parents and educators. “It leads to total control and total tracking of the child,” said Mary Black, curriculum director for Freedom Project Education, an organization that provides classical K-12 online schooling. “It completely strips the child of his or her own privacy.” Visit www.thenewamerican.com/
culture/education/item/15213-data-mining-students-through-common-core.
Essentially all states were held hostage to Common Core since adoption of the standards would ensure the continuation of federal funds to the state.
Visit www.arizonansagainstcommoncore.com. See also "Common Core Federal Standards Initiative- How is it implemented in our 'States?'" flowchart and the "Who is Behind Common Core?" webpage link.
I believe in and firmly support education. I do not think one assessment tool is a true indicator of a student’s ability, academic success or proficiency or the future success of the student. I am not a supporter of federally regulated mandated standardized testing. I do not support federal policies that mandate comparisons based on a single test for comparing states, school districts (or single schools), and student retention. These are all components of the ACCRS (Common Core). I have done my homework and have become informed. I encourage you to do the same. The future of our children’s education depends on it. Who control the child mind will control the nation.
God Bless us all.
